voice in essay writing

Table of Contents

What Is Voice in Writing?

• How Do I Find My Writer's Voice?
• How to Develop Your Writer's Voice

Writing Voice: What it Means & How to Find Yours

When you talk to someone, do you have to “find your voice?”

Of course not. You just talk.

Your voice isn’t something you “find.” It’s not hiding between the couch cushions or under the bed. It’s already there, inside of you and a part of you.

So why do so many writers talk about “finding” their voice like it’s a complicated thing?

Because they’re trying to look fancy and sophisticated. The fact is, it isn’t complicated. Elitist writers just want you to think it is.

Every Author has a unique voice, and you don’t have to do anything special to find it.

In this post, I’ll provide a definition of voice and debunk the myth that “finding your voice” is hard. Most importantly, I’ll show you exactly how to do it.

In writing, “voice” is how you speak and think. It’s all about the words you use and the patterns in your writing.

Do you use a lot of rhetorical questions? Long or short sentences? Slang?

Those are all ways your voice might come through in your writing.

Let’s look at a few examples of voice.

Tiffany Haddish is a comedian who grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles. She’s made a living off making people laugh, without pulling any punches.

Here’s the opening of her book, The Last Black Unicorn :

When you read this, you can practically hear Tiffany talking. It’s like having a conversation with her. Her voice comes through loud and clear.

She uses humor. She’s candid, and she doesn’t always stick to formal, proper grammar.

Here’s another, very different example.

This is the opening to Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins, a U.S. Armed Forces icon:

David’s voice is totally different from Tiffany’s. But it still feels like you’re having a conversation with him. It feels authentic.

His tone is more serious, but it’s still friendly. His sentences are short and direct (except for that last sentence, where he uses repetition to make a point). David’s writing is emphatic, and it makes you want to keep reading.

That’s the power of an Author’s voice.

It’s completely and totally theirs.

It’s real.

It’s powerful.

To be clear, your “voice” is different from your writing style .

Your voice is about how you communicate. In any conversation, on any given day, you’re using your natural voice.

Style is about how you approach the reader. It’s either geared toward persuading the reader, explaining something to the reader, telling the reader a story, or describing something to the reader.

No matter what your style is, you’ll have a consistent voice that shines through.

How Do I Find My Writer’s Voice?

You don’t.

People with literature degrees want you to believe that your writer’s voice is something you have to work really hard on. They’ll tell you it’s something you have to develop over time as part of your craft.

That’s not true. Your voice is already part of who you are.

So, if it’s already part of you, why is it hard to find?

It’s not.

Believe it or not, you don’t have to find your Author’s voice. It’s your own voice.

You already have a unique way of speaking/thinking/talking. That’s your writer’s voice. It’s the same thing.

You’re probably just getting in your own way because you’re not used to writing—and because you’ve bought into the belief that writing is “high art.”

It isn’t. Or at least it shouldn’t be.

Writing is about communicating ideas, not showing off.

You communicate every day. Trust yourself, and get out of your own way.

How to Develop Your Writer’s Voice

Your voice is already part of you, but if you’re like most people, you’re probably more comfortable speaking in your voice than writing in it.

If you find yourself in this camp, there are 6 things you can do to get yourself back on track.

To be clear, these aren’t tips for “finding your voice.” They’re tips for remembering you already have one.

1. Stop Trying to Sound Like Someone Else

One of the biggest writing mistakes is when people try to emulate someone else’s writing.

Don’t do this.

I don’t care how great a writer they are or how much you like their book. You’re not them. You’re you.

You have to be yourself because that’s who readers want to engage with. They picked up your book because they thought you could help them solve their problems . If they thought someone else could do it better, they would have bought their book instead.

Give readers what they want: your knowledge, in your words. If you speak to them clearly, honestly, and authentically, you’ll have a strong voice.

Chances are, you like the Authors you like because they stayed true to themselves. They stand out because they’ve let their authentic voice come through in their writing.

There’s nothing authentic about a copycat. And it only takes readers a minute to catch on when someone isn’t being real with them.

If you want to publish a good book , stop trying to live up to other good books. Instead, live up to yourself.

Let your unique point of view come through.

2. Stop Trying to Sound Smart

This is a subset of the first problem, but I’m highlighting it here because it’s something I see all the time .

Authors often try to use fancy words or complicated sentence structure because they think that’s how writing is “supposed” to sound.

Or, they think they have to “sound smart” for readers to perceive them as smart.

I don’t care how smart you are. No one wants to read complicated, dense writing. It doesn’t make you sound smart. It makes you sound unrelatable.

I blame English professors—and textbooks, most of which are horrible.​They make people think they have to have some fancy literary voice if they want to be taken seriously.

But be honest. When’s the last time you’ve picked up a book in your spare time and said, “I really want something I have to slog through?”

So don’t make readers slog through your book. They won’t do it.

Complicated words won’t make you sound more authoritative.

Know what will? Good information, delivered clearly and plainly.

Keep your word choice simple and skip the “authorial voice” you think you “should” have.

People appreciate straight shooters more than they appreciate faux-intellectualism or headaches.

3. Stop Worrying About Grammar

The best way to write is the way you talk. And the way you talk won’t always be grammatically correct.

That’s fine.

Stop worrying about grammar, especially when you’re writing your first draft. In reality, grammar rules aren’t rules. They’re suggestions.

Grammar rules are arbitrary conventions that people agree on. Except there is no set of people who are in charge and no formal agreements. That’s why there are so many different grammar books out there.

There are only 2 reasons that grammar even matters in writing:

• It makes communication easier
• People expect good grammar (which is why it makes communication easier)

You want your book to look professional, but more importantly, you want your book to connect with readers.

People respond to people—not rules, and not grammar.

When you write the way you speak, people will connect with it.

Maybe that means using sentence fragments. Like this. Or maybe it means starting a sentence with a conjunction.

Maybe it means being colloquial. Did you notice that Tiffany Haddish said, “I look back over my life and I’m like, ‘For real, that happened?'”

Most grammar books would never encourage you to use “I’m like” as a stand-in for “I said.” But it sounds like Tiffany, and it makes her far more relatable.

Everyone has their own unique way of speaking. You should also embrace your own unique way of writing. It’s okay to break the rules.

Of course, you want your book to look professional, but you can always fix spelling and punctuation mistakes down the line.

Once you’re done writing, hand the manuscript over to a good editor , copyeditor , and/or proofreader . But even then, take their suggestions with a grain of salt.

The most important thing is to preserve your narrative voice and make a connection with the reader.

4. Stop Editing Yourself

I’ll take my earlier advice one step further: don’t just stop worrying about grammar. Stop worrying about how you sound at all.

Just get your ideas down on paper. Your first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, it won’t be.

Give yourself permission to write a mediocre first draft. Hell, give yourself permission to write a terrible first draft.

I always advise Authors to write what we call a “ vomit draft .” Spew your thoughts onto paper and stop worrying about whether they sound good.

Just get it all out. Get every thought that’s in your head onto the paper.

Like vomiting, it’s not going to be pretty. But it will be real. It will encapsulate your writing voice.

The more you agonize over putting your thoughts on paper, the less natural they’re going to sound. You’ll question your natural flow of thoughts, and you’ll probably edit out all the tics that make your voice sound like you.

Plus, it’s a lot easier to fix a second draft than it is to write a “perfect” first one.

Think of your vomit draft as a starting place that helps you drill down to the essence of your voice.

Here are 2 frames that might help you channel your own voice in the vomit draft:

• Imagine that you’re having a conversation with a friend. It takes the pressure off, guarantees that you’ll be more natural, and ensures that you’re thinking about what the other person is learning and taking in.
• Imagine you’re helping a stranger heal the same pain you had. This helps you focus on actionable advice and helps you stay focused on your reader.

Want to really ace this “writing voice” thing?

Envision yourself helping a friend through something difficult you’ve already figured out.

Why does this work? Because your mind won’t be on your voice at all. It will be focused on helping someone you care about.

Your voice will emerge organically.

5. Write Like You’re Not Finished

I just said that your vomit draft will probably be terrible. But in another sense, your vomit draft will be great . ​

That’s because it’s exactly what it needs to be: a draft.

Many successful people are perfectionists . They desperately want things to be “right,” and they have high expectations for themselves. When they write, they want every word to be spot-on.

Now, imagine if you put that much pressure on yourself every time you opened your mouth.

What would happen if every word you spoke had to be perfect ?

You’d never say anything.

You can’t have a natural voice—or a voice at all—if you’re hung up on perfectionism.

Every great book starts out as a bad book, or at least a mediocre book. I promise. That’s because writing a book is a long process. You can’t treat it like a one-and-done thing.

A book starts with a rough draft—emphasis on “rough.” Then, over time, it gets better. And better. And better.

I can’t tell you how many Authors I’ve seen who get discouraged at the beginning of the writing process. They let their fear get in the way, and they get stuck. They worry that their books won’t be “good enough” or that people won’t care.

Many of them give up.

It’s important to keep perspective. This is a process. Your voice will develop over successive drafts. It doesn’t have to be perfect right out of the gate.

Ernest Hemingway had one of the most distinctive voices in literature, and he was an obsessive editor. He was never content with his early drafts.

Stop trying to write like you’re writing a finished book. You’re not. You’re writing a draft. When you embrace that and loosen up, your writing voice will sound much more natural.

6. Talk It Out Instead of Writing It Down

An Author’s voice is called a “voice” for a reason. It’s directly related to how a person speaks and communicates.

One thing that makes tapping into your own voice so hard is that it’s hard to type as fast as you speak.

When you’re sitting at a keyboard, your ideas often outpace your ability to get them down. That interrupts your flow and makes the entire writing process feel stilted and awkward.

