‘TEXTUAL VOICE’ in FAs

Creating a ‘textual voice’

In this class we aim to:
- become aware of the presence of a voice in a
text
- identify what in the text builds/helps us describe
the textual voice
- consider what textual voice we would like to
create in our texts to reach our readers
What do we call ‘textual voice’?
The textual voice is the persona that speaks to
us in a text.
Persona: the role that one assumes or displays in public or
society; one's public image or personality, as distinguished
from the inner self; an assumed identity or character.
Let´s take a look at two examples, “Pearls
Before Breakfast” and “Grady’s Gift” .

In both cases, the ‘textual voice’ sounds:

Engaging
Reasonable
Solid
…
How is the ‘textual voice’ built?
What resources does the author use to create the
persona we readers perceive in each of the two
articles?
“Pearls Before Breakfast”
Who is the intended or expected audience?
Probably mostly urban quite liberal adults
who read the Washington Post?
 Features Example in the text
HANG ON, WE’LL GET YOU SOME
There is use of the 1st person plural.
The textual voice could be EXPERT HELP. (p. 1)
construed as that of a “Can one of the nation’s great
group/team. musicians cut through the fog of a
The persona could also be D.C. rush hour? Let’s find out.”
construed as trying to be “So, what do you think
approachable, friendly; positioning happened?” (p. 1)
itself as that of fellow explorers “No, Mr. Slatkin , there was never a
crowd, not even for a second.” (p.
4)
Engaging, entertaining, interactive,
Yes, some people gave pennies.
dialogic
(p. 12)
 Features Example in the text
“He was, in short, art without a
Interested in an explanation to the
frame.” (p. 5)
phenomenon and open (willing to
“There was no ethnic or
consider different approaches and
demographic pattern… . But the
voices)
behavior of one demographic
remained absolutely consistent.
Solid (quantity and quality of info Every single time a child walked
about the experiment), past, he or she tried to stop and
There’s factual info., statistics, watch. And every single time, a
sources introduced with parent scooted the kid away. “ (p.
credentials, variety of arguments 7)
 Features
Interested in an explanation to the
phenomenon and open (willing to
consider different approaches and
voices)
Solid (quantity and quality of info
about the experiment),
There’s factual info., statistics,
sources introduced with
credentials, variety of arguments
Example in the text
“For many of us, the explosion of
technology has perversely limited, not
expanded, our exposure to new
experiences.” (p. 9)
In his 2003 book, Timeless Beauty: In
the Arts and Everyday Life, British
author John Lane writes about the
loss of appreciation for beauty in the
modern world. The experiment at
L’Enfant Plaza may be symptomatic
of that, he said – not because people
didn’t have the capacity to
understand beauty, but because it
was irrelevant to them.” (p. 10)
 Features
Reasonable (willing to concede)
Example in the text
“Of course, Davies had an
advantage of perception. He
wasn`t a tradesman or a laborer
or a burocrat or a consultant or a
policy analyst or a labor lawyer or
a program manager. He was a
hobo.” (p. 10)
“Grady’s Gift”
Who is the intended audience?
Mainly The NY Times readership who is
interested in the ever-present issue of racial
segregation in the United States?
 Features
Engaging (the voice tries to
create an intimate atmosphere
by means of the use of the first
person); it is a personal story.
Quite Poetic (reference to
novelist Graham Greene’
methaphoric words)
Example in the text
“GRADY SHOWED UP ONE DAY at our
house at 1409 Fifth Avenue West in
Birmingham, and by and by she
changed the way I saw the world.
(…) What happened between us
can be expressed in many ways, but
its essence was captured by Graham
Greene when he wrote that in every
childhood there is a moment when a
door opens and lets the future in. So
this is a story about one person who
opened a door and another who
walked through it.” (p.1)
 Features
Aware of different positions, serious
and with a personal assessment of
the situation?
Example in the text
“I KNOW THAT OUTSIDERS TEND to
think segregation existed in a
uniform way throughout the Solid
South. But it didn't. Segregation
was rigid in some places, relaxed
in others; leavened with humanity
in some places, enforced with
unremitting brutality in others. And
segregation found its most violent
and regimented expression in
Birmingham. (p. 2)
 Features Example in the text
Martin Luther King once said that
Solid (by quoting the experts
Birmingham was to the rest of the South
in the situation in the United
what Johannesburg was to the rest of
States)
Africa. He believed that if segregation
could be broken there, in a city that
harbored an American version of
Apartheid, it could be broken
everywhere. (p. 2)
 Features Example in the text
There is no trickier subject for a writer from the South
Balanced, than that of affection between a black person and a
reasonable, white one in the unequal world of segregation. For the
aware of the dishonesty upon which such a society is founded
backdrop of makes every emotion suspect, makes it impossible to
voices and know whether what flowed between two people was
positions in honest feeling or pity or pragmatism. Indeed, for the
relation to black person, the feigning of an expected emotion
segregation. could be the very coinage of survival.
Cautious as
So I can only tell you how it seemed to me at the time. I
he is white
was 7 and Grady was 16 and I adored her and I
writing about
believed she was crazy about me. She became the
blacks
weather in which my childhood was lived. (p. 3)
 Features
Friendly, vivid as he is
describing people and their
emotions.
Example in the text
"You're so tiny," Grady exclaimed at one
point. "I thought you were a great big
woman. How'd you make so much
noise?"
My mother was disarmed. In the midst of
a round of stories about the bold things
Grady had said and done, I heard her
turn to a visitor and explain quietly, in an
admiring voice, "You see, now, that
Grady is a strong person." (p. 5)
 Features Example in the text

Thought-provoking, willing To me, this was the heart of the onion.

to share his thoughts and For while some of the benefits of
conclusions psychotherapy may be dubious, it does
Profound give us one shining truth. We are shaped
by those moments when sadness of life
first wounds us. Yet often we are too
young to remember that wounding
experience, that decisive point after
which all is changed for better or worse.
(p. 8)
What effects do these ‘textual voices’ have
on you as readers?

How does the nature of the issue in the

article affect the textual voice?

How are the voices different depending on

the domain the textual voice is exploring?
Now let’s work with your own FAs

In preparation for the creation of your textual voice, think

about the following questions:

- Who would the intended audience be?

- What kind of textual voice would you like to create in your
feature article? Decide on three key features.
- How could you create this kind of voice? What resources
would be of use?