S O U R C E : I B C O M P A N I O N G U I D E , 2 2 - 2 4 .

VOICE IN ACADEMIC WRITING

Put your syllabus form in the box.

PERSONAL VOICE IS:

• WHAT you talk about

• HOW you talk about it

• Word choice specific to you

• Word order and arrangement

• Choice and variation of sentences

• Connection and length of paragraphs

• Etc.

• Natural – appropriate to age and experience

PERSONAL VOICE IS NOT:

• Scribbling thoughts ―any which way‖

• Filled with inaccurate uses of words

• Filled with invented rules of grammar, punctuation,

or spelling

• The one you use in your most informal daily

conversation

• One that is ambiguous and hasty

VOICE EXPERIMENT

• Use the following words to describe a setting. Aim

for one to two paragraphs.

Pistol Lightning Blue Estate

Flame Shouting Quietness Calmly

Waves Tea Perched Windows

Fuse-box Shaken Bursts Stereophonic

Evening Before Target Signal

VOICE EXPERIMENT

• Compare your work with that of another student

and discuss the similarities and differences.

• See if you can find some evidence of a particular

way of combining words, making sentences and

paragraphs – your style, in other words

RUNNING IN THE FAMILY (MICHAEL ONDAATJE)

An hour later I am standing in the hall with Susan

when I hear a pistol shot. Blue waves of flame. The

house—hit by lightning, hit at the fuse-box on the wall

just above my head. I am so shaken I act calmly for

the rest of the afternoon. Lightning has never

touched this house before even though, perched on

top of a tea estate, it seems an obvious target. The

bolt is a signal for the end of quietness and the

weather bursts open windows and steps into

hallways. During the long evening we play scrabble,

shouting out scores, almost unable to be heard over

the stereophonic field of the rain.

THE MISTAKE OF TRYING TO IMITATE “HIGH” LANGUAGE

Once upon a point in time a small person named

Little Red Riding Hood initiated plans for the

preparation, delivery and transportation of foodstuffs

to her grandmother, a senior citizen residing in a

place of residence in a wooded area of

indeterminate dimension.

(Russell Baker)

A FURTHER EXAMPLE: SONNET 73

• Student spoken topic: I noticed Shakespeare uses a

dying fire and falling leaves and fading twilight to

suggest his own passing years.

• Student writing: A careful reader of Shakespeare’s

Sonnet 73 will perceive that the poet carefully

articulates his fundamental metaphor by

manipulating the integration of images concerning

death or dying with his own emotional and

intellectual state that is projected onto nature and

natural phenomenon.

Source: Adams, Michael. The Writer’s Mind: Making Writing Make Sense.

T H E O N E Y O U W R I T E W I T H

VOICE

SUMMER READING RESPONSE

• Write a paragraph in response to one of the

following questions:

• With which character do you most identify?

Explain.

• Which book ―spoke to you‖? Why?

• Which author presented the story in a more

―reader-friendly‖ way? Explain.

• Choose an author. How does that author

develop one character? Explain.

DISCUSS

• What is voice and how do we develop it?

• Why is it important, when studying and

quoting the works of others, to have our own

writing voice?

CLASSIFY VOICE

An hour later I am standing in the hall with Susan

when I hear a pistol shot. Blue waves of flame. The

house—hit by lightning, hit at the fuse-box on the wall

just above my head. I am so shaken I act calmly for

the rest of the afternoon. Lightning has never

touched this house before even though, perched on

top of a tea estate, it seems an obvious target. The

bolt is a signal for the end of quietness and the

weather bursts open windows and steps into

hallways. During the long evening we play scrabble,

shouting out scores, almost unable to be heard over

the stereophonic field of the rain. (Ondaatje 166)

TRADE PAPERS

• Trade papers and have a classmate

describe your ―voice.‖ Use lots of

adjectives.

• Remind Purvis to give everyone a CPS

remote…she’s getting old.

IMBEDDING QUOTATIONS

• Why is it important to know your own voice

when writing a paper that uses quotations?

• Discuss Hjortshoj’s ideas.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

SOURCE: I BO. ACADEMIC HONESTY BULLET IN .

PLAGIARISM

• ―The representation of the ideas or work of

another person as the candidate’s own‖

(IBO, 2.1).

• ―Copying works of art, whether music, film,

dance, theatre arts or visual arts, also

constitutes plagiarism‖ (IBO, 2.3).