If you’re having trouble keeping up, stop trying to write. Talk it out instead.

After all, who said you had to write your book? You can speak it just as easily.

I recommend dictating your book and sending the recording to a transcription service .

With roughly 10 hours of talking and a few minutes of file conversion time, you’ll have a workable vomit draft.

Better yet, you’ll have a workable vomit draft in your own voice . Literally.

If you struggle with the idea of dictating that much content, go back to the 2 frames I suggested above. Instead of imagining talking to a friend, actually do it.

Have a conversation with someone else about your book’s subject, and use that conversation as your guide for your rough draft.

We’ve all heard of writer’s block , but there’s no such thing as speaker’s block. There’s a good reason for that.

It’s easy to talk to a friend. You don’t worry about sounding smart or needing to find your voice. You just speak, and your voice emerges naturally.

Don’t make writing a book more complicated than it has to be. When in doubt, let your actual voice do the “writing” for you.

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Your Writing “Voice”

What Is Voice in an Academic Essay or Some Other Type of Composition?

Voice has at least two distinct meanings:

• The audible sound of a person speaking (e.g., high-pitched, rhythmic, loud, soft, accent, pace). Even in writing, the author’s words create the “sound” of the writer talking. Effective writers can control the sound of their words in their readers’ heads.
• The communicator’s implied beliefs and values. Every utterance conveys the impression of a person behind the words—a “self” that may be authentic or constructed as a persona. This “self” can extend beyond an implied personality to include the communicator’s political, philosophical, and social values as well as his or her commitment to certain causes (civil rights, gay rights, women’s rights).

Elements of Voice

Because audiences experience a communicator’s voice as a whole expression, not a set of parts, a reconsideration of some commonly understood elements of voice may be useful.

• Tone. Tone is the communicator’s attitude toward the subject and audience as expressed in a text. For example, are you trying to convey anger, joy, sarcasm, contempt, anxiety, or respect? To gain control of your tone, read drafts aloud and listen to the attitudes you convey. Is the tone consistent throughout the text? Should it be? Have you struck the tone that you were hoping to strike?
• Style. Style is the distinctive way you express yourself. It can change from day to day but it is always you. The style that you choose for a particular writing assignment will largely depend on your subject, purpose, and audience. Style in writing is affected by such values as the level of formality/informality appropriate to the situation and by the simplicity or complexity of words, sentences, and paragraphs. To gain control of style, learn to analyze the purpose and audience. Decide how you want to present yourself and ensure that it suits the occasion.
• Values. Values include your political, social, religious, and philosophical beliefs. Your background, opinions, and beliefs will be part of everything you write, but you must learn when to express them directly and when not to. For example, including your values would enhance a personal essay or other autobiographical writing, but it might undermine a sense of objectivity in an interpretive or research paper. To gain control of the values in your writing, consider whether the purpose of the assignment calls for implicit or explicit value statements. Examine your drafts for opinion and judgment words that reveal your values and take them out if they are not appropriate.
• Authority. Authority comes from knowledge and is projected through self-confidence. You can exert and project real authority only if you know your material well, whether it’s the facts of your life or carefully researched material. The better you know your subject (and this is often learned through drafting), the more authoritative you will sound. Your audience will hear that authority in your words.

What Is Voice in an Academic Essay?

Many students arrive at college with the notion that they must not use the first-person “I” point of view when writing an academic essay . The personal voice, so goes the reasoning, undermines the student writer’s authority by making the analysis or argument or whatever the student is writing seem too subjective or opinionated to be academic. The student who subscribes to this notion is correct—or possibly incorrect; it depends on how the assignment has been designed. One advantage of not using the first-person “I” is that it challenges the student to present ideas as objective claims, which will amplify the degree to which the claims require support to be convincing. Notice the different effects of these two claims:

I feel that Pablo Picasso’s reputation as a great artist conflicts with what his biographers have to say about his personal relationships, especially with women.  

Pablo Picasso’s reputation as a great artist conflicts with what his biographers have to say about his personal relationships, especially with women.  

      The only measurable difference between the two sentences above is that the first of them is couched in the first-person phrase “I feel.” The two sentences differ more consequentially in terms of effect, however. The writer—and readers—of the second sentence are probably going to sense more strongly the need for support to make the claim convincing. That’s a good thing, for it indicates to the writer the work that needs to be done to make the claim convincing.

      The disadvantage of keeping the first-person “I” voice out of an essay is that it may squelch something unique and authentic about the writer’s voice and vision, turning the essay into something more formal in tone—something more conventionally academic, let’s say. What is more, while denying the first-person “I” a place in an academic essay may heighten awareness of an essay’s argumentative weaknesses, it also participates in a tradition that privileges certain modes of thought and expression. The traditional ways of approaching academic essays, instructors are coming to accept, may be too limiting for today’s students.

      So, is the first-person “I” correct or incorrect? Ask your instructor this question before you begin writing your academic essay . Talk about what you need, in terms of voice, to convey your ideas most effectively.

Quick tip about citing sources in MLA style

What’s a thesis, sample mla essays.

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Writing Resources

Voice and analysis in your essay, the tour guide approach.

This handout is available for download in DOCX format and PDF format .

Several people have asked me what I mean when I ask for more VOICE in your essay. This is a great question, and it gets to the heart of what analysis looks like in a research paper. The goal of a research paper is to use the literature (your research) to support your own unique argument. This is different from a literature review, which simply reviews what others have said about a topic. In a research paper, there is some literature review, typically towards the beginning, but the larger goal is to DO SOMETHING with this literature to show your own take on the topic . This is analysis and it is what gives voice to your essay. One way to think about voice is to see yourself as the TOUR GUIDE of your essay.

Imagine a tour of a city. The guide's job is to take people from place to place, showing them things that make the city special. A mediocre guide might just say, "This is Westminster Abbey," "This is Big Ben," etc. They might provide facts, such as who is buried at Westminster Abbey, but they don't put any of the information in context. You might as well do a self-guided tour. This is the equivalent of a literature review: you describe all of the studies and theories, but you don't tell the reader what to do with this new knowledge. The EVIDENCE is there, but the ANALYSIS is missing.

On the other hand, a good tour guide doesn't just show you the buildings. Instead, they tell you about how these monuments reflect the history and culture of the city. They put the buildings into context to tell a story and give you a sense of place, time, purpose, etc. This is the equivalent of a good research paper. It takes evidence (data, observations, theories) and does something with it to communicate a new angle to your reader. It argues something, using the literature as a foundation on which to build the new, original argument.

Good tour guides (writers) insert their voice often. The voice can be heard in topic sentences , where the writer tells the reader how the paragraph fits into the larger argument (i.e., how it connects to the thesis). The voice can be heard in the analysis in the paragraphs as the writer tells the reader what has been learned and what it means for the larger argument. The voice often gets stronger as the essay progresses—especially since earlier paragraphs often contain more background information and later paragraphs are more likely to contain argument built on that background information. A good tour guide also:

• Doesn't tell the reader things they already know
• Doesn't over-explain or provide unnecessary detail
• Doesn't rush— if they move too fast, their tour won't be able to keep up
• Keeps things interesting (doesn't visit boring sites!)
• Keeps things organized (no backtracking to sites they've already visited)

How to use this in your writing:

Analysis is any moment in which you tell the reader your interpretation, how ideas fit together, why something matters, etc. It is when your voice comes through, as opposed to the authors of the articles you cite.

What might analysis / tour guiding look like in a research essay?

• Critique of the literature (methodological flaws, different interpretations of findings, etc.)
• Resolution of contradictory evidence
• Analysis of differing theories (in light of the evidence)
• Incorporation of various lenses, e.g., cultural or societal influences, cross-cultural similarities or differences, etc.
• Historical changes
• Fusion of literature or topics that are not obviously related
• Transitional language that connects pieces of the argument

Credit: Elissa Jacobs, University Writing Program

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Critical writing: Your voice

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Jump to content on this page:

“When academics write articles... they not only present their own ideas but also refer to the ideas of other academics. This means that they need a way to distinguish between their own ideas and the ideas of other people. They need to express their own voice and to refer to the voices of others.” Brick et al. (2019), Academic Success

Academic writing can feel incredibly disempowering. Students often feel they spend all of their time writing about the work of others, without ever demonstrating what they know or think. This is not the case. While all academic arguments must be based on appropriate evidence (references), you decide what evidence to include. You also decide how to critique or support every source you include. This is how your voice comes through in academic writing.

A critical aspect of higher education is the development of knowledge through debate and discourse. Good academic writing uses a mixture of the voices. In practical terms, this includes a blend of your voice and the voice of others . Whenever you are using the work of someone else, this must be appropriately cited and referenced. Referencing is an important part of voice as it helps to distinguish between your ideas and the ideas of others . 

The four different voices of academic writing

There are four different types of voice that are used within academic writing:

• Own voice : An original point or claim written by the author of this work, or an aspect of analysis, synthesis or evaluation that comments on the work of others.
• External voice : The writer summarises or paraphrases the work of someone else. Their name is not mentioned directly in the text and the relevant source is represented through citation. 
• Indirect voice:  The writer summarises or paraphrases the work of someone else. Their name is mentioned in text and the source is appropriated cited.
• Direct voice:  The writer directly quotes the work of someone else. Their direct words are reproduced, their name is mentioned in text and the source is appropriated cited. 

Example: Using different voices 

Let's look at a sample piece of level 5 writing to look at some of the different types of voice:

Public concern for food safety steadily grew from the 1970's onwards as food poisoning events increased. As these public concerns rose, the term ‘food scare’ started to appear in the media (Knowles et al, 2007). According to Campbell and Fitzgerald (2001), food scares were first associated with the malicious lacing of tablets with cyanide in mid-1980s USA, but once coined, soon became applied to the varied food safety issues that arose over subsequent years. Through this the media began to start portraying uncertainty over food safety, which has led to a wide variety of public responses. This is because "no unequivocal evidence is available for determining the role of socio-demographic characteristics in processing food safety information" (Mazzocchi et al., 2008:3). This means...

