Remember the days before RSS feeds and everyone and their uncle distributed content or newsletters via e-mail? I do.
You’re probably like me, and have long since unsubscribed to just about every single one. With the ease of content syndication, there’s really no need these days. In some ways, the e-mail newsletter feels, well, dated.
But there is a single hold out in my e-mail in-box. It’s Daphne Gray-Grant’s Power Writing newsletter… I can’t live without it and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Each issue — delivered on Tuesdays — has something I can use. Or it reinforces something that I tend to sometimes forget. Even though her site and the newsletter’s geared toward corporate communication, she passes along awesome writing truisms that always give words — your words — a bit more than they had before.
Plus, her columns are super short and I usually get through them in just two or three minutes. When time is at a premium, what better value is there than a fully-loaded newsletter you can blow through in fewer than 180 seconds?
Exactly.
After you read her brilliant thoughts about finding your voice, go sign up for her newsletter. You won’t regret it.
That said, here’s the first from Daphne in a two multi-part series…
How to find your voice, Part 1 by Daphne Gray-Grant
When you speak or sing, you use your voice. And you do the same when you write. Only here “voice” is much more elusive. Getting your hands around the whole idea of writing voice is a bit like trying to grab a greased pig. It keeps wiggling and slipping away.
Over the next few weeks, I’d like to try to pin that pig down. What are the elements of voice? How can you find your own? And what mechanical tricks and tools can you use to help?
Let’s start today by looking at how you reveal yourself as a writer. In other words, I want to talk about point of view. If you’ll forgive me, we need to start with a teensy little trip to grammar-land. Let’s conjugate the verb “to write.”
First person singular: I write
First person plural: we write
Second person singular: you write
Second person plural: you write
Third person singular: he, she, or one writes
Third person plural: they write
Ok, that’s six different points of view. Which should you choose when you write? Let’s take a closer look.
The first person singular is passionate and opinionated. But if you use it too often (think of many blogs) it can seem self-indulgent and self-aggrandizing. No one wants to read text where the message is I-I-I-me-me-me all the time. Still the utter absence of first person can make it sound as though you’re reluctant (or maybe even too weak or uninformed) to give your opinion.
The first person plural is sympathetic and warm and helps show the writer as someone who is willing to put him or herself in the readers’ shoes. For example, consider the sentence:
“When we write, we’re often too quick to criticize our own work.”
By expressing the thought this way, the author is saying “hey, you’re not alone; I’m one of you!” But be aware that the “we” voice can also come across as patronizing (think of a nurse asking: “And how are we feeling today?”)
The second person (both singular and plural) is friendly and inclusive. It makes readers feel as though you are speaking directly to them. In the fourth sentence of this newsletter, I wanted to make the greased pig image come alive, so I used the word “you.” On the other hand, “you” can also come across as bossy: “You must sign up by March 30 if you want to receive the pension plan benefits.” And if overused it can sound aggressive — like a salesperson who repeats your name too many times.
The third person is more cool, measured and formal. The overall impact is much more authoritative — but this comes at the expense of friendliness. Here are some examples: “One can assume that the school board made a serious error.” Or: “The typical student receives inadequate instruction in mathematics in grades 9-12.” These types of statements are cut and dried and, often, a little bit intimidating.
So the question remains: how do you know which point of view to use? I recommend you start — as always — by considering your audience. A scientific, academic or formal business report probably requires the third person for a good part of the time. But web copy, e-zines, employee publications, memos and e-mail almost always benefit from the informality of the second person (“you”).
Remember that you are allowed some flexibility and you don’t have to stick slavishly to one point of view for the whole piece of writing. If you are recommending a product or action, for instance, you will want to slip into the first person from time to time — either singular or plural — and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just be aware that you’re doing this and strive to make the transition easy for your readers.
And one final footnote for corporate writers: I urge you to avoid locutions like, “XYZ Company is a 100-year-old firm and we pride ourselves on…” The problem is not so much the mix between the third person (“XYZ Company”) and first person (“we”) — it’s the overall impression that the company cares more about itself than its customers.
I’d rewrite focusing on the customer’s perspective: “Are you fed up with software that comes with no support? At XYZ Company, we’ve developed a way to ensure you get the answers you need promptly…” Now that’s a voice I want to hear!
Next week: Rhythm and voice
This article is © 2008 by Daphne Gray-Grant
Tags: Daphne Gray-Grant, Power Writing, voice
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{ 4 comments }
This is great.
