An Introduction to the

Elements of Voice

Based on Nancy Dean’s

Discovering Voice: Voice
Lessons for Middle and High
School
 What is voice?
• “Voice is the expression of personality, the
fingerprint of creativity.” It is the creator’s style.
• When you can tell the name of a musician or singer
after the first few notes of a song, you are hearing
voice.
• When you recognize the artist of a painting at the
first glimpse of the painting, you are seeing the
painter’s voice.
• When you realize the director or creator of a movie
by the initial camera angles and the delivery of
dialogue by the actors, you are recognizing voice.
 How do you learn to recognize voice?

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. “What is he/she (or the work) saying? What
does the work mean?”
2. “How do you know? What evidence can you
find in the work to determine the meaning?”
3. “How does he/she do that? What tools does
the writer/painter/musician use to create
meaning, and how does he/she use these
tools?”
 The Elements of Voice
• Diction • Imagery
• Detail • Syntax
• Figurative • Tone
Language
 Diction
• Diction is basically word Forbidden Words
choice. • Good
• Choosing the right word is • Nice
key for constructing an • Pretty
effective sentence and • Beautiful
image for the reader.
• Bad
• Considering that, avoid
• Fine
using overused,
ineffective, and cliché • Thing
words. These words are • Stuff
forbidden. • Terrible
 Diction (cont’d)
• When choosing the right
word, consider its denotation
and connotation.
• The denotation of a word is
its literal meaning.
• The connotation, which many
consider is crucial in diction,
is “the meaning suggested by
a word, the feeling evoked by
a word.”
• That “feeling” is the key to
how diction creates voice.
Detail
• Detail makes one’s writing
more accessible to the
reader by providing “facts,
observations, reasons,
examples, and incidents.”
• Effective writers don’t
state; they describe.
• Detail deals with specifics
• Effective writers don’t overuse
detail; they use it with a
purpose.
• Writers must decide on a focus
to their writing and incorporate
details that “support, reflect,
and enliven” their focus.
• This detailed focus is central to
developing voice.
 Figurative Language
• Figurative language, aka figures • Simon makes the listeners think
of speech, is a way to use about his diction; they think
language that is not meant to about the words he uses and
be literal. associate them with other ideas
• Figurative language allows us to and images.
“say much more in fewer • He doesn’t literally state how he
words.” feels; he paints a picture with
• When singer song-writer Paul words to express how he feels.
Simon sings, “I am a rock, I am • As a result, he uses figurative
an island,” he expresses many language to develop voice.
feelings in a few words.
• The “I” feels hardhearted,
isolated, unworthy of love or
emotion. He has probably had
his heart broken and is most
likely depressed.
 Figurative Language (cont’d)
Beware! Cliché examples:
• Overused figurative • Pretty as a picture.
language becomes what
we label cliché.
• Tears fall like rain.
• Avoid using predictable, • Quiet as a mouse.
common figures of speech. • Clever as a fox.
They will fall flat on the
reader and take away—
not add—to the richness
and freshness of your
voice.
 Types of Figurative Language
• Simile—compares two • Personification—gives
unlikely things using like, human characteristics to
similar to, as, than, and something non-human; it
resembles. Similes state forces readers to
the comparison directly. associate emotions to
• Metaphor—compares objects and ideas and
two unlikely things thereby helps create
usually using a form of voice.
the verb “to be”;
• “The old barn leaned in
metaphors imply the
comparison and make the quiet desperation.”
reader think.
 Types of Figurative Language (cont’d)
• Hyperbole—an exaggeration
that is based on truth but is
not literally true. It often is
used to add emphasis, and
sometimes humor, to the text.
• Symbol—like metaphors and
similes, symbols express many
thoughts and feelings into a
few words or a single object;
but unlike metaphors and
similes, a symbol “means