(Excerpt from: Fallin, 2009)

In this short except, all four types of voice are used.

The use of different voices is an essential aspect of the above excerpt's developing academic argument. As important as the evidence is, this must be articulated in the context of the argument - in this case, demonstrating public concern for food poisoning events. For this reason, the author's own voice is used as part of the argument and narrative. 

Writer's own voice

The writer opens with a sentence to introduce their point. There is no need to reference this opening point as it will be argued within the paragraph - with the use of appropriate academic evidence. 

Public concern for food safety steadily grew from the 1970's onwards as food poisoning events increased. 

External voice

The writer then uses the  external voice . This is because the author has fully summerised the work of Knowles, which is referenced using an in-text citation in Harvard/APA style. Knowles name is not mentioned in the main narrative of the text, but is appropriately cited in brackets. 

As these public concerns rose, the term ‘food scare’ started to appear in the media (Knowles et al, 2007).

Indirect voice

The writer's next sentence uses the  indirect voice . This is because they mention Campell and Fitzgernald by name, but go on to user their own words to summerise the work of these authors. Campell and Fitzgernald are appropriates cited to indicate the origin of this idea.

According to Campbell and Fitzgerald (2001), food scared were first associated with the malicious lacing of tablets with cyanide in mid-1980s USA, but once coined, soon became applied to the varied food safety issues that arose over subsequent years.

The writer has then again, used their voice to synthesis the evidence so far - and link to their next point. There is no need to reference this as it is build upon the above evidence. 

Through this the media began to start portraying uncertainty over food safety, which has led to a wide variety of public responses. 

Direct voice

The writer then goes on to use the  direct voice . This is because they directly quote the work of Mazzocchi et al., using the authors exact words. This is represented by the quotation marks and is appropriately referenced. 

This is because "no unequivocal evidence is available for determining the role of socio-demographic characteristics in processing food safety information" (Mazzocchi et al., 2008:3). 

Activity: Identifying different voices

As you have seen from this page so far, the use of different academic voices is an essential aspect of both academic integrity (citations/referencing) and critical thinking (building an argument). As your writing develops, so will your use of voice. However, it is also important to be able to identify these voices in your reading. This will support you in identifying the argument of others - and the sources of evidence for them. 

For this activity we will look at a piece of level 7 work and try to identify the different use of voice. Read the text below, and try to identify the different use of academic voice. Once you've finished your analysis, look at the next tab for the answers.

• Sample text
• Sample text + analysis

(Excerpt from: Fallin, 2015)

Voice, discipline and level

You will find different disciplines use voice in different ways. This is something you will identify the more you engage with the literature in your field. Your assessments are also an opportunity to develop this, and you will recieve feedback/feedforward from your lecturers and tutors to help you develop your writing in your field. 

There is a great variation in how disciplines may approach voice, but here are some general overviews. 

• Sciences favour external voice and own voice above that of indirect and direct voice. In fact, it is very rare you will find the direct voice in scientific writing. Sciences tend to focus on the re-articulation of core information and knowledge in the context of the current work. There is also less of a focus over who is involved in the work, so the use of the indirect voice is also rare. This is because citations are used to identify authorship, and this is not needed in the narrative. 
• Social sciences  will often use a mix of all voices, though the balance will depend on the work in question. While the external and own voice are the staple, there is a greater appreciation for theory and authorship, so the indirect voice is also common. There is still a focus on avoiding the use of direct voice (quotations) wherever possible, but they are appreciated where the context requires them. 
• Arts and humanities  also used a mix of all voices. There is a greater allowance for the direct voice, especially when quoting original or historical work for the purpose of analysis - but not as a means of padding out work. There must be synthesis and analysis for any use of the direct voice.

Level of study

It is also fair to say that your use of voice will vary heavily by level of study. For example, level 4 study generally focuses on acquiring core disciplinary knowledge. At this phase of your studies, your own voice is still developing, and you may find your use of the external, indirect and direct voice is greater. This inevitably rebalances at higher levels of study. By level 6 and 7 you should have really developed your own voice as a way to synthesis and narrate the ideas of others (presented in the other three voices). 

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Table of Contents

Ai, ethics & human agency, collaboration, information literacy, writing process, making sure your voice is present.

• CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Kyle D. Stedman

The Terror of Voice

I like order. I love the comfort of a beautiful and functional Excel spreadsheet. I organize my CDs by genre and then alphabetically by artist. I eat three meals a day.

But my love of order sometimes butts heads with my love of writing. That’s because no matter how much attention I pay to following the rules of writing, I know that to produce writing that astounds readers—moving them, making them gasp, enticing them—I’ll have to include more than just  correct  writing. I’ll need to find a way to make my voice present.

And sometimes, that terrifies me with the uncertainty of it all. I sometimes wish writing excellently were like working in Excel. I know I can make a spreadsheet absolutely perfect if my formulas are coded properly and my data is lined up correctly. Writing excellently is messier than that: it means admitting the difficult truth that even when everything in my essay follows all the grammatical and mechanical rules, my writing can still lack qualities that will make my readers’ eyes pop out of their heads with delightful surprise.

I often tell my students that the difference between A -level and B -level writing is voice. In other words, essays often deserve B ’s even when they have perfect punctuation and grammar, an intriguing concept, brilliant ideas, excellent and well-integrated sources, and a Works Cited page that would earn a standing ovation at the annual MLA convention. An essay can have all of those things but still feel dry and voiceless, reading like a dying man trudging through the desert, sandal-slap after sandal-slap, lifeless sentence after lifeless sentence.

So What is Voice in Writing?

“Voice” is a weird term, right? We usually say your voice is the quality of how you sound when you talk out loud—but aren’t we talking about writing?

First, let’s think about everything that makes your speaking voice distinctive. It has its own aural quality, formed by the size of your mouth, throat, and tongue, along with your distinctive habits of how you use your body to manipulate the sound of the air exhaling from your lungs.

But beyond the sounds your body naturally produces through your mouth, you also have your own way of choosing words, and that’s part of your voice, too. You have words you use more often than others, phrases you rely on, and ways you make the musical tone of your voice go up and down in distinct ways. All of those choices are partly based on how you learned to speak in your family and culture, and they’re partly based on what you bring to the table as an individual. Sometimes you just let out whatever you’re thinking, and sometimes you pause to consider how you want to sound.

Don’t miss that: qualities of spoken voice are, to some extent, chosen . Depending on where and when and with whom we’re speaking, our voice can change.

Now let’s turn to writing. I would define voice in writing as the quality of writing that gives readers the impression that they are hearing a real person, not a machine . Voice in writing is therefore multifaceted: it’s partly an unconscious, natural ring that dwells in the words you write, but it’s also related to the words you choose (stuffy and overused or fresh and appealing?), the phrases you rely on (dictionary-like or lively?), and how you affect your readers’ emotions (bored or engaged?). And it’s not something that is magically there for some writers and not there for others. Voice is something that can be cultivated, practiced, watered, even designed.  

I’m reminded of a quote from poet D.A. Powell, which I heard on the trailer for a documentary called Bad Writing . He says, “Bad art is that which does not succeed in cleansing the language of its dead—stinking dead—usages of the past” (MorrisHillPictures). Voice in writing is like that: it gives readers the sense that they’re hearing a fresh, cleansed voice unlike any they’ve heard before.

The writing in this documentary is called “bad” because of its lack of an authentic voice.

We Need Voice in Academic Writing, Too

A common misconception among writers is that writing for college, especially in a fancy-looking, citation-filled essay, should have the complexity and difficulty of Pride and Prejudice : “She is all affability and condescension, and I doubt not but you will be honoured with some portion of her notice when service is over” (Austen). That is, we sometimes assume that academic writing is where we say things with big words and in roundabout ways that seem sort of something like what we imagine talk is like around a gilded dinner table in a palace, somewhere.

I think this assumption is wrong. Even when reading essays that were written for college classes, readers don’t want to be bored or confused. They want liveliness; they want voice. Listen to veteran writing teacher Donald Graves use all of his cute-old-man powers to beg you to use your personal voice in even your standardized writing tests:

Donald Graves on the importance of putting voice in your writing

I recently taught a class that focused entirely on blogging for the first thirteen weeks of the course, followed by a final academic essay at the end of the semester. Students regularly asked me what style they should adopt in their final essay, how formal to be, what kind of voice to adopt. To most of the students, my reply was, “Write it how you wrote your blog!” To which almost all of them said, “Huh? That was informal . This is formal .” To which I said, “You’re partly right. You paid less attention to details when you were blogging, sure, but your voices were there. You used sentences that sounded like you! They were resonant ! I was moved ! Do you hear the italics in my voice? That’s how good your writing was! So don’t lose that by putting on a new coat of formality when it doesn’t fit well!” As the one who was going to read their academic essays, I was afraid that I was going to get a bunch of essays that sounded like Pride and Prejudice , with big words and roundabout sentence constructions. I wanted big, complex ideas in these final essays, but I also wanted stylistic liveliness, sentences that made me sit up straight and open my eyes wide. I admit that after the students had written first drafts of their essays, I backed off a little, and we talked about the ways that formal writing situations do indeed demand a different kind of voice than a blog post—but I was always insistent that no writing situation called for bored readers.