ACADEMIC HONESTY

• Authenticity and Intellectual Property. IBO,

2.2, ―all ideas and work of other persons,

regardless of their source, must be

acknowledged.‖

• Antonym: academic dishonesty

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

• IBO, 1.3 ―Forms of intellectual and creative

expression (for example, works of literature,

art or music) must be respected and are

normally protected by law.‖

AUTHENTIC AUTHORSHIP

• IBO, 1.2 ―An authentic piece of work is one

that is based on the candidate’s individual

and original ideas with the ideas and work

of others fully acknowledged.‖

MALPRACTICE

• ―behaviour that results in, or may result in,

the candidate or any other candidate

gaining an unfair advantage in one or more

assessment component‖ and includes

plagiarism, collusion, duplication of work,

etc. (IBO, 2.1).

EXAMPLES OF MALPRACTICE

• The following list is taken from IBO, 2.7: • Paraphrasing without acknowledging

• Fabricating data

• Taking unauthorized material into examination room

• Misbehaving and disrupting an examination

• Exchanging or helping to exchange information about the examination (i.e. telling B-day what the test covered)

EXAMPLES (CONT.)

• Copying

• Referring to unauthorized material (i.e. sparknotes, bookrags, pinkmonkey)

• Failing to comply with instructions from test supervisor, proctor, etc.

• Impersonating another student

• Offensive material with no academic or intellectual purpose

• Stealing exams

COLLUSION

• ―supporting malpractice by another

candidate, as in allowing one’s work to be

copied or submitted for assessment by

another‖ (IBO, 2.1)

• This is different from collaboration in that the

assessment criteria requires each student to

produce an authentic and original product.

COLLABORATION

• working together when approved by

teacher or assessment guidelines. This is

different from collusion in that the final

product is allowed to be a group effort.

DUPLICATION OF WORK

• multiple submissions

• ―the presentation of the same work for

different assessment components and/or

diploma requirements‖ (IBO, 2.1).

PARAPHRASE

• IBO, 4.9: ―Paraphrasing is the rendition of

another person’s words presented in a new

style and integrated grammatically into the

writing.‖ (Emphasis added.)

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

• IBO, 4.8: more than just regular print and

electronic sources, it ―include[s] the use of

footnotes or endnotes to acknowledge the

source of an idea if that idea emerged as a

result of discussion with, or listening to, a

fellow student, a teacher or any other

person.‖

ACADEMIC INFRINGEMENT

• IBO, 11.1—When a student’s work does not

―conform to the standard academic

practice of clearly acknowledging all ideas

and words that are not the candidate’s

own,‖ but is not considered ―a deliberate

attempt by a candidate to gain an unfair

advantage.‖ Although not as serious,

because not intentional, as academic

malpractice, this offense can still affect a

candidate’s score.

ACADEMIC INFRINGEMENT

• IBO, 12.5, ―No marks will be awarded for the

component part (or parts) of the

component,‖ but the student will still be able

to sit for the exams and be considered for

the subject certificate and the diploma.

However, having lost the opportunity to gain

the points from the component part may

adversely affect the certificate score for the

subject area.

INTEGRATION

• Three rules of integration, taken directly from Hjortshoj, p. 181: 1. The readers should always know whose

language they are reading.

2. Sentences you assemble with quotations should read grammatically.

3. Your use of quotation (including splices, ellipses, and brackets) should not distort the original meaning of the quoted material.

MLA ASSESSMENT

SUMMER READING REFLECT ION

• Essential Question: How will you analyze and

apply what you’ve learned about avoiding

plagiarism?

• Language Objective: Appropriately

integrate material from one or both of the

summer reading novels using MLA format.

TOPIC

• You may expand your paragraph writing or

choose a new topic from those given:

• With which character do you most identify?

Explain.

• Which book ―spoke to you‖? Why?

• Which author presented the story in a more

―reader-friendly‖ way? Explain.

• Choose an author. How does that author

develop one character? Explain.

ASSIGNMENT SPECIFICS

• 2-3 page paper

• Interesting title

• Proper MLA throughout

• Use of at least four direct quotations

• Works Cited (not included in paper length)

• Rubric on the website

MLA REVIEW

• CPS quick fire challenge

• Write the correct answer on the ―MLA

Formatting Review‖ handout if you get it

wrong.

MLA refreshers available on my website.

LASTLY

• Previous groups of students have done this very

assignment. The feedback that I gave them is

available on the website. Please review it to save

yourself some mistakes.

• Also read ―A Few Thoughts on Style / Quoting, ‖

which has information on writing papers that sound

ORGANIC and that use quotations well