Post I: Discourse Surrounding the Essay

“In reading an essay, I want to feel that I’m communicating with a real person, and a person who cares about what he or she’s writing about. For me, the essay is not an assignment, to be dispatched efficiently and intelligently, but an exploration, a questioning, an introspection. I want to see a piece of the essayist. I want to see a mind at work, imagining, spinning, struggling to understand.” “When I’m reading a good essay, I feel like I’m going on a journey. The essayist is searching for something and taking me along. Facts are important but not enough. An essay, for me, must go past the facts, an essay for me must travel and move.”
- Alan Lightman

Alan Lightman’s point of view about the essay stuck with me though out the entire reading. His ideas and opinions matched with mine like none of the other writers. I have learned that an essay may not have an exact definition, or an exact style or exact form, but what it needs is something to make it the authors alone. I believe that all essays need what Alan Lightman has described—voice.
While writing plenty of essays throughout high school there were numerous writing tips that stuck out in my mind-- organization, sentence fluency, and word choice. Although all were great tips, one stood above the rest for me—voice. I believe that one of the most important objectives in writing is to use your voice in your writing. Just like Lightman says, you should be able to feel like your communicating with the writer (a real person) and using your voice allows this to happen. I can remember the countless times where a teacher would comment on mine and fellow classmate’s essays, “This is too generic. Where is your voice? Make this your own.” At the time it was just another revision but as my high school career went on it became clear that the writer’s voice completed the work. If the writer doesn’t use their voice in their writing than there own feelings are not portrayed. For the audience to be able to “see a piece of the essayist” we have to feel like we are not reading an “assignment” but rather a piece of the writer’s life, feelings, or experiences.
I agree completely with Lightmans thoughts on the “essay”. In my opinion the use of the writer’s voice completes the essay and allows you (the reader) to go on a “journey” in the essay. Using your voice to make the essay yours allows the audience to be drawn in and get lost in the communication between the writer and the reader.