You should know this: teachers talk about their students. And I’ve heard the following story, or some variant of it, something like twenty times: “My student wrote this awful draft that confused me to no end. So I emailed the student and told him to come in to my office to talk about it. And he gets there to my office and I say, ‘What are you trying to say on page 2?’ and he explains it, and—get this!—he explains it in this beautifully clear language, and it becomes clear that he knew all along what he wanted to talk about and how to defend it and even how his ideas relate to his sources. So I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you write it that way? Why don’t you write the way you talk?’ and you know what he says? He says, ‘Because I thought I was supposed to write formally.’ I swear, sometimes I think students get into more trouble trying to write formally than it’s worth.”

I’m serious. Every semester, I hear that story.

Of course, I see the other side: there’s a place for formality in a lot of writing. Depending on the circumstance, sometimes our most formal coat is indeed what we need to wear. In your future college classes, you might not get much of an idea from your professor about what kind of coat they expect you to wear, so you’ll probably have to do some asking. (“Dear Professor X, I’m baffled about what kind of voice to use in my essay. For example, may I write the word baffled ? Please send examples. Sincerely, Judy Jetson.”)

My favorite trick here is one I learned from a small writing textbook called They Say, I Say : purposefully mixing the formal and informal in a single sentence or two. If you want to talk about something using a formal term, which is often a good idea in formal writing, use the formal term but then turn around and say it again informally. Like this: “Spoken voice is affected by our use of the epithelium, the vocal ligament, and the vocalis muscle. We’ve got a lot of ways to make sound.” The authors of They Say, I Say remind us that “translating the one type of language into the other, the specialized into the everyday, can help drive home a point” (Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst 118).

That leads me to the stuff you’re probably here for: actual ideas about how to get this elusive thing called voice into your writing.

Suggestions

1. Trust the gush—but then come back to the gush with a critical eye.

In one of my favorite articles about voice in writing, writing scholar Tom Romano tells the story of a student who turned in a piece of paper with the words “TRUST THE GUSH” messily scribbled on it. Romano expounds on what the phrase means to him:

Trusting the gush means moving on the heat quickening in you. Trusting the gush means being fearless with language. Trusting the gush means writing about what you are emotionally moved by and perhaps don’t even know why. Trusting the gush means putting onto the page those thoughts, connections, and perceptions that stand ready to be uttered. (51)

It’s beautiful advice that feels true to me. I’ve had times where I turn off the screen of my computer and write with no visual reference, letting words gush out of me in their most natural, voice-filled way.   

But remember how I said that voice isn’t just natural, it’s also constructed for specific occasions? My gush is usually full of some good, usable words, phrases, and sentences, but it’s also a big, gushy mess. So that’s when I back away for a bit of time (more than a day, if possible), returning later to my gush in search of the lines that seem most lively, most full of voice, the ones that fit best into my current writing context.

2. Don’t be afraid to use some of speech’s informalities, but always punctuate them in formal ways.

Sometimes students ask if they can use contractions in their academic essays, and I always say yes—but then I regret it when I get “theyre not understanding” and “he said your not smart enough” in submitted work. But on the flip side, I find I’m more willing to be lenient with student writing that is slightly too informal for my taste when the writer shows that they know what they’re doing with their punctuation. Life is like that, you know? If you take one step of goodwill (knowing your punctuation), people want to give you lenience in other areas (accepting informality, even if it seems to step over the line).

This advice extends to colons (never mistaking them for semicolons and never using a hyphen as a colon), em-dashes (using them wisely and punctuating them perfectly, as two hyphens between two words and no spaces at all), and commas (especially when someone is being addressed, as in “I agree, Mr. President” and when introducing a quotation immediately after a verb, such as when I write, “Yessiree”).

3. Read your work aloud—and don’t be afraid to have fun with it.

I tell students to read their stuff aloud all the time, and usually I get a scared, silent look in return. (I think this look might mean, “Do you have any idea how stupid I would look if someone walked in while I was talking to myself?”) Well, fine—play around with it:

• Read your own stuff aloud to yourself. I like to do this after printing it out. Listen for places where you stumble, where you seem to be saying the same word over and over, where you think you might be boring. Peter Elbow justifies this well :

I find that when students have the repeated experience of reading their writing aloud, they are more likely to write sentences that are inviting and comfortable to recite—which in turn makes the sentences better for readers who get them in silence. Putting this differently, the sound of written words when spoken is a crucial benefit for silent readers, yet too few students hear the words they write. When they have to read their writing aloud frequently and thus hear it, they tend to listen more as they write—and readers hear more meaning as they read. (5)

• Have someone else read your stuff aloud to you, with another copy in front of yourself to follow along with and mark spots that feel voiceless. Ask your friend what sounded best, what they most remember on the sentence level, where it sounded like you .
• Play The Boring Game: have three people sit down, each with a piece of paper with a line drawn through the middle; this is The Boring Line. Make one person the timekeeper. Start reading your essay out loud to them, and ask the timekeeper to raise his hand every thirty seconds. At those moments, the readers all make a dot on the paper to show how bored they are; a dot way above the boring line means they’re absolutely engaged, as if beautiful aliens had just transported into the room, while a dot way below the boring line means they’re wondering why they agreed to play the stupid boring game with you. After the essay is done, ask them to connect the dots, showing you a line of where they were relatively more or less bored. Talk to them to help identify what parts of the essay bored them; you probably didn’t have much voice in those spots.

4. Surprise Your Readers

I’m serious: make sure that throughout your piece, every once in a while you throw in a word or phrase that makes you think, “I bet they never saw that one coming!” (In this piece that you’re reading now, one of my attempts at that is my first heading, “The Terror of Voice.” I’m counting on readers thinking, “Wait, the terror of voice? . . . I’m confused! I’d better read on to figure out what he means!”)

My guess is that with a little practice, this won’t be too hard to achieve. You could read through a draft of something and highlight (either on paper or the computer) every place where you think you’re breaking the expectation of your reader in a surprising way, whether because of the topic you chose to dive into or because of a phrase or sentence they might not have seen coming. Then you skim back through and find places without any highlights around, and try to work something in there.

As with most of my suggestions, this can backfire if you take it too far, which is why I think playing The Boring Game (above) is so important, so you can feel out your choices with real people. Obviously, your readers will be surprised if you start slamming sexually explicit words onto the screen, but that’s clearly not the kind of voice I’m talking about. Less dramatically, I’ve been in situations where I go for a strong, surprising personal voice and later discover (on my own, or with the help of someone else) that it’s just not working for that audience.

This happened to me recently when I was writing a piece about integrating sources into essays. I worked up this detailed analogy involving Jane Austen, gardens, statues, and helicopters (seriously), and I even kept the analogy through a few drafts. But a friend, whom I had asked to read my draft, told me she was a little confused by the whole thing. At first I ignored her—I was being surprising! There were helicopters— helicopters ! But eventually, I realized she was right; I had to back down and rework my surprising analogy into something that just plain made more sense. The revised version was still surprising (involving Spider-Man), but it was surprising and it worked . There’s a difference.

5. Use Rhetorical Figures to Help Shape Your Sentences

Sometimes we hear or read something and say, “Wow, there was so much power in those words!” And sometimes, we fall for a common lie: we think that powerful speakers and writers are just plain born that way, that their skill comes from some indefinable something that they have and we don’t.

I like rhetorical figures because they expose that thinking as a lie.

Since the days of classical Greece and Rome, instructors in rhetoric have realized that this lie existed, so they formulated organized ways of figuring out what exactly makes some speaking and writing feel so powerful. They labeled these terms and encouraged their students to try using these sentence forms in their own sentences. Here are some examples, all of which are direct quotes from Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric , an awesome site at http://rhetoric.byu.edu/ (Burton):

• anaphora : Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines. Example: This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, / This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings.
• asyndeton : The omission of conjunctions between clauses, often resulting in a hurried rhythm or vehement effect. Example: Veni, vidi, vici (Caesar: “I came; I saw; I conquered”)
• epitasis : The addition of a concluding sentence that merely emphasizes what has already been stated. Example: Clean your bedroom. All of it.

These and dozens of others are available at Silva Rhetoricae and at the (somewhat more manageable) American Rhetoric site, especially the page on “ Rhetorical Figures in Sound ” (Eidenmuller).

The idea is to force yourself to try setting up a sentence or two following the guidelines of one of the rhetorical figures, and then to sit back and gauge the result for yourself. Often, I think you’ll be impressed with how excellent you sound, with a very present and powerful tone of voice.

The Terror of Practice

In the end, there’s one more terrifying thing about writing with voice: it’s unlikely that you’ll see a huge change without lots of practice. And that means lots of writing. And that means time. Which you might not have.

So I’m closing with a word of moderation. To see a change in your writing voice in just a short semester, you’ll need to think about voice in every piece of writing you do. Shooting off a quick Blackboard forum response? Try using a rhetorical figure. Confirming a meeting time with a friend over text message? Try to surprise them with an unexpected phrase. Writing an in-class essay? Read it over slowly in your head, paying careful attention to how it would sound if you read it out loud. (Or, if your teacher lets you, just read it out loud there in the classroom. This is unlikely.) Writing an essay draft that feels like busy-work? Play around with how you might perfectly punctuate some informal language (and don’t be afraid to ask your teacher if you did it correctly).

Even though a YouTube search for “voice in writing” will give you lots of good advice—including one devastatingly cute video of young kids baking brownies while the “Word Chef” talks about what makes for a strong voice in a book about a cockroach (teachertubewriting)—there really is no substitute for practice. Thinking about writing is never, ever the same as practicing writing.

And most of all, breathe. Our voice comes from our breath, the life that flows from our bodies into the minds of our listeners. Shape it, practice it, use it for good. (That’s asyndeton—did you catch it?)

Brevity – Say More with Less

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Scholarly Voice: Active and Passive Voice

Active and passive voice.

