Section 1 of this volume describes three major debates about voice. They include:
* the overarching debate: discourse as text vs. discourse as voice;
* the traditional debate in rhetoric: ethos as real virtue in the real person vs. ethos as the appearance of virtue; and
* the modern debate: voice as self vs. voice as role.
These debates involve large, ideological questions about the nature of self or identity and about the relation of the text to the writer. They are all the more troublesome and unresolvable because they tend to be cast in binary, either/or terms.
Section 2 responds to these debates by showing that they don't need to be resolved in either/or terms. Looking carefully at the term "voice" shows that it has some fairly noncontroversial meanings when applied to writing. Thus, most of this section is devoted to an extended exploration of a family of five meanings for the term "voice" in writing -- audible voice or information, dramatic voice, recognizable or distinctive voice, voice with authority, and resonant voice or presence. These meanings make the concept of voice solid and usable apart from the theoretical debates.
The two theoretical debates only come up in relatively circumscribed arenas and so don't muddy most uses of the concept of voice in writing. In short, Elbow's hope is that he can make descriptive "claims" about the meanings of voice in writing about which people from various ideological camps will be able to agree.

Classical rhetoric was originally all about speech; then as the new technology emerged, it took an interest in writing. We are at a kind of mirror moment now. The present field of composition and rhetoric has been preoccupied with writing for the last fifty or more years, but scholars are looking once again at speech and how it relates to writing.

At this moment, then, we are inheritors of research showing that writing can be thought of as different and yet not different from speech. In this Landmark Essays volume, Peter Elbow, a leading expert on speech and writing, gathers a selection of classic essays that show the main streams of thinking that scholars have published about speech and writing. Through the interdisciplinary essays included, he invites readers to think critically about the relationship between speech, writing, and our notion of literacy.

Classical rhetoric was originally all about speech; then as the new technology emerged, it took an interest in writing. We are at a kind of mirror moment now. The present field of composition and rhetoric has been preoccupied with writing for the last fifty or more years, but scholars are looking once again at speech and how it relates to writing.

At this moment, then, we are inheritors of research showing that writing can be thought of as different and yet not different from speech. In this Landmark Essays volume, Peter Elbow, a leading expert on speech and writing, gathers a selection of classic essays that show the main streams of thinking that scholars have published about speech and writing. Through the interdisciplinary essays included, he invites readers to think critically about the relationship between speech, writing, and our notion of literacy.

This new collection of essays bring together the best of Elbow's writing since the publication of Embracing Contraries in 1987. The volume includes sections on voice, the experience of writing, teaching, and evaluation. Implicit throughout is Elbow's commitment to humanizing the profession, and his continued emphasis on the importance of binary thinking and nonadversarial argument. The result is a compendium of a master teacher's thoughts on the relation between good pedagogy and good writing; it is sure to be of interest to all professional teachers of writing, and will be a valuable book for use in graduate composition courses.

Writing with Power is a guide for the student writing an essay, the professional writer working on a story, or the manager writing a memo for a tight deadline. As Elbow explains, "Writing with power doesn't just mean getting power over readers. It means getting power over yourself and over the writing process: knowing what you are doing as you write; figuring out what you really mean; being in charge, having control; not feeling stuck or helpless or intimidated. I am particularly interested in this second kind of power in writing, and I have found that without it you seldom achieve the first kind". For the second edition, Elbow has written a new introduction in which he discusses in detail the "mysterious" dimensions of "Writing with Power" - voice, quality and bad writing, wrongness and felt sense, and sharing written work with others.

