The Voice Biography Assignment
Matt Gagnon, Writing Instructor, UConn Hartford
Goal:
The goal of this assignment is to introduce yourself to our classroom community by way of a discussion of your voice, to gain some familiarity with using and citing sources for entering a conversation, to establish a way of composing that puts an emphasis on what “you” have to say, and finally, to gain some familiarity with using Audacity (audio-editing software).
Materials:
As Loud As I Want To Be (Silva)
Do I Sound Gay? (Thorpe)
Listen To the Sound of My Voice (Baker)
Vocal Gender and the Gendered Soundscape (Ehrick)
Assignment:
I have adapted the following assignment from Professor Jennfier Lynn Stoever’s assignment that she developed for a class called “How We Listen” at Binghamton University.
“The first time I heard our voices playing back on tape, I realized that a recording captures you, but plays back a distortion–a different voice from the one you hear in your own head, even though I could recognize myself instantly. I saw it as an opening, a way to re-create myself and reimagine my world. After I recorded a rhyme, it gave me an unbelievable rush to play it back, to hear that voice”
– Jay-Z Decoded (2010)
Jay-Z is one of the few people I have come across to essentially fall in love with the sound of his recorded voice (most students I work with tend to cringe when they hear their recorded voice), which is quite interesting, especially as he hears himself as a persona, a character he can take on, an “opening” allowing him to reimagine his future. He loves his voice because it’s him yet also not him at the same time. If this is the start of the biography of Jay-Z’s voice and his feelings about it, how might yours start? What is your relationship with your voice? How do you think your voice does/doesn’t represent you?
Most of us, however, have reactions much closer to David Thorpe’s experience (the Director of Do I Sound Gay?) than we care to admit. While there are technical and scientific understandings put forth—our voice sounds “fuller” and “richer” when we hear and feel the resonance from our chest and in our bones—there are social and cultural reasons for this as well. In a society that demands our voices be “authentic” yet styled to dominant ideas of “appropriateness,” “reasonableness,” “authority,” “confidence,” etc., what is at stake for those of us whose voices sound different from the norm? Have you ever felt the desire to change your voice? Why or why not?
Kelly Baker, in her essay, “Listen to the Sound of My Voice,” offers us another way to think about voices, especially for those of us who have actively attempted to modify/change our voices: “Biology, the body, gives us the voices we have. Biology doesn’t care if we like the ways in which we sound. Biology might not care, but culture is the real asshole. Culture marks a voice as weak, grating, shrill, or hard to listen to.”
Please compose a 3-page (750-800 words) biography of your voice. You may choose to organize your essay and tell the story however you wish, as long as you consider your experience in light of our classroom readings and conversations. In other words, the biography of your voice should think of course readings as offering a conceptual framework or “tools” for entering a conversation about how we listen to and analyze our own voices. So, you should strive to integrate (paraphrase and quotation) and represent some key concept or idea from our readings as a lens for developing your discussion. The evaluation criteria below details what I am looking for you to do in this “first-burst” writing and audio project of the semester.
Finally, along with your submission of your 3-page project, you will also submit a recording of yourself reading the paper that I will listen to as I read your work. (Next week, I will provide time in class to help us get acquainted with Audacity, which is an open-source audio editing software program that is easy to use.) I hope you listen to it and enjoy your voice as well, with the new insights doing this kind of work will (hopefully) inspire!
Here are some questions to help you get started on this project. You do not need to answer all of them, but they may lead you toward some important realizations that you can share through this project.
- Have you thought critically about your voice before this class? Why or why not? If so, when did you first become conscious of your voice? Why?
- What do you love about your voice? Why?
- Do you think you learned to talk the way that you do from your exposure to a particular community? Why or why not?
- When and where do you notice your voice code switching? What do you think this code switching has to do with assumptions or expectations about how your voice should sound? Does this align with your own desires for how you want to sound?
- Who were your models for learning how to speak and style your voice?
- Who do you think you sound like? Why?
- One of the interviewees in Do I Sound Gay? said “we are taught that your voice is who you really are.” Do you think this is true? Why or why not?
- Have you ever wanted to change your voice? Why or why not? Have you?
- Have you liked or disliked your voice at some times in your life more than others?
- What affect would you prefer your voice to send out? Why? Do you think it does? Why or why not?
- What kind of feedback have you received about your voice? When? From whom? How did this make you feel? Was your voice disciplined in any way growing up? In what ways? If not, why do you think you didn’t have this particular experience?
Evaluation Criteria:
- Your project is written with a clear perspective and point of view: Your writing voice is active, clear, and intellectually rigorous. Your work is creative and risk-taking, you use strong specific detail (psychological, material, physical, emotional), and you include thoughtful, relevant, and evocative stories and examples that focus specifically on your relationship with the sound of your voice.
- Your project details the history of your voice in light of our course materials and contextualizes it within our in-class discussions on social identity—gender, race, sexuality, etc.—listening, and sound. You should use our in-class readings as a springboard and quote/analyze at least two in the essay in a way that allows you to develop a new perspective about your voice. Make sure you have a “meaty” conclusion paragraph that shows insight and perspective, rather than a recap of what you’ve already composed.
- Your writing is relatively free from unintentional spelling, grammar, and punctuation missteps. Your organization is deliberate and follows logically, clearly, and on topic; essay shows evidence of being responsive to peer review and demonstrates revision (re-seeing, re-thinking, re-organizing), not just minimal spell check.
- You submit your 3-page essay with a recorded version using
Definitely Yes (A) | Mostly Yes (B) | Somewhat (C) | No (F)
Due Dates:
1.5 page draft due on Tuesday, January 28. (See HuskyCT Announcement)
3-page revised draft on Thursday, January 30.
3-page final draft with audio recording due on Friday, January 31.
Do You Know That our Professional Writers are on Stand-by to Provide you with the Most Authentic Custom Paper. Order with us Today and Enjoy an Irresistible Discount!