Context Matters

The fact that good writing has a voice doesn’t mean all your writing has to be full of huge gestures and humour.

A thoughtful, eloquent voice may suit who you are or may fit the situation, as in this meditation on the act of writing by author Jhumpa Lahiri:

“The urge to convert experience into a group of words that are in a grammatical relation to one another is the most basic, ongoing impulse of my life. It is a habit of antiphony: of call and response” (Lahiri, 2008).

“My Life’s Sentences”

Maybe your purpose and subject matter demand a factual, serious, scholarly tone:

“For most of the century between the two Reconstructions, the bulk of the white South condoned and sanctioned terrorist violence against black Americans” (Bouie, 2015).

“Christian Soldiers”

In short, writing situations limit and define the possibilities of voice.

Who are you writing for? Why? Where are you sharing or publishing?

American comedian and actor Mindy Kaling can post a tweet like this:

“Speaking of movies I absolutely loved #TheWayBack. My man Ben Affleck crushed it. Such a moving movie about the healing power of sports, and this is coming from a person who tripped on her treadmill this morning. And my sis @Janina was Fire! Highly rec” (Kaling, 2020).

Kaling tweet

That tone would be disastrous in a bank’s annual report, which has to sound like the voice of corporate marketing:

“At CIBC, we are committed to delivering sustainable earnings growth to our shareholders and creating a relationship-oriented bank for our clients” (CIBC, 2019).

Read the report here.

Context shapes voice.

Be aware of who you’re writing to, and why.