Elbow, "Voice in Writing Again:  Embracing Convictions" (p. 46)

Before You Read

2. If teachers would let us use words like "I" and "me" when we write, the papers we write would be more personal.  It would be from our point of view and we would be able to tell our own personal stories about that topic when writing.

Summary

In Peter Elbow's article, "Voice in Writing Again: Embracing Contraries", Elbow goes back and forth on whether or not using voice in writing is useful.  Voice is Everywhere.  Voice helps not only writers, but readers as well.  Elbow goes on the argue whether it ruin the way we read text and teach writing.  

Synthesis

I don't think this article is very similar to any of the articles we have read so far.  Elbow argues the different sides on voice and whether or not it helps or hurts the way we interpret texts, write, and teach writing and texts.  I don't think any other text argues between two different sides in their writing.

Questions for Discussion

1. To Elbow, voice is the main source of power in your writing.  A strong voice will produce strong writing.  This voice is what makes readers want to listen to you.  I agree with Elbow.  Voice can help your writing be more powerful and want your readers to keep reading.

4. Elbow believes both sides of his argument.  The effect of giving a full airing to each side of the debate is so everyone gets to state their opinion on the subject.  It lets people see both sides of the debate without it being a battle between the two.  No one is right or wrong.  Both sides have to meet in the middle somewhere.  

Applying and Exploring Ideas
2. When I listen to a passage rather than actually reading it silently to myself, I feel I understand the content better.  I agree with Elbow that it does make reading less complicated.  "Ear Training", is listening for the voice in texts.  "Ear Training" has not really affected my comprehension of some reading in the past.  It is a tool that should be implemented when reading and text.




Meta Moment
Elbow doesn't believe in compromising, but he somehow manages for both of his perspectives to coexist for good writing.  I believe this definitely possible to do in my own writing, but it is difficult.  It is difficult to have two perspectives without managing to contradict them in your own work.

  Dialectical Notebook: Lamott, King, Diaz

Response	Quotation
To me, this quotation is telling us that writers are not always so enthused to go write and create.  That not all writing is going to be perfect the first time around and it takes time to perfect it.	"People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter." (301)
This quote is telling us that no matter what you are thinking, it could be something great even if it sounds stupid to you.  Whatever you're thinking you should let it come through and on to the paper.	"Just get it down on paper, because there may be something great in those six crazy pages that would never have gotten to by more rational grown-up means." (302)
I love how Lamott tells us what is going on in her head and how she thinks the critics are sitting on her shoulders commenting like cartoon characters.	"They'd be pretending to snore, or rolling their eyes at my overwrought descriptions, no matter how hard I tried to tone those descriptions down, no matter how conscious I was of what a friend said to me gently in my early days of restaurant reviewing." (3020
King goes on and on about all the places he could have time to read a book.  Saying that you never know when you will have time or want to read a book.  I think that just shows how much King loves reading and writing.	"At such times I find a book vital." (306)
I love this quote because I think the same thing all the time.  Just like King thinks, depending on who you are depends on how you see things.	"Do we see the same thing?" (306)
In this quote, I think it shows just how much Diaz struggled as a writer and struggled to come up with something that he thought was good enough and was just as cool as his first 75 pages.	"I wrote and I wrote and I wrote, but nothing I produced was worth a damn." (319)
This quotation just shows that he has such dedication to writing and loves it that much that he didn't want to give it up and kept trying.	"In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyways." (320)