Blog 6

I found this week's readings to be for the most part, quite entertaining yet educational. Spandel discusses voice and that seemed to be the apparent theme for the week. I loved it when she said that "it is a common misconception that voice is an afterthought, like salad dress on the side" (Spandel 131). I actually laughed out loud, but this is very true. I don't believe that voice is necessary an afterthought. I think it is something you find as you start to write. When writing a paper, I start off kind of slow thinking about what I really want to write about and before I know it, I'm flying threw the paper and make it to the finish line before I ever realized it happened. My voice took over the paper flowing one thought to the next.

When teaching my students about voice, Spandel also has an interesting comparison. "Is there anything - spelling, fractions, penmanship, calculus, physics, drawing, driving, tumbling, football, keyboarding, music - about which we can honestly say, 'We all have equal talent and will all learn this equally well'? So then, why not coach each writer to the highest level he or she can attain?" (Spandel 133). To summarize what she is saying is that every student is different and my job is to pull out each and every individual voice from my students. An easy way for us to do this is through commenting. "Our verbal and written comments, expressions, and reactions provide more encouragement than we know. They help young writers feel sure of their footsteps on their way to finding a voice that is theirs alone" (Spandel 134). Not that I am a big fan of the Smith book, but I actually felt like I could relate to him as he as well is in agreement with Spandel, "It might be thought that the reason we learn in some situations but not in others must be related to motivation; engagement takes place when we want to learn and does not occur when motivation is lacking" (Smith 190).

Although agreeing with what most of what Spandel says, there is this one part that I keep on coming back to and I'm not sure if I necessarily agree with it. It's been gnawing at me ever since I read it. She states, "we must encourage students to make their writings move, too. They need to abandon excessive adjectives and adverbs, and call on lean verbs to carry the weight" (Spandel 136). I'm just really not sure if I agree with that. I don't feel that simplicity is always the answer. If I'm describing a murder scene, do I want to simply say it was a bloody mess, or do I want to go into the details that describes that actual scene to the reader. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet.