listening comprehension topic: identifying aspects of voice a writer’s use of words and ideas that...

Listening Comprehension Topic: Identifying Aspects of Voice

a writer’s use of words and ideas that make a narrator seem believable

Voice


Hmmmmm…I think I’ll make my

narrator a five-year-old boy…

A narrator’s voice may be very different from the way

the writer would write when she is “being

herself.”


“I am callin’ to see if y’all wont to

buy a magazine subscription.”

Where might a caller who talks likes this be from?


“Um cauling ta see if youse

guys wanna boy a magazine

subscription.”


“Like, um calling to see if you would, like, ya know,

if you like wanna buy a

magazine subscription.”


Writers give their narrators realistic voices by:

• having them use accents and dialects, ways of speaking that are common to certain groups of people

• picking vocabulary words that sound realistic

Ouch! I’vehurt

myself!

Waaaa! I got a booboo

!


Writers give their narrators realistic voices by arranging words in sentences in ways that are

realistic for the narrators.

Do you want me to go to the store?

versus

Do you want I should go

to the store?


They also do it by using grammar that matches their narrators’ background.

Please don’t put any

onions on my hot

dog.

versus

Don’t put no onions on

my hot dog.


Writers give their narrators realistic voices by making sure that what they say and do fits their

knowledge or understanding due to age or education.


A Few Tips to Add to Your Understanding ofVOICE

Imagine you are the writer!Your teacher asks you to write a story but to pretend that the person telling the story is a five year old. You would have to write in the voice of a five year old.

Now think of yourself as the reader.When reading fiction, “listen” to the narrators’ voices. The words they use, the way they use them, and how they see events around them should match their age, where they live, and their levels of education.


As you listen toPink and Say,

make a “mind movie,” and

ask yourself if the narrator’s voice is realistic, given who he is, where he lives, and how much

education he probably has.


Accents and DialectsThe narrator doesn’t pronounce the Gs in “ing” endings (bein’, collapsin’, rockin’).

Vocabulary

Fever-dreamin’

“I do remember being carried for a powerful long

way.”

Vittles

Spectacles

Afeared


Using Grammar that Matches the Narrator

“I was hurt real bad”

“fever must have took me good”

“…I ain’t no Yankee.”

“It were the first time in months my vittles didn’t have

any mealy worms in it.” Knowledge or Understanding Due to Age or

Education

“Being just a lad, I was wishin’ I was home.”

“Master Aylee showed him how paper talks.”


Be alert to the author’s use of voice in the book we

are reading. Does the narrator’s voice sound

realistic?

listening comprehension topic: identifying aspects of voice a writer’s use of words and ideas that...

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