Essay Writing Skills: What Is The Writing Voice?

Much like the audible voice that you use for everyday communication, your writing voice is the style that accompanies your writing and makes it stand out from other people's work even on the same subject. An audible voice can be pleasant or abrasive and so can a writing voice.

If your intention as a writer is to be versatile, it pays to be aware of your voice so that it can be muted when writing in certain scholarly context s for instance or so that you can play to its unique strengths in the creation of a work of fiction. The following are a collection of aspects of your writing voice.

1. Sentence Structure



Your sentences can be structured correctly but still come across as slightly odd. This is common among non native speakers of English for instance but may also be a key feature of your style that keeps a reader interested or underscores a point. For instance , take a look at the sentence, "Never was school so hated by any child as it was that day by me." It holds more interest than the following although the message they convey is basically identical: 'That day I hated school more than any child ever had before." You can use these subtle differences to your advantage to become more or less casual or persuasive or anything else as the situation demands.



2. Creative Punctuation



If you have ever read a comic book you will have seen the incorrect yet effective usage of multiple exclamation marks together to create greater emphasis. This is the breaking of a rule but often it helps the reader fully understand the gravity of a situation. This may also be a part of a writer's style. It has absolutely no place in academic however so do not attempt this outside of your novel.



3. Capitalization for effect



Similarly to using your punctuation marks in greater frequency or combinations, capitalizing entire words is WRONG. It can however be used to create more emphasis in a piece where the impression of shouting is a useful effect . Know your audience well though. There are many people who dislike this effect in writing and whether or not it is merely a quirk in your writing voice it will lead to your work being poorly received.

In writing fiction or just writing for pleasure you should enjoy your freedom and craft a natural, engaging writing voice.