by Faith V. Macdonald

Finding your voice, your particular way of expressing ideas, is an ongoing part of any writer’s development. We spend our entire writing careers searching for and honing this skill, learning not just how to clearly communicate, but how we WANT to communicate in our own authentic manner. One of the great joys of being a WIP TA this semester has been watching my students discover their own unique voices through their writing assignments. It continually amazes me how, given the exact same prompts and information, my students can produce such distinct works. Usually, within a few sentences, I can recognize a student’s writing based on phrasing, the way information is organized, even rhythms in sentence length.

At the beginning of the semester, I was most nervous about encouraging this aspect of student writing.  I have always been a very opinionated person and worried about running roughshod over my students’ voices with my own preferences. To combat this, I devised certain strategies for evaluating student writing. Together, they comprise a reader-first-coach-second mindset. By this, I mean that I tried to approach my student’s work primarily as a reader, setting aside my identity as a writer or editor. By doing so, I was able to simply absorb what the student had presented and take it on its own terms. Then, as I provided feedback, I focused on coaching my students to meet the assignment expectations, but also the direction their writing was already taking. I saw my job as not necessarily judging student performance, but guiding students to reach their own writing goals.

As the semester progressed, I found concrete ways of realizing this strategy. The single most useful approach was focusing on positive feedback. This took several different forms depending on the specific piece and the prompt. Sometimes, it was as simple as pointing out when a student had done something well, like stating their thesis early in their work. Other times, it meant engaging with specific writing choices by responding in the form of questions or comments. In this way, I could draw student’s attention to where they had engaged me as a reader and encourage this behavior going forward. Throughout, I was surprised how much more enjoyable grading became as I implemented these feedback strategies. It seems obvious, but reading is more enjoyable when you can engage with the personality behind the work, not just a static progression of information. A focus on helping students develop their voices as writers has benefits for both the students and their teachers.

Looking at my student’s work now, their confidence and self-expression practically leaps off the page compared to at the beginning. Rather than inauthentically imitating a neutral academic voice, they have developed unique, interesting perspectives of their own. Though strong personal voice is not appropriate for all types of writing, I would argue that there are far more benefits to encouraging it when you can. In general, communication isn’t impersonal, and so writing shouldn’t be either. It is clear from my experience that when we focus on being readers first and rewarding thoughtful student expression, student confidence only grows.