Active voice and passive voice are grammatical constructions that communicate certain information about an action. Specifically, APA explains that voice shows relationships between the verb and the subject and/or object (see APA 7, Section 4.13). Writers need to be intentional about voice in order to ensure clarity. Using active voice often improves clarity, while passive voice can help avoid unnecessary repetition.  

Active voice can help ensure clarity by making it clear to the reader who is taking action in the sentence. In addition, the active voice stresses that the actor (or grammatical subject) precedes the verb, again, putting emphasis on the subject. Passive voice construction leaves out the actor (subject) and focuses on the relationship between the verb and object.

The order of words in a sentence with active voice is subject, verb, object.

• Active voice example : I conducted a study of elementary school teachers.
• This sentence structure puts the emphasis of the sentence on the subject, clarifying who conducted the study. 
• Passive voice example : A study was conducted of elementary school teachers.
• In this sentence, it is not clear who conducted this study. 

Generally, in scholarly writing, with its emphasis on precision and clarity, the active voice is preferred. However, the passive voice is acceptable in some instances, for example:

• if the reader is aware of who the actor is;
• in expository writing, where the goal of the discussion is to provide background, context, or an in-depth explanation;
• if the writer wants to focus on the object or the implications of the actor’s action; or
• to vary sentence structure.  

Also, much like for anthropomorphism , different writing styles have different preferences. So, though you may see the passive voice used heavily in articles that you read for your courses and study, it does not mean that APA style advocates the same usage.

Examples of Writing in the Active Voice

Here are some examples of scholarly writing in the active voice:

• This is active voice because the subject in the sentence precedes the verb, clearly indicating who (I) will take the action (present).

Example : Teachers conducted a pilot study addressing the validity of the TAKS exam.

• Similarly, teachers (subject) clearly took the action (conducted) in this sentence.

Recognizing the Passive Voice

According to APA, writers should select verb tenses and voice carefully. Consider these examples to help determine which form of the verb is most appropriate:

Example : A study was conducted of job satisfaction and turnover.

• Here, it is not clear who did the conducting. In this case, if the context of the paragraph does not clarify who did the action, the writer should revise this sentence to clarify who conducted the study. 

Example : I conducted a study of job satisfaction and turnover.

• This revised sentence clearly indicates the action taker. Using “I” to identify the writer’s role in the research process is often a solution to the passive voice and is encouraged by APA style (see APA 7, Section 4.16).

Using the past tense of the verb “to be” and the past participle of a verb together is often an indication of the passive voice. Here are some signs to look for in your paper:

• Example : This study was conducted.
• Example : Findings were distributed.

Another indication of passive voice is when the verb precedes the actor in the sentence. Even if the action taker is clearly identified in a passive voice construction, the sentence is usually wordier. Making the actor the grammatical subject that comes before the verb helps to streamline the sentence.

• Issue : Though the verb and the actor (action taker) are clearly identified here, to improve clarity and word economy, the writer could place that actor, Rogers, before the verb.
• More concise active voice revision : Rogers (2016) conducted a study on nursing and turnover.  
• Issue : Here, the actor follows the verb, which reduces emphasis and clarity.
• This revised sentence is in the active voice and makes the actor the subject of the sentence.

Intentional Use of the Passive Voice

Sometimes, even in scholarly writing, the passive voice may be used intentionally and strategically. A writer may intentionally include the subject later in the sentence so as to reduce the emphasis and/or importance of the subject in the sentence. See the following examples of intentional passive voice to indicate emphasis:

Example : Schools not meeting AYP for 2 consecutive years will be placed on a “needs improvement” list by the State’s Department of Education.

• Here, all actors taking actions are identified, but this is in the passive voice as the State’s Department of Education is the actor doing the placing, but this verb precedes the actor. This may be an intentional use of the passive voice, to highlight schools not meeting AYP.
• To write this in the active voice, it would be phrased: “The State’s Department of Education will place schools not meeting AYP for 2 consecutive years on a “needs improvement” list. This sentence places the focus on the State’s Department of Education, not the schools.

Example : Participants in the study were incentivized with a $5 coffee gift card, which I gave them upon completion of their interview.

• As the writer and researcher, I may want to vary my sentence structure in order to avoid beginning several sentences with “I provided…” This example is written in the passive voice, but the meaning is clear.

Using Passive Voice in Scholarly Writing

As noted before, passive voice is allowed in APA style and can be quite appropriate, especially when writing about methods and data collection. However, students often overuse the passive voice in their writing, which means their emphasis in the sentence is not on the action taker. Their writing is also at risk of being repetitive. Consider the following paragraph in which the passive voice is used in each sentence:

A survey was administered . Using a convenience sample, 68 teachers were invited to participate in the survey by emailing them an invitation. E-mail addresses of teachers who fit the requirements for participation were provided by the principal of the school . The teachers were e-mailed an information sheet and a consent form. Responses were collected from 45 teachers… As you can see, the reader has no idea who is performing these actions, which makes the research process unclear. This is at odds with the goal of the methods discussion, which is to be clear and succinct regarding the process of data collection and analysis.

However, if translated entirely to the active voice, clearly indicating the researcher’s role, “I” becomes redundant and repetitive, interrupting the flow of the paragraph:

In this study, I administered a survey. I created a convenience sample of 68 teachers. I invited them to participate in the survey by emailing them an invitation. I obtained e-mail addresses from the principal of the school… “I” is quite redundant here and repetitive for the reader.

The Walden Writing Center suggests that students use “I” in the first sentence of the paragraph . Then, as long as it is clear to the reader that the student (writer) is the actor in the remaining sentences, use the active and passive voices appropriately to achieve precision and clarity (where applicable):

In this study, I administered a survey using a convenience sample. Sixty-eight teachers were invited to participate in the survey. The principal of the school provided me with the e-mail addresses of teachers who fit the requirements for participation. I e-mailed the teachers an information sheet and a consent form. A total of 45 teachers responded …

The use of the passive voice is complicated and requires careful attention and skill. There are no hard-and-fast rules. Using these guidelines, however, should help writers be clearer and more engaging in their writing, as well as achieving the intended purposes.

Remember, use voice strategically. APA recommends the active voice for clarity. However, the passive voice may be used, with intention, to remove the emphasis on the subject and also as a method for varying sentence structure. So, generally write in the active voice, but consider some of the above examples and some uses of the passive voice that may be useful to implement in your writing. Just be sure that the reader is always aware of who is taking the action of the verb.

• For more practice, try our Clarifying the Actor module .

Related Resources

• Principles of Writing: Active and Passive Voice (blog post) APA Style Blog post.

Didn't find what you need? Email us at [email protected] .

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Why is ‘voice’ important in academic writing?

This is the first of three chapter about Balancing Voices . To complete this reader, read each chapter carefully and then unlock and complete our materials to check your understanding.   

– Introduce the concept of ‘voice’ in academic writing

– Discuss the importance of balancing author voices

– Provide examples of source voice and writer voice in context

Chapter 1: Why is ‘voice’ important in academic writing?

Chapter 2: What are the three different types of ‘voice’?

Chapter 3: How can I effectively balance ‘voice’ in my writing?

Of the many writing skills that exist, students often struggle most with the concept of voice in academic writing – yet creating a balance of voice is perhaps one of the most important aspects of this style. The following three chapters therefore attempt to deal firstly with the concept of voice and why it’s used in academic writing before exploring how to use and identify the three different types of voice. Finally, how to effectively include and balance voice in your own writing is discussed in some detail.

What is ‘voice’?

Although how voice is identified in academic writing varies slightly from institution to institution, the general concept of voice is mostly agreed upon. Put simply, voice when writing academically describes whether the information in a text has been provided by the writer or by another source author, and such voice may be analysed on a clause-by-clause or sentence-by-sentence basis. Writer voice is therefore used to indicate and introduce the opinions and ideas of the writer, while source voice may be used to introduce evidence, concepts or ideas from a published piece of research – otherwise known as a source . The following two example sentences show how both writer voice  ( WV ) and source voice ( SV ) may be used together:

Why is ‘voice’ important?

There are three primary reasons that the distinction between writer voice and source voice should be clearly indicated in a piece of academic writing.

1. Including Sources

Sources that provide support for the writer’s arguments and ideas are a critical aspect of academic writing. By using integral citations , the writer can introduce various sources in their writing in the form of source voice . Such sources may be introduced to define a concept , support an argument , provide explanations and examples, or to provide the direct words of an author through quotations .

2. Writing Convincing Arguments

Source voice is most often used by academics to introduce sources that will make that writer’s research more convincing. Particularly at the undergraduate level, a reader (or marking tutor) will likely care little for the ideas and opinions of an inexperienced and unpublished researcher; instead, by supporting those ideas with appropriate sources, the writer is able to make their arguments more convincing. If a reader sees that the writer’s ideas are supported by external evidence and agreement, then those ideas will be stronger and more difficult to refute.

3. Separating Opinions

The final reason that voice is important is that it helps the writer to separate their opinions from the opinions of other authors. Perhaps the writer wishes to introduce a counter argument in an evaluative essay and intends to show that they don’t necessarily agree with the included source’s research or ideas. To do this, the writer might use clear source voice , indicating that the evidence they’ve provided may or may not be separate from the writer’s own opinion. Consider the following example:

It’s clear from the second sentence in this example that the writer ( WV ) disagrees with Beck’s (2017) argument ( SV ). The use of clear  source voice and  writer voice  has therefore enabled the writer to separate their opinions from the opinions of another author. However, as will be shown in Chapter 2, there are in fact three types of voice that a writer may use to their advantage. Continue reading to find out more about the third and final type: mixed voice .

Downloadables

Once you’ve completed all three chapters about voice , you might also wish to download our beginner, intermediate and advanced worksheets to test your progress or print for your students. These professional PDF worksheets can be easily accessed for only a few Academic Marks .

