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Hi, I'm Steven from Academic Skills
and today we're going to discuss voice.
Voice,
our speaking voice is something we are all born with and use every day.
But today we're going to learn about another type of voice.
This is a voice we are also born with, but may have some difficulty in accessing
and using, our voice in academic writing.
Let's start by looking at some key questions relevant to voice.
In academic writing. What do we mean by voice?
What are the main types of voice?
What type of voice should I be using?
This video will help to answer these questions.
There are three main voices you can use.
Number one, your own voice as the writer.
This is your personal voice.
Number two, the direct voice of a source to back up a claim
you have made in your writing.
This is usually a direct quotation.
And number three, the indirect voice of a source.
This is usually in the form of a paraphrase or a summary.
Now let's see these different voices working together in a sample text.
We will look at an essay by an architecture student on the growth of Brutalism,
a design movement popular in Europe, North America and Australasia.
From the 1960s to the 1980s.
Here is the sample text.
Take a minute to read it, at your own pace.
While you read, consider whose voice is speaking.
Who is telling you the information as you read?
Now let's look at the text with the different voices marked up in different colours.
Note here, how the writer's personal voice is green.
The direct voice of a source is in purple.
Finally, the indirect voice of a source is in brown.
Together, these voices weave together to form an academic paragraph.
We need to use a range of voices in our academic writing.
But the way we balance these voices in a paragraph depends on several things.
For most academic texts, your own voice is the most important
and doesn't necessarily need to be indicated with I, me, or my.
In fact, many disciplines avoid these personal pronouns altogether.
Most academic writing is based on having a clear position and supporting it.
Your reader wants to see that you have a personal perspective on the topic
you're writing on and use it to build a credible argument.
In the sample text, the writer's personal voice occupies most of the paragraph
and is especially prominent at the beginning and end of the paragraph.
The main point in this paragraph, is the reason for an extent of brutalism.
To further develop your argument, you need evidence to support it.
This is usually supplied by, the direct or, indirect views of experts in the field.
In the sample paragraph,
expert views are expressed in the form of one paraphrase
and one direct quotation.
So what type of voice should you be using in your academic writing?
The use of a direct voice needs to be used with care in academic writing.
In fact,
direct quotations should make up less than 10 per cent of your work.
Probably around 5 percent would be better to aim for.
But it does depend on what type of text you are writing.
Instead, try to gather together the ideas of several external voices
in either a paraphrase or a summary.
Your reader may prefer a quick summary of several voices who agree on the same point,
rather than an extended paraphrase of one source.
In summary,
here's a breakdown of how different voices can support ideas in your writing.
Note that your voice should be the strongest in the following sections of your academic work,
introductions, conclusions
and in any section that includes substantial analysis and synthesis.
Now, let's see how much you know about voice in academic writing.
Take a minute to read this sample paragraph from a management textbook.
How many voices, and what types of voice can you find in it?
Did you find four voices and three types of voice?
Let's analyze how this paragraph weaves together different voices.
The first voice is the direct voice of the writer.
It begins the paragraph.
The second voice is the direct voice of Haine and Alder,
as a supportive quotation.
They count as one voice, as they are writing together.
Hicks and Goodland and Daly are two indirect voices
appearing as a chain reference in the final sentence.
So altogether, four voices and three types of voice in this academic paragraph.
Thank you for listening, and good luck with using voice effectively in your own academic work.
For more tips and resources, search for Academic Skills, Unimelb.
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