{"id":5,"date":"2017-02-17T14:01:41","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T14:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kerrikennedy.org\/?p=5"},"modified":"2017-02-28T16:58:25","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T16:58:25","slug":"finding-your-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerrikennedy.org\/?p=5","title":{"rendered":"Finding Your Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

A writer’s “voice” is how the writer’s words sound in the reader’s head. I tell my students that it you do it correctly, it’s like a magic trick: I have implanted in you, the reader, my words said in the same way that I hear them in my own head. When that actually works? Now that\u00a0<\/em>is\u00a0a voice.<\/p>\n

Writer voices\u2014much like a singer’s voice\u2014will vary from task to task and job to job. This is where it gets important. A good writer will switch up her voice to meet the job at hand; a good editor will be able to smooth out the words on the page to shape them into the voice that’s needed.<\/p>\n

A government proposal, for example, needs a firm voice that implicitly builds confidence through its clearly stated knowledge. A client report will need a similar voice but will usually more explicitly exude and build confidence through its command of the project. An article for an employee magazine or an employee report, meanwhile, might have a more casual tone that reaches out to the reader and envelopes him or her in a quiet written conversation.<\/p>\n

Still wondering about the power of voice? Try this little exercise: Imagine an email where you are inviting a friend to meet you for coffee tomorrow. Now imagine a text with the same purpose. They’re different, right? Because our email “voice” is different from our texting “voice.”<\/p>\n

Now really spin the exercise on its head: imagine you are emailing your boss to invite him or her to coffee. The voice changes again, right? Your audience is a big part of deciding what voice to use.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A writer’s “voice” is how the writer’s words sound in the reader’s head. I tell my students that it you do it correctly, it’s like a magic trick: I have implanted in you, the reader, my words said in the same way that I hear them in my own head. When that actually works? Now…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerrikennedy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerrikennedy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerrikennedy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerrikennedy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerrikennedy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kerrikennedy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/kerrikennedy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerrikennedy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerrikennedy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerrikennedy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}