Our voice   academic reader (including all three chapters about this topic) can be accessed here at the click of a button.

Gain unlimited access to our voice   beginner worksheet, with activities and answer keys designed to check a basic understanding of this reader’s chapters.

To check a confident understanding of this reader’s chapters, click on the button below to download our voice   intermediate worksheet with activities and answer keys.

Our voice   advanced worksheet with activities and answer keys has been created to check a sophisticated understanding of this reader’s chapters. 

To save yourself 3 Marks , click on the button below to gain unlimited access to all of our voice   guidance and worksheets. The All-in-1 Pack includes every chapter on this topic, as well as our beginner, intermediate and advanced worksheets in one handy PDF.

Click on the button below to gain unlimited access to our voice  teacher’s PowerPoint, which should include everything you’d need to successfully introduce this topic.

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Carlow Today & Tomorrow | Blog

Creating a more just and merciful world, how to find and develop your writing voice.

Whether it is through a news article, company blog post or creative storytelling, writing expresses a voice.

A writer’s voice refers to the stylistic mix of vocabulary, tone, point of view and syntax that makes words flow in a particular way. Written works can also represent multiple voices, including that of a narrator and individual characters or personas. The voice in a piece of writing is a defining characteristic that touches the reader instinctively.

Elements of Voice in Writing

Voice is one of the most important features of literature and non-fiction writing and affects how the material is read and received—completely setting the mood. Multiple authors could address the same subject differently. Furthermore, a story could be told in many ways and the results would be very different.

Voice is set by word selection, writing structure and pace. It can express the author’s emotions, feelings, attitudes and point of view, which can be conveyed by philosophical and psychological indicators.

Consider the elements that make up voice in writing:

• Diction, or the author’s choice of words, chosen to communicate a particular effect
• Detail includes facts, observations, reasons, examples and events used to develop the story
• Syntax, the way words are arranged, encompasses word order, sentence length, sentence focus and punctuation
• Imagery, or the visual representation of sensory experience, evokes a vivid experience, conveys specific emotions and suggests particular ideas

The aforementioned elements of voice create tone, including word selection (diction), arrangement (syntax) and the use of details and images. Tone is the writer’s, or narrator’s, attitude toward the subject and audience.

By working on these elements, writers develop their unique voices. Their work will be understood for what it is intended to be. That can be witty, straightforward, lighthearted, argumentative, persuasive or any other feeling.

Business Writing and Content Personality

Establishing a voice in writing is beneficial for all types of writers, including those who write for businesses and brands. It is important to develop a distinct voice that builds rapport and offers value to readers. Connecting with the audience establishes trust.

Copywriters, public relations specialists and technical writers are professionals commonly associated with a variety of business writing. Their voices must reveal professional acumen to executives, coworkers, clients and industry-wide audiences. Writers who work on customer-facing materials must also combine brand personality with grammar and customer value with rhetorical devices. A goal is for the business or brand to be associated with a certain quality and unique perspective. Voice, therefore, must reflect the manner of speaking the audience is most familiar with and be meaningful and helpful to them.

For all forms of writing, a strong voice makes every word count and establishes a relationship with readers. This is why developing a voice is important for writers.

Express Yourself As a writer, you have to set yourself apart. Find your unique voice and unlock your creative potential at Carlow University. Carlow offers Bachelors in Communications and Creative Writing degree programs where you will learn to find and develop your writing voice with clarity, verve and imagination.

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Online Guide to Writing and Research

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• Online Guide to Writing

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone

While reading, have you ever felt as though an author was talking to you inside your head? Perhaps you felt this sensation while reading a social media post, an article, or even a book. Writers achieve the feeling of someone talking to you through style, voice, and tone. Mastering these will help your readers know how to feel about your writing and help you communicate in a way that is unique to you.

• APPLICATION

In popular usage, the word “style” means a vague sense of personal style, or personality. Applied to writing, “style” does have this connotation—especially in fiction. However, style in writing has a more formal and unique meaning, too. Applied to writing, “style” is a technical term for word patterns that create a certain effect on readers.

If a piece of writing reflects a consistent choice of patterns, then it feels coherent and harmonious. This coherence and harmony can be quite pleasing for readers, and writers aspire to it. However, writers do not always choose a style. Rather, context, content, and purpose dictate the style a writer should use. 

For example:

Genre will dictate a fiction writer’s style. Specific academic disciplines will dictate style for an academic writer. Both genre and discipline have stylistic conventions that writers take into account when creating a written work. When writing, pay close attention to the genre and discipline in which you are writing.

When writers speak of style in a more personal sense, they often use the word “voice.” When you hear an author talking inside your head, “voice” is what that author sounds like.

Of all the writerly qualities, voice is the most difficult to analyze and describe. Most writers have difficulty expressing what their voice is and how they achieved it, though most will allow their voice developed over time and after much practice. Still, there are qualities that, when identified and practiced, can help you develop your own voice.

Look closely at professional writing, and you may notice a certain rhythm or cadence to it. This rhythm is an element of voice. 

Read a number of works from the same author, and you may notice common word choices, perhaps not the same words, but similar words or word patterns. Word choice (also called “diction”) is an element of voice. 

Punctuation

You may also notice that some authors come across as flamboyant while others come across as blunt or assertive. Still others may come across as always second-guessing themselves, adding qualifications and asides to their statements. An author often achieves these qualities through carefully placed punctuation, another element of voice.

To assert your own personal writing style, practice rhythm and cadence, pay careful attention to word choice and develop an understanding of how punctuation can be used to express ideas.

Even when indulging their own voices, authors must keep in mind context, content, and purpose. To do this, they make adjustments to their voices using “tone.”

Tone is the attitude conveyed by an author’s voice. We use two general distinctions when discussing tone: informal and formal.

An Informal Tone

Ever read something, and your heart swells with pride? Or maybe you get angry, or you get scared. Write informally, and you’ll use emotions - big ones. You’ll use contractions, too. A lot of times, when you write informally, you talk about yourself and use the first-person pronoun (I). Sometimes you talk to the reader and use the second-person pronoun (you). An informal tone sounds conversational and familiar like you do when you talk with a friend.

A Formal Tone

When using a formal tone, authors avoid discussion about themselves. They use the third-person perspective. They do not use contractions, and they emphasize reason and logic. Though an author might appeal to an emotion, the emotional appeal would be subtler and more nuanced. Most of all, however, a formal tone suggests politeness and respect.

Key Takeaways

• When writing, mirror your style after the genre you are writing for. 
• You can develop your own voice in your writing by paying special attention to rhythm, diction, and punctuation.
• Use an informal tone for creative writing, personal narratives, and personal essays.
• Use a formal tone for most essays, research papers, reports, and business writing

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Table of Contents: Online Guide to Writing

Chapter 1: College Writing

How Does College Writing Differ from Workplace Writing?

What Is College Writing?

Why So Much Emphasis on Writing?

Chapter 2: The Writing Process

Doing Exploratory Research

Getting from Notes to Your Draft

Introduction

Prewriting - Techniques to Get Started - Mining Your Intuition

Prewriting: Targeting Your Audience

Prewriting: Techniques to Get Started

Prewriting: Understanding Your Assignment

Rewriting: Being Your Own Critic

Rewriting: Creating a Revision Strategy

Rewriting: Getting Feedback

Rewriting: The Final Draft

Techniques to Get Started - Outlining

Techniques to Get Started - Using Systematic Techniques

Thesis Statement and Controlling Idea

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Freewriting

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Summarizing Your Ideas

Writing: Outlining What You Will Write

Chapter 3: Thinking Strategies

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone: Style Through Vocabulary and Diction

Critical Strategies and Writing

Critical Strategies and Writing: Analysis

Critical Strategies and Writing: Evaluation

Critical Strategies and Writing: Persuasion

Critical Strategies and Writing: Synthesis

Developing a Paper Using Strategies

Kinds of Assignments You Will Write

Patterns for Presenting Information

Patterns for Presenting Information: Critiques

Patterns for Presenting Information: Discussing Raw Data

Patterns for Presenting Information: General-to-Specific Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Specific-to-General Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Summaries and Abstracts

Supporting with Research and Examples

Writing Essay Examinations

Writing Essay Examinations: Make Your Answer Relevant and Complete

Writing Essay Examinations: Organize Thinking Before Writing

Writing Essay Examinations: Read and Understand the Question

Chapter 4: The Research Process

Planning and Writing a Research Paper

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Ask a Research Question

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Cite Sources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Collect Evidence

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Decide Your Point of View, or Role, for Your Research

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Draw Conclusions

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Find a Topic and Get an Overview

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Manage Your Resources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Outline

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Survey the Literature

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Work Your Sources into Your Research Writing

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Human Resources

Research Resources: What Are Research Resources?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Electronic Resources

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Print Resources

Structuring the Research Paper: Formal Research Structure

Structuring the Research Paper: Informal Research Structure

The Nature of Research

The Research Assignment: How Should Research Sources Be Evaluated?

The Research Assignment: When Is Research Needed?

The Research Assignment: Why Perform Research?

Chapter 5: Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity

Giving Credit to Sources

Giving Credit to Sources: Copyright Laws

Giving Credit to Sources: Documentation

Giving Credit to Sources: Style Guides

Integrating Sources

Practicing Academic Integrity

Practicing Academic Integrity: Keeping Accurate Records

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Paraphrasing Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Quoting Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Summarizing Your Sources

Types of Documentation

Types of Documentation: Bibliographies and Source Lists

Types of Documentation: Citing World Wide Web Sources

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - APA Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - CSE/CBE Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - Chicago Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - MLA Style

Types of Documentation: Note Citations

Chapter 6: Using Library Resources

Finding Library Resources

Chapter 7: Assessing Your Writing

How Is Writing Graded?

