Voice in writing is all about style. It is not as important to have a legitimate argument in your writing as long as you can convince people that your argument is legitimate. It is easier to simply convince the audience that you are a creditable source, and they will believe just about anything. To convince an audience to agree with a viewpoint, the writer simply needs to build creditability with the reader. To do this, the writer needs to pay close attention to his/her voice. In order to build creditability, the writer needs to write in a style that makes them appear confident and knowledgeable about the topic. Audience is important here, because different audiences will be wooed by different tactics. Trying to convince a group of NRA members that gun control needs to be strengthened requires a different style that trying to convince a group of laypeople. The type of language that is used makes a key difference in this. Using fancy, over-the-topic jargon can make the writer appear arrogant, unless the audience is a group of people that use the same type of jargon. Making the language or arguments too simple or too complex can make it seem like the writer is talking down to the reader or make the reader feel like the writer is trying to prove how much smarter they are than the rest of the population.
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To demonstrate this, I will imitate a passage from On Truth by Harry G. Frankfurt, taking his academic style and molding it to make sense for the rest of us:
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Often, people trick themselves into believing that subjective appraisals cannot be defined as either true or false. Their thinking leads them to believe that statements which do not make a factual claim cannot be correct or incorrect because these kinds of statements are merely a reflection of a personal preference or opinion.
Statements that seem to be subjective or opinionated do indeed rely on facts. For instance, to say "I don't like the blue paint job on that Ford Focus" requires the acceptance of several factual claims. The first is that "blue" is the same color "blue" that is accepted by others as being "blue." The second is the fact that the object that the speaker is referring to is what we all know to be an automobile. Third, the speaker must accept the fact that the car that he/she is referencing is a Ford Focus. Without accepting these facts, it is impossible to make a judgment about the color of a Ford Focus. So, it is possible to say that subjective appraisals cannot be divided along the true/not true lines; however, we must rely on factual information to come to those conclusions.
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Factual statements are invaluable to our self-concepts. What we choose as important to us and how we choose to spend our time may appear to be ideas based on our feelings and our beliefs. Nonetheless, our feelings and beliefs are derived from factual information we have gathered regarding these choices. We must know that we are justified in making sense of what we feel, believe, or choose to do by evaluating the facts of each alternative.
In reading and imitating this passage from On Truth, I felt like I was translating his arguments and examples in a way that made sense to me. I used language that felt like it flowed better to me. I also brought in some of my own ideas in describing truth, like “factual statements are invaluable to our self-concepts,” in place of
However, voice is more complicated than simply convincing your audience that you are right. If the reader knows anything about your topic, or can see through you manipulative ways, the writer’s argument cannot be solely based on style. Style is the method of constructing a valid argument based on facts. If the writer cannot base his/her argument on facts, than there really isn’t any argument at all. I think that this is
Posted by prat9517 on October 13, 2008
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