Voice Lessons : Four Elements
DICTION:
the author’s choice of words for a specific purpose
An aged man is but a paltry thing
A tattered coat upon a stick…
—W. B. Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium”
DETAIL:
“facts, observations, and incidents”
About suffering, they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
—W. H. Auden, “Musée des Beaux-Arts”
Voice Lessons : Four Elements, 2
Imagery:
Verbal representation of sense experience
It was a mine town, uranium most recently. Dust devils
whirled sand off the mountains. Even after the heaviest of
rains, the water seeped back into the ground, between stones,
and the earth was parched again.
—Linda Hogan, “Making Do”
Syntax:
grammatical sentence structure
I slowed still more, my shadow pacing me, dragging its
head through the weeds that hid the fence.
—William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Voice Lessons: Lesson Format
A quotation highlighting the element under
study
DISCUSS:
1. A direct reading question about the element,
often identification and interpretation
2. A second question, often more hypothetical,
abstract, or comparative
APPLY:
• An activity, often imitative
Voice Lessons 1: DICTION
As I watched, the sun broke weakly through,
brightened the rich red of the fawns, and kindled
their white spots.
— E. B. White, “Twins,” Poems and Sketches of E. B. White
DISCUSS:
• What kind of flame does kindled imply? How does this verb
suit the purpose of the sentence?
•
Would the sentence be strengthened or weakened by
changing the sun broke weakly through to the sun burst through?
Explain the effect this change would have on the use of the
verb kindled.
APPLY:
• Brainstorm with your team a list of action verbs that
demonstrate the effects of sunlight.
Voice Lessons 2: DICTION
Art is the antidote that can call us back from the edge of numbness,
restoring the ability to feel for another.
— Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson
DISCUSS:
1. By using the word antidote, what does Kingsolver imply about
the inability to feel for another?
2. If we change the word antidote to gift, what effect would it
have on the meaning of the sentence?
APPLY:
•
Develop a list of medical terms; then write a sentence using a medical
term to characterize art. Explain the effect this term has on the
meaning of the sentence.
Voice Lessons 3: DETAIL
An old man, Don Tomasito, the baker, played the tuba. When he blew
into the huge mouthpiece, his face would turn purple and his thousand
wrinkles would disappear as his skin filled out.
— Alberto Alvaro Rios, “The Iguana Killer”
DISCUSS:
1.
The first sentence is a general statement. How does the second enrich
and intensify the first?
2.
Contrast the second sentence with the following:
When he blew the tuba, his face turned purple and his cheeks puffed out.
Which sentence more effectively expresses an attitude toward Tomasito?
What is the attitude and how is it communicated?
APPLY:
•
Describe someone jumping over a puddle. Your first sentence should be
general, stating the action simply. Your second sentence should clarify and
intensify the action through detail. Read your sentences to each other.
Voice Lessons 4: DETAIL
Charley (to Willy): Why must everybody be like you? Who liked J. P. Morgan? Was he
impressive? In a Turkish bath he’d look like a butcher. But with his pockets on he
was very well liked. Now listen, Willy, I know you don’t like me, and nobody can say
I’m in love with you, but I’ll give you a job because—just for the hell of it, put it that
way. Now what do you say?
— Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
DISCUSS:
1.
Who was J. P Morgan? What is a Turkish bath? What picture comes to mind when
someone is said to look like a butcher? How do these details contribute to the point
Charley is trying to make?
2.
How would the passage be different if Charley said J. P. Morgan would look like a baker
in a Turkish bath?
APPLY:
•
Think of someone famous and powerful. Use detail to create an unflattering but accurate
description of the physical appearance of this famous person. Model your description on
Miller’s description of J. P. Morgan. “Share” your description with your teammates. (Note
that Charley is not deprecating Morgan; fight any temptation to create silly or insulting
pictures of people.)
Voice Lessons 5: SYNTAX
Brother, continue to listen.
You say that you are sent to instruct us how to worship the Great
Spirit agreeably to his mind; and, if we do not take hold of the
religion which you white people teach, we shall be unhappy hereafter.
You say that you are right and we are lost. How do we know this to
be true?
Chief Red Jacket, “Chief Red Jacket Rejects a Change of Religion”
DISCUSS:
1. The words you say are repeated several times in the sentence. What is the
repetition’s function?
2.
The question at the end of the passage is a rhetorical question. What attitude
toward the audience is expressed by the use of a rhetorical question?
APPLY:
Write a three-sentence paragraph modeled after Chief Red Jacket’s passage. The
first two sentences should contain repetition; the third sentence should be a
rhetorical question. Your topic is school uniforms. Share your sentence with your
team.
Voice Lessons 6: Imagery
At first I saw only water so clear it magnified the fibers in the walls of the
gourd. On the surface, I saw only my own round reflection. The old man
encircled the neck of the gourd with his thumb and index finger and gave it a
shake. As the water shook, then settled, the colors and lights shimmered into a
picture, not reflecting anything I could see around me. There at the bottom of
the gourd were my mother and father scanning the sky, which was where I was.
— Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
DISCUSS:
1. What kind of imagery does Kingston use in this
passage? Circle the images.
2. Compare and contrast the imagery of the last sentence
with the imagery of the first four.
APPLY:
Write a sentence which uses precise visual imagery to
describe a simple action. Share your sentence with your
teammates.
Voice Lesons 7: Tone
Piazza di Spagna, Early Morning
I can’t forget
How she stood at the top of that long marble stair
Amazed, and then with a sleepy pirouette
Went dancing slowly down to the fountain-quiet square.
Nothing upon her face
But some impersonal loneliness,—not then a girl,
But as it were a reverie of the place,
A called-for falling glide and whirl;
As when a leaf, petal, or thin chip
Is drawn to the falls of a pool and, circling a moment above it,
Rides on over the lip—
Perfectly beautiful, perfectly ignorant of it.
—Richard Wilbur
Voice Lesson 7 (continued)
DISCUSS:
1. What is the speaker’s attitude toward the
woman he describes? List the images, diction,
and details that support your position.
2. Consider the last line of the poem. How does the
repetition of the syntactical structure (adverb
adjective, adverb adjective) support the tone of
the poem?
APPLY:
Using Wilbur’s poem as a model, write a sentence
which expresses stunned admiration for a stranger.
Use repetition of a syntactical structure to create
your tone.
…classroom magic!