How Is Writing Graded?: A General Assessment Tool

The Draft Stage

The Draft Stage: The First Draft

The Draft Stage: The Revision Process and the Final Draft

The Draft Stage: Using Feedback

The Research Stage

Using Assessment to Improve Your Writing

Chapter 8: Other Frequently Assigned Papers

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Article and Book Reviews

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Reaction Papers

Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Adapting the Argument Structure

Writing Arguments: Purposes of Argument

Writing Arguments: References to Consult for Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Anticipate Active Opposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Determine Your Organization

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Develop Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Introduce Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - State Your Thesis or Proposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Write Your Conclusion

Writing Arguments: Types of Argument

Appendix A: Books to Help Improve Your Writing

Dictionaries

General Style Manuals

Researching on the Internet

Special Style Manuals

Writing Handbooks

Appendix B: Collaborative Writing and Peer Reviewing

Collaborative Writing: Assignments to Accompany the Group Project

Collaborative Writing: Informal Progress Report

Collaborative Writing: Issues to Resolve

Collaborative Writing: Methodology

Collaborative Writing: Peer Evaluation

Collaborative Writing: Tasks of Collaborative Writing Group Members

Collaborative Writing: Writing Plan

General Introduction

Peer Reviewing

Appendix C: Developing an Improvement Plan

Working with Your Instructor’s Comments and Grades

Appendix D: Writing Plan and Project Schedule

Devising a Writing Project Plan and Schedule

Reviewing Your Plan with Others

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Active Voice vs Passive Voice in Essay Writing: What's the Difference?

Table of contents

Every type of writing spanning academic assignments, research proposals, movie or book reviews , newspaper articles, technical or scientific writing, and more, requires a verb in the sentence to express an action being taken.

Essentially, we know that there are two types of voices in writing – active voice vs. passive voice. Both voices have a different sentence structure, length, purpose, and tone of writing.

Now when you analyze your writing, you would be able to find specific sentences that pop out and leave a mark on the reader while some sentences remain bland and unengaging.

This will determine your active voice sentences and your passive voice sentences.

You think to yourself, “how do I choose the right voice for my writing?”

What is Active Voice in Essay Writing

In a sentence, the active voice is used when the subject or person in this specific sentence is the one who is carrying out an action that was represented by the verb. The subject is always a noun or a pronoun and this voice is used to express information in a stronger, more direct, clear, and easier-to-read way than passive voice sentences.

Active voice highlights a logical flow to your sentences and makes your writing feel alive and current – which is pivotal to use in your formal academic writing assignments to get top-scoring grades.

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What is passive voice in essay writing.

The passive voice, in a sentence, is used to emphasize the action taken place by the subject according to the verb. In this, the passive phrase always contains a conjugated form of ‘to be’ and the past participle of the main verb.

Due to this, passive sentences also include prepositions, which makes them longer and wordier than active voice sentences.

Active Voice vs. Passive Voice

Now, let us understand the difference between active voice vs. passive voice in writing.

The choice between using active voice vs. passive voice in writing always comes down to the requirements that are suitable for the type of sentences you choose to write.

For most of the writing that you do, be it blogs, emails, different types of academic essays, and more, an active voice is ideal to use for communicating and expressing your thoughts, facts, and ideas more clearly and efficiently. This way, your essay papers or other academic assessments stand out amongst the rest.

Use your judgment to write in an active voice if accuracy is not an important aspect, and always keep your readers in mind. In this case, academic writing teachers - ranging from middle school to college/universities, prefer reading your assignments in an active voice as it makes your arguments, thoughts, and sentence structures confident, brief, and compelling.

However, there are a few exceptions to using passive voice

• If the reader is aware of the subject;
• In expository writing (where the primary goal is to provide an explanation or a context);
• Crime reports, data analysis;
• Scientific and technical writing.

Passive voice is majorly used while writing assignments that direct the reader's focus onto the specific action taking place rather than the subject. It is also used when you need an authoritative tone, like on a banner or a sign on a bulletin board.

Passive voice is ideally used when the person involved in the action is not known and/or is insignificant. Similarly, if you are writing something that requires you to be objective with its solution and analysis – like a research paper, lab report , or newspaper article – using passive voice should be your go-to choice. This allows you to avoid personal pronouns, which in turn, helps you present your analysis or information in an unbiased and coherent way.

However, if your writing is meant to engage your target audience, such as a novel, then writing your sentences with a passive voice will not only flatten your content and make your writing clumsy to read, but your paper would also inherit all the extra words that would make your write-ups vague and too wordy.

2. Examples of active and passive voice

Every active voice sentence contains a form of action that is taking place by the subject. An interesting fact is that they can be written in any tense – past tense, present tense, past perfect tense, future tense, and more.

An active voice always emits a sense of agency and strength in your writing.

Here are some examples of active voice sentence structuring

• Kaitlyn worked on her upcoming novel all day long.
• Our professor will reveal this week’s surprise assignment.
• The police know that the accused is a flight risk.
• A baby monkey bit Sasha on her leg.
• I presented my research thesis to the class.
• Malek proposed the methods & principles by which each product could be analyzed.
• We will ride a train to go to Switzerland.
• I conducted a study of criminal psychology.
• The gardener was planting the Hydrangeas.

Whereas passive voice sentence structures are lengthier in words and are used when the subject or person is the recipient of an action. Passive voice in writing often conveys subtlety, submissiveness, and lack of engagement.

Moreover, just like active sentences, passive sentence structures do not need to be dependent on the verb, as they can occur in the past tense, the future tense, the subjunctive, etc.

Here are some examples of passive-voice sentences

• We were driven to Universal Studios by our professor.
• Clara was persuaded to move to Toronto.
• Jack was given two choices for the presentation topic.
• The jobs were given to two people who had no experience in writing.
• An old bike and a gun were found in the toolshed.
• The moon was walked by Neil Armstrong.
• The candy was eaten by the lady in yellow.
• Ballet dancing is a beloved activity in our class.
• The concert will be enjoyed by us tomorrow.
• Some new books were bought by me.

3. Changing passive voice to active voice

Unless you’re required to use passive voice, it is always beneficial to use active voice in your writing. That’s why overusing and misusing passive sentences can make your writing look sloppy, wordy and non-informative and you may even end up with more grammatical errors.

Here are a few ways to change your passive sentence into an active sentence

a. Identify the passive voice

In writing, the writer should choose their verb tenses, word choice, and tonality of the content very carefully.

As you finish your draft, re-read it to identify sentences that could have been more concise, or framed in a better way to improve its readability. Ask yourself what the action of the specific sentence, who is perpetrating this action is.

That is your passive voice.

Passive voice or tone consists of a past, past participle or future tense and generally the auxiliary word ‘to be’ is an indication of a passive sentence. It always refers to action not being addressed directly.

b. Remove the auxiliary verb

It's best to remove the auxiliary verb from your sentences to change it into active voice sentences by adjusting the tense of the main verb. Generally, the tense of the main verb is in the past tense.

So, determine the correct tense and use it in your verb to create an active sentence. This in turn delivers your writing in a more clear, strong, concise and urgent way.

Here’s an interesting video by mmmEnglish that explains what auxiliary verbs are.

c. Change the subject of the sentence

The main difference between active voice and passive voice is that one performs a verb and the other is a recipient of an action.

For example, in a passive sentence, “The novel was drafted by the writer”, the ‘novel’ is the subject which had been actioned by the writer.

To change it into an active voice, restructure the verb that is taking place (drafted by the writer) with the subject (novel), thus structuring “The writer drafted the novel”.

Once you have mastered the technique of identifying the voice and tonality, you will discover the ease with which your communication takes on different textures, depending upon the context at hand. While the active voice remains the direct form of communication and has more mass appeal, it is the passive voice that assumes a less biased and more objective tone.

Make sure to embellish your written expression with the right voice and give it the power and authority it deserves. We hope the tips and suggestions given above will go a long way in giving weightage to every sentence that you write and strike the right chord with readers.

When you work with Writers Per Hour, you’ll be happy to know that our professional team of writers knows when to use active and passive voice correctly, which works best for the type of paper.

If you’re running short of time or are not confident about your English writing skills, reach out to us, and we’ll ensure you receive nothing short of professionally written, high-quality papers.

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Writing Skills  - Active vs. Passive Voice in Your Writing

Writing skills  -, active vs. passive voice in your writing, writing skills active vs. passive voice in your writing.

Writing Skills: Active vs. Passive Voice in Your Writing

Lesson 5: active vs. passive voice in your writing.

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Active vs. passive voice in your writing

Have you ever noticed how some parts of your writing seem to pop, while other parts don't? You can improve those dull sentences if you take a moment to consider the active and passive voices.

Learn more about the differences between active and passive voice in the video below.

The difference between active and passive

There are two voices in writing: Active and passive. In the active voice, the subject of a  sentence acts, like "Neil Armstrong walked on the moon." The active voice is direct, clear, and easy to read.

With the passive voice, the subject is acted upon, like "The moon was walked on by Neil Armstrong". Although the passive voice is still grammatically correct, it typically doesn't carry the same energy or clarity as the active voice. Its structure can feel clumsy and unnatural, which makes your writing harder to read. It also tends to use more words than the active voice. Over the course of a document, all those extra words can make your writing drag.

Overall, we recommend using the active voice more often than the passive. This will help keep your writing snappy and efficient.

Identifying the passive voice

Here's how to spot the passive voice:  

First, look for a phrase like "was visited", "has been cleaned", or "will be built".  Each one contains a "to be" verb , like "was", "has been", or "will be". 

That phrase is followed by an action that's already happened , like "visited", "cleaned", or "built".  Finally, the person or thing doing the action comes last , if they're mentioned at all. 

