Chris Polley's activity on voice in blogs 

In his composition class at the University of Minnesota, Chris Polley, employs the following activity to have students examine different voices in literary texts in relationship with the voices they are using in their blogs:

1. Students will look at an excerpt from The Circuit, by Francisco Jimenez (a memoir) in comparison to excerpts of a professional biography and a typical personal blog entry. They will discuss in small groups which text provides the most information, is the most factual, is most interesting, and is most realistic.

2. Students will examine excerpts from The Circuit for examples of voice, fact vs. dramatization, and conversational vs. prose language. They will use these findings to create a blog entry from the point of view of Jimenez as a present-day professor, attempting to find a balance between casual writing and professional memoir writing.

3. Students will create their own set of memoir entries via creating a blog (http://www.blogger.com/signup.g) with five blog entries either from their own perspective or by creating a character and corresponding voice/personality. With the blog they will turn in a reflective response to the difficulties of writing a memoir through a blog, focusing on the aforementioned issues of voice, fact vs. dramatization, and conversational vs. prose language.

By tying the world of blogging into a memoir text, I think students can see how forms of communication can blur the lines between reality and writing. They can analyze a more formal way in which an author dramatizes the events of his life to send a message more effectively (The Circuit) along with a more modern and informal way (blogging, both by looking at others and by blogging themselves). In addition, by blending the two styles together (or by attempting to give Jimenez a voice through a blog), students will be more likely to notice the possibly subtleties and nuanced details of writing a memoir versus writing a blog.