Since the publication of his groundbreaking books Writing Without Teachers and Writing with Power, Peter Elbow has revolutionized the way we think about writing. As a theorist, teacher, and uncommonly engaging writer himself, he has long championed our innate ability to write effectively. Now, in Vernacular Eloquence, Elbow turns his attention to the role of the spoken word in writing. He begins by questioning the basic cultural assumption that speaking and writing are two very different, incompatible modes of expression, and that we should keep them separate. The book explores the many linguistic and rhetorical virtues of speech-spontaneity, naturalness of expression, fluidity of thought-to show that many of these virtues can usefully be brought to writing. Elbow suggests that we begin the writing process by "speaking " our words onto the page, letting the words and ideas flow without struggling to be "correct. " Speaking can help us at the later stages of writing, too, as we read drafts aloud and then revise until the language feels right in the mouth and sounds right in the ear. The result is stronger, clearer, more natural writing that avoids the stilted, worried-over quality that so often alienates (and bores) the reader. Elbow connects these practices to a larger theoretical discussion of literacy in our culture, arguing that our rules for correct writing make it harder than necessary to write well. In particular, our culture's conception of proper writing devalues the human voice, the body, and the linguistic power of people without privilege. Written with Elbow's customary verve and insight, Vernacular Eloquence shows how to bring the pleasures we all enjoy in speaking to the all-too-often needlessly arduous task of writing.

Peter Elbow's widely acclaimed and original theories on the writing process, set forth in Writing Without Teachers and Writing With Power, have earned him a reputation as a leading educational innovator. Now Elbow has drawn together twelve of his essays on the nature of learning and teaching to suggest a comprehensive philosophy of education. At once theoretical and down-to-earth, this collection will appeal not only to teachers, adminitrators and students, but to anyone with a love of learning.

Elbow explores the "contraries" in the educational process, in particular his theory that clear thinking can be enhanced by inviting indecision, incoherence, and paradoxical thinking. The essays, written over a period of twenty-five years, are engaged in a single enterprise: to arrive at insights or conclusions about learning and teaching while still doing justice to the "rich messiness" of intellectual inquiry. Drawing his conclusions from his own perplexities as a student and as a teacher, Elbow discusses the value of interdisciplinary teaching, his theory of "cooking" (an interaction of conflicting ideas), the authority relationship in teaching and the value of specifying learning objectives. A full section is devoted to evaluation and feedback, both of students and faculty. Finally, Elbow focuses on the need to move beyond the skepticism of critical thinking to what he calls "methodological belief"--an ability to embrace more than one point of view.

In this classic work, Peter Elbow sets out his innovative teaching methods and outlines a practical programme for learning how to write. Equally useful for writing fiction, poetry, and essays as well as reports, lectures and memos, this approach is especially helpful to people who get "stuck" in their writing. Challenging traditional writing methods, Elbow focuses on encouraging ways of developing confidence and inspiration through free writing, multiple drafts, diaries, and notes.

This new collection of essays bring together the best of Elbow's writing since the publication of Embracing Contraries in 1987. The volume includes sections on voice, the experience of writing, teaching and evaluation. Implicit throughout is Elbow's commitment to humanizing the profession, and his continued emphasis on the importance of binary thinking and nonadversarial argument. The result is a compendium of a master teacher's thoughts on the relation between good pedagogy and good writing; it is sure to be of interest to all professional teachers of writing, and will be a valuable book for use in graduate composition courses.

Writing with Power is a guide for the student writing an essay, the professional writer working on a story, or the manager writing a memo for a tight deadline. As Elbow explains, `Writing with power doesn't just mean getting power over readers. It means getting power over yourself and over the writing process.' For the second edition, Elbow has written a new introduction in which he discusses in detail the `mysterious' dimensions of `Writing with Power' -- voice, quality and bad writing, wrongness and felt sense, and sharing written work with others.

For more than a quarter of a century, Pat Schneider has helped writers find and liberate their true voices. She has taught all kinds--the award winning, the struggling, and those who have been silenced by poverty and hardship. Her innovative methods have worked in classrooms from elementary to graduate level, in jail cells and public housing projects, in convents and seminaries, in youth at-risk programs, and with groups of the terminally ill.

Now, in Writing Alone and with Others, Schneider's acclaimed methods are available in a single well-organized and highly readable volume. The first part of the book guides the reader through the perils of the solitary writing life: fear, writer's block, and the bad habits of the internal critic. In the second section, Schneider describes the Amherst Writers and Artists workshop method, widely used across the U.S. and abroad. Chapters on fiction and poetry address matters of technique and point to further resources, while more than a hundred writing exercises offer specific ways to jumpstart the blocked and budge the rut-stuck. Schneider's innovative teaching method will refresh the experienced writer and encourage the beginner. Her book is the essential owner's manual for the writer's voice.