something else and itself.” An
American flag is a flag, but it
also symbolizes freedom.
• Onomatopoeia—a word that
imitates the natural sound of
something, like bang, boom, hiss,
pop.
• Irony—saying the opposite of
what you mean; like all figures of
speech, irony is not meant to be
taken literally. Sarcasm is a form
of irony that is meant to be
hurtful, but not all irony is
hurtful.
• There are many more types of
figurative language; research and
learn about them on your own!
 Imagery
• Imagery— “the use of words to
re-create a sensory experience.”
• Imagery relies heavily on diction
and detail to focus on all of the
senses. Writers choose key
words and specific details to
focus on a sensory experience.
The Five Senses:
• Sound
• Sight
• Taste
• Touch
• Smell
• Like metaphors, imagery can
(but doesn’t have to) be
figurative. So writers can use
diction, detail, and metaphor to
create imagery that focuses on a
feeling.
• For example, a family dinner can
be described as “a quilt of
boisterous conversation, badly
burnt chicken, and the fragrance
of freshly baked bread.” The
quilt metaphor unifies the
sensory experience of the
dinner, which has a loving, albeit
imperfect, feeling.
 Syntax
• Syntax— “the way • Sentence parts—include
words are arranged in subjects, verbs, clauses,
sentences.” phrases, and fragments.
Subjects, verbs, phrases, and
There are four important clauses are used to
elements to syntax: construct complete
sentences. Fragments are
1. Sentence parts
incomplete sentences, but
2. Word order when used intentionally, can
3. Sentence length be effective to create voice.
4. Punctuation Cool, right? (fragment).
 Syntax (cont’d)
• Word order— “normal” word
order in English is subject + verb
+ details.
• However, sometimes writers play
with word order to highlight a key
point or idea, like JFK did in his
inauguration speech: “Ask not
what your country can do for you
— ask what you can do for your
country.”
• Sentence length—remember to
add variety to sentence length.
Try using simple, compound,
complex, and compound-
complex sentences in a variety
of combinations. Avoid
repeating the same type of
sentence over and over as it will
bore and lose the reader’s
interest.
• Run-on sentences—when used
intentionally and effectively,
run-on sentences can help
create feeling, like a character’s
desperation.
 Syntax (cont’d)
• Punctuation—helps the writer
create a sense of the spoken
word by creating pauses and
intonation and inflection to what
is written. It allows readers—if
they choose to take the time—to
hear the text.
The wow test: use the end
punctuation as guides to how you
say wow.
1. Wow. (boring, almost sarcastic)
2. Wow? (questioning
something’s awesome quality)
3. Wow! (genuine excitement)
Four types of punctuation that
most often shape voice:
1. Semicolons (;) are used to
connect sentences of
“equal importance.”
2. Colons (:) are used to add
emphasis to what comes
after them.
3. Dashes (—) are used to
mark a change or
summarize.
4. Italics are often used to add
emphasis.
 Tone
• Tone—“the expression of
the author’s attitude
toward the audience and
subject matter. . .It is the
feeling that grows out of
the material, the feeling
the writer creates for the
reader.”
• It is pretty easy to sense the
tone of someone’s voice.
But to determine the tone
of a piece of writing one
must understand not only
what is written but how it’s
written.
• How do you do that? Learn
to recognize and evaluate
the writer’s use and focus of
diction, detail, figurative
language, imagery, and
syntax.
The Two Tones of Frozen
The Two Tones of Mary Poppins
 What’s the difference between tone and
voice?
• Tone is a subset of voice. It
is an element of voice in
that it sets the attitude or
feeling of a piece of writing.
• Voice—on the other hand—
is the writer’s overall style.
• Think of it like this: two
different authors can write
with a satirical tone, but each
writer has an individual or
unique voice to that piece of
writing.
• Mark Twain’s satire is more
humorous and lighthearted
whereas Jonathan Swift’s
satire is more abrasive and
punitive. Both authors write
with a satiric tone, but each
has his own satirical voice.