Abstract

The term ‘voice’ is not as straightforward as it might first appear. Commonly used in relation to a number of art forms, it is highly ambiguous and slippery. Take its application in writing research for instance. Peter Elbow, the veteran writing researcher, argues that the notion of a writing ‘voice’ can be used variously to describe: the sense that readers have of hearing the words on the page as they are reading them (audible voice); the way in which the audible voice is more or less full of character (dramatic voice); the way in which a distinctive authorial style can be recognised by its deployment of language, syntax, speech, metaphor and so on (distinctive voice); and the degree of confidence and expertise that the writer asserts (authoritative voice) (Elbow, 1994).