"Voice" is that elusive quality that distinguishes your mode of expression from that of others, and which conveys something about who you are, who you think you are addressing, what you think and how you feel. There are different kinds of voices, and one person can use different voices in different contexts. Different voices are appropriate for different Uses for blogs.

You could keep a more personal diary-like site for yourself, your friends and family, or anyone who cares to read it, in which your private voice is an expression of your innermost thoughts and feelings. There are many diarists, and entire communities of diarists, with a range of private voices from the solemn to the goofy.

Another kind of personal voice distinguishes the credentialed or self-proclaimed pundit who expresses an opinion about a public event, a blog post, a book or magazine article, a performance. This kind of personal voice begins to take on some of the characteristics of a public voice. When voice moves beyond personal expression, meant to vent feelings, explore alternate identities, entertain and inform friends, and begins taking an authentically-felt position on public matters -- from the potholes on main street to foreign policy issues -- then it becomes a public voice. A public voice is what connects your blogging to the public sphere. The exercises on this site are focused on the goal of developing a public voice. Phil Agre has written an excellent article about developing a public voice: Find Your Voice: Writing for a Webzine

Voices change, develop, evolve, and mutate. There are no rules, but it helps to understand the different kinds of voice and the way different voices develop. You can start out with a fully-developed and distinctive voice, or, more likely, you will find your voice over time. The informality of blogging, as distinguished from mass-media publishing in newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, or books, makes it easier and more acceptable to experiment with voice in this medium than in traditional publishingt media.

The easiest kinds of posts to make when you begin blogging are those in which you present a link, with some explanation. The audience or public who are the intended readers are reflected in the kind of links you select, and especially in the way you set a context for the linked site in your explanation. Think of yourself as your reader and ask whether the context-setting answers the question: "Why would I be interested in taking the time to follow this link to another site?" Time and attention are scarce and valuable commodities online; clicking on a link is a committment, however small. People make decisions very quickly about whether or not to click.

You can start out with a context as simple as "this site is useful to my audience or public because..." and you can begin to develop or find your voice over time by the way you add context to your choices of links. Why do YOU think the site is useful? You can then go on to posts that primarily state an issue or present an argument, and use links to illustrate or back up your issue or argument. The more you write, the more of your positions and beliefs you express in your contextual statements, the more of a voice you express.

When you feel strongly about an issue, know something worth sharing about the issues, have first-hand experience to draw upon, links aren't always necessary. Although the link is a fundamental building block of the blogosphere, self-expression is more fundamental. Blogs can be soapboxes for individual political oratory and they can also be forums for debate, instruments of collective investigation, media for citizen journalism -- arenas for engaging in dialogue as well as rhetoric.

Your voice can be critical when you are disagreeing, analyzing, debating, or rebutting the position taken by the blog post or other website you link to. You can praise a position or support an issue, as well. Simple awareness of your voice, and a willingness to put more of yourself into a post, is the most important tool you have when you begin to work on developing a blogging voice.

Tips on Writing the Living Web: is another simple guide for beginners.

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