I shared it on my blog.
thanks
I was going to respond to this (hey this is cool, I can see what I type and I type it above—yes I impress easy and know it’s probably JavaScript—but it’s still cool—like a typewriter) what was I saying? Oh, yeah. I was going to respond/rant on this when you first posted it but I waited to see what was coming.
I don’t think my thoughts have changed much. This greatly over-simplifies perspective. It is the same thing we are taught in grammar school that nobody ever expands. The I/you/one shift is only a grammatical and frame shift. Daphne Gray-Grant does comment about some other aspects of perspective in the other articles, but she doesn’t include these as part of perspective.
As to her descriptions on these frames (e.g., “The first person singular is passionate and opinionated”); these are way off base. First person can be passionate and opinionated, but I can also make first person non-passionate and non-opinionated, as well as the other frames passionate and opinionated. Those are arbitrary qualifiers that if you believe them will lock you into making those frames as she describes.
Granted Gray-Grant seems to be targeting the casual business writer, but she never actually qualifies this, so I have to respond from a general writing perspective.
This grammatical/frame approach is unfortunately taught even in college writing courses. It is rare that people are also told that perspective also involves the relationship of the author’s voice to the story and the narrator’s voice to the story. So to talk about perspective, one must include elements such as distancing, level of awareness, reliability, etc., for each of these.
Maybe I’m just put off by Gray-Grant’s implication that there is something mystical about writing, “Only here ‘voice’ is much more elusive. Getting your hands around the whole idea of writing voice is a bit like trying to grab a greased pig. It keeps wiggling and slipping away.” No, writing is not difficult at all to understand. It is a mechanical process like most other things in the world. What is difficult, is accepting that it is work like everything else in the world.
@Greg: You’ve made some awesome observations in each of your responses to the series. It is worth pointing out, as you suspected, that business writers comprise the bulk of Gray-Grant’s audience. And I assume the workshops she teaches are for “non writers” — or new writers — a group whom I believe thinks writing is mystical.
I agree with you that writing, in fact, isn’t mystical, that it’s a skill and takes work to develop. Then again, same can be said performing a clean and jerk, playing the piano, or running fast. That said, you have to admit that these things come more easily for some and not for others.
I get your criticisms… heck, I even share a lot of them. But every day on the Web and at my day job, I see the people Gray-Grant’s trying to reach. And these concepts — which are Writing Kindergarten for you and me — are a way to open the door for them.
To return to the “playing the piano” example for a moment, when someone learns how to develop that skill, teachers don’t typically begin with music theory. Intermediate pianists don’t get much of that, either. You have to figure, then, that most adults are beginner to intermediate writers… able to communicate on some level, but they may be deficient in the nuances that a more experienced writer knows as second nature.
If it takes some general-isms — like the ones Gray-Grant provided — to help elevate someone’s skill, even if by accident, then I think we’re all better for it.
I like that you mention kindergarten because I think that may be where the problem is with this form of teaching. There isn’t much difference between an amateur writer and an accomplished writer (however you want to define that). One isn’t less of a writer or person than the other, nor is the other more of a writer or person. The difference is in level of awareness and control. Kids are great examples because most lack both of these. They really aren’t less intelligent than adults, nor am I more intelligent than a kid. My level of awareness and self-control has increased, that’s it.
Same as if we get a job on an assembly line. Our boss doesn’t make up a little exercise for us to do so we become better at our job. He/she just tells us what we need to do and makes us do it. He expects we won’t be too good at it until we keep doing it for a while. Same goes for writing. A good writer is someone who just keeps doing it over and over again until he/she says, “yeah, ok, I get what works and doesn’t”. And after more repetition your awareness opens even more and your self-control gets stronger.
If we talk about piano, think about Bach’s method of teaching. He wrote the “Well-Tempered Clavier” for students. It’s real music, not a go nowhere exercise. Keep in mind that he wrote this for piano students and not composition students-big difference. And every decent piano teacher will teach playing scales in a melodic manner, not as a robotic exercise.
So while the approach here is very common, I think it babies the aspiring writer. The first thing a new writer should hear is that writing is work. It’s just like any other job you will ever have. If you want to be good, just keep doing it over and over and never quit. But always make sure you go somewhere, because unless you make finished products, you won’t get anywhere. It doesn’t matter if your early work is any good. Just going through the motions won’t cut it.
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