If you see these parts together, there's a good chance the sentence is in passive voice .

Changing passive into active

Let's change a sentence from passive into active voice.

Our sentence is, "The money was tossed into the air by Jacob". "Jacob" is our subject, and "tossed" is the verb. Move Jacob to the beginning of the sentence, cut out any unnecessary words, and rearrange a few others. Our passive example is now, "Jacob tossed the money into the air". The delivery is more brief, clear, and more immediate.

When passive is best

Although active voice is incredibly useful, the passive voice is occasionally the better choice. For instance, you may go passive if the actor of a sentence is unknown or irrelevant, like in the sentence, "The amendments will be approved after a discussion". In this case, we're interested in the amendments' approval, not who approved them.

Passive voice is also great for creating an authoritative tone , like on a sign requiring employees to wash their hands. It doesn't matter who requires employees to wash up; they just need to do it!

You may also want to go passive when you don't know who is responsible for the action , like in this example: "The mystery was never solved." 

The voice you use can make a big difference in your writing. The active voice will often add pep and clarity, but occasionally the passive voice will be your best option. Take some time to choose the voice that fits best, and your writing will almost certainly grow stronger.

How to Improve Your Essay Writing Skills in 10 Simple Steps

• Smodin Editorial Team
• Updated: May 5, 2024

What makes an A essay different from a B essay? What makes one essay stand out among countless submissions while others barely make the grade?

The answer lies in both the content and the execution of your writing. Strong content that is poorly executed can lead to disappointing results, just as weak content cannot be saved by writing style alone.

A strong essay needs to be balanced. The writing should be informative and exciting but also fun to read. At the same time, your grammar, syntax, and punctuation should be on point.

If you’re struggling to make the grade and are unsure what you’re doing wrong, this article will cover ten basic strategies for improving your writing skills.

With a bit of understanding and a steady commitment to improving your craft, you should see a noticeable increase in your essay grades.

These strategies will help refine your writing style and structure while enhancing your analytical thinking and argumentative skills. We’ll also discuss some AI tools you can use starting today to make the essay writing process more fun and manageable.

1. Read a Lot

To truly master the art of writing, you must read as much as you can. To the best of your ability, immerse yourself in various texts and read across different genres and disciplines.

One of the best things you can do in essay writing is study published essays and periodicals to better understand how accomplished writers develop their arguments and maintain flow.

Of course, reading is a time-consuming activity. If you want to expand your knowledge without spending hours at a time in the library, consider using Smodin AI to help.

Smodin’s AI Summarizer can help you take long pieces of text and create an extractive or abstractive summary. This way, you can read a portion of the text and use AI to grasp the main points and key arguments without dedicating too much time to each piece.

Using this approach, you can cover a broader range of materials in a shorter time, particularly useful if you’re juggling multiple assignments or subjects during midterms or finals week.

2. Understand the Topic

A solid understanding of your essay topic is crucial to producing an engaging and insightful piece of writing. One of the worst things you can do as a student is to submit a paper without thoroughly researching and understanding the topic.

In other words, read the instructions before writing a single word. Invest however much time you need in researching and gathering relevant information.

Don’t rush the process, and take the time to build a strong foundation for your arguments. Study the counterarguments and ensure that your thesis is factually accurate and thoroughly thought-out.

That said, if you’re sitting at your desk, struggling to figure out where to start, or need help comprehending the topic, Smodin’s AI Chat can help you gather your thoughts.

The chat can help you understand complex topics using real-time Google Insights and provide instant access to a wealth of information with a single click.

3. Outline Your Essay

Even the best writers outline their writing before they begin. Creating an outline is crucial to organizing your thoughts and structuring your essay so it flows logically and cohesively.

When writing an essay, your topic will often take on new dimensions as you delve deeper into your research. Sometimes, your essay ends far off course and entirely different from what you envisioned.

An evolving outline can help you manage these ideas and ensure they are woven into your essay in a way that is meaningful and makes sense.

Any piece of writing needs a roadmap, whether it’s essays, articles, short stories, novels, or nonfiction books. Your ideas need to progress logically from one point to another so that they are persuasive and easy for your reader to follow.

Remember, effective time management is one of the secrets to writing an effective essay. That’s why it’s essential to use AI tools like Smodin to optimize your outlining process.

4. Master the Basics

A strong command of grammar, syntax, and punctuation is fundamental to writing an A-level essay. While most teachers and professors will not deduct points for an occasional misspelling or comma splice, too many mistakes will leave a negative impression on your reader.

The good news is that mastering the basics of writing has never been easier, thanks to the rise of AI. Do your best to practice the basics of good writing using ordinary resources like grammar guides and books, then use AI to enhance your knowledge.

In this area, Smodin has several tools that can help. The AI Rewriter can help you rewrite or completely recreate a piece of text to optimize the content so it is polished and easy to read.

You can also use the AI Chat feature to ask any question you like about grammar rules or stylistic choices, ensuring that you understand the fundamental principles of good writing.

5. Nail the Intro

The introduction of your essay sets the tone and hooks the reader. It also helps you make a strong impression and stand out among your peers.

A compelling intro should start with a strong first sentence that piques curiosity and leads the reader to the second sentence. That second sentence should lead the reader directly to the third, and so on.

Always do your best to think of a solid opening statement or pose a thought-provoking question. Remember, your essay is just one of many essays the teacher or professor must read, so you must do everything possible to stand out.

You want a clear and concise thesis that sets up the arguments you will develop throughout the body of your essay. Smodin’s AI Essay Writer can help you craft essays with compelling titles and opening paragraphs.

If you want to go the extra mile, consider trying the “Supercharge” option to tap into the power of a much more advanced and sophisticated AI model to take your writing to the next level.

6. Use the Active Voice

Generally, the active voice is more engaging and easy to read than the passive voice. Active voice constructions are more direct and energetic. They keep the reader engaged and make statements that are easier to visualize.

For example, compare the active sentence “The scientist conducted the experiment” with the passive “The experiment was conducted by the researcher.”

The active voice allows you to clearly identify who is taking action. This helps make your writing more assertive and easy to understand.

However, there are situations where the passive voice is appropriate or even necessary. For instance, if the person taking action is unknown, irrelevant, or obvious from the context, the passive voice might be the better choice.

For example, in scientific or formal reports, the passive voice is often used to create an impersonal tone and to emphasize the action rather than the person.

In most cases, you should use the active voice to make your arguments more engaging and your prose easier to follow.

7. Avoid Repetition

If you’ve ever tried to “word stuff” an essay to get to a specific word count, you know how easy it can be to repeat yourself accidentally. To keep your essay engaging, always do your best to avoid unnecessary repetition of words or ideas.

Never use the same word too often, especially in the same paragraph. Varying your language and sentence structure can help keep the reader engaged and create a pleasant cadence for your essay.

Always avoid rehashing the same ideas twice unless necessary to your thesis or argument. When in doubt, use Smodin’s Essay Writer to help structure your essays with a clear flow and easy-to-understand introductions and conclusions.

8. Get Feedback

Receiving feedback is one of the most effective ways to improve your writing. Of course, your teacher’s or professor’s feedback matters the most, but what if you want feedback before the final submission?

Seek constructive criticism from peers or tutors who can look at your writing and give you feedback to help you improve your writing. Being able to seek out and incorporate feedback is one of the most vital skills a student can have.

Also, consider using an AI tool like Smodin that can draw upon hundreds of thousands of published and peer-reviewed academic articles as a basis of comparison. By tapping into the unlimited power of AI, you can easily create essays that match college-level writing standards.

9. Organize Your References

Managing and organizing references can become overwhelming during the research phase of writing an essay.

It’s crucial to keep track of all the sources you consult to maintain academic integrity and avoid plagiarism. This is where tools like Smodin’s Research Paper Generator come into play.

Smodin’s Automatic References tool utilizes AI-powered algorithms to generate accurate citations. It pulls information from reliable databases like Google and Google Scholar, ensuring each reference is precise and meets academic standards.

This feature is a time-saver and a crucial component for any student who wants to ensure their work is appropriately credited and free of plagiarism concerns.

This tool streamlines the process of citation creation. The Automatic References feature formats each reference correctly according to your chosen style guide, whether it’s APA, MLA, Chicago, or another academic citation format.

This allows you to focus more on the content of your essay rather than the tedious task of manual citation. It’s like having a personal assistant at the click of a button.

10. Revise, Revise, Revise

The single best thing you can do to improve your writing is to get into a habit of constant revision. Try to write your essay as far in advance so that you can let it sit for a while and revisit it with fresh eyes.

You may be surprised how many areas of improvement become apparent after taking a short break. Allowing your writing to breathe after the initial draft can dramatically enhance its quality.

The three main things you want to look for are ways to improve clarity, strengthen your argument, and refine your language.

Of course, Smodin’s Rewriter Tool can help you do just that. Using this tool, you can easily see and improve sections that need rephrasing. Use this technology alongside your own manual refinements to create a tone and style that aligns with your voice and creates a unique style.

Then, once you’re 99% done and happy with your essay, run it through the Plagiarism and AI Content Detector to ensure its complete academic integrity.

Ultimately, your ability to improve your essay writing skills will depend on your level of dedication. Spend as much time as you can mastering the above techniques and consistently practice.

Remember, AI tools like Smodin have made essay writing more accessible than ever before. If you need help with essays and consistently bring home B, C, or even D-level papers, Smodin’s array of AI tools is what you need to take your writing to the next level-

• AI tutoring for students
• AI content detection
• Plagiarism checker
• Essay, research paper, and article writing features
• Text summarizer
• Homework solver

When you sign up for Smodin, all this and more comes standard. If you’re ready to get started, click here to try it!