Parmasad- One Brave Little Cookie and SPN’s for Everyone!

While reading Parmasad, I thought about tone and voice. Many of the students I tutor value what they call "objective writing", and many pride themselves on the ability to write for a nameless audience. I tell these same students that even though it's academic writing, it's still writing, and writing should never be boring (a.k.a. voiceless). Good intentions aside, writing to the god of the nameless usually leads to a nameless tone in the writing, and there's no "there" there.

In writing a scholarly personal narrative (or a SPN), one injects personal experience into a larger academic conversation. Thus, to "signify" in a SPN, a writer need not adhere to an autobiographical format, because focusing on specific moments in time as they relate to bigger issues can be just as impactful, (Nash 30). Parmasad displays the effectiveness of SPNs when writing of the cultural disconnect she experienced while growing up as an Indian in Trinidad. Putting moments of her life under the microscope, Parmasad analyzes the importance of writing: "this remarkable exclusion, this invisibility, this feeling of voicelessness filled me with a maddening need to use my writing not as a shield but as a weapon to contest the historical marginalization of a whole people and the negation of my experiences" (135). From her viewpoint, writing is a tool to challenge the cultural limits and bring others to a higher level of understanding. 

In my estimation, an SPN is essential to academia because a properly executed SPN will delve into the "raw marrow" of the writer's life, while bringing the validity of the experience to the forefront of a larger framework, (Nash 26). Developing confidence in writing often goes hand in hand with constructing a narrative, as writers glean key concepts after a re-telling of their experiences. Writing narratives can never be counterproductive, as I'm of the mindset that every high school student should write an SPN, and then again as an undergrad, and then again times again. Much like Nash's idolization of Kimble, the fugitive who reinvents his story in weekly episodic arcs, all writers should endeavor to find their ever-evolving voice to establish meaning (34-35).

Art can be lost if it cannot be understood. An important aspect in writing involves connections and how they're made. To sustain a connection, the language must be effective, and what better use of language as a learning tool utilizing your own voice? As an undergrad, many students are required to write a narrative essay, with no research or larger connection necessary. In contrast, writing an SPN is similar to cutting out a part of oneself, laying it across a table, and magnifying the meaning to fit a larger context. Both types of writing have a purpose, but at differing points in an academic career, an SPN is more purposeful. In fact, several drafts into either, new voice and meaning can be found..

Works Cited

Nash, J, Robert. "What is scholarly personal narrative writing?" Liberating Scholarly Writing. New York: Teachers College Press, 2004. Web. 

Using Point-of-View

The voice behind a story is called point of view.

Point of view is the perspective from which a story is told. There are a variety of ways to employ the use of point of view. For example, an author may choose an objective approach, using 'he' and 'she during storytelling', and using 'I' only in conversations. Such narration is known as third-person point of view.

Second-person point of view is when an author refers to the audience as though they are part of story, saying "You get up in the morning, and there you are, perfectly happy!" It is hard to properly use second-person point of view without interrupting the flow of the story, and so, it is rarely used in literature.

However, other authors might describe the story's events from a first-person point of view, using several 'I' statements to that effect. Popular novelist Stephanie Myer used the first-person point of view for two of her main characters in her series of Twilight books. One main character explained major plot points, and another main character went on to narrate the remainder of the last book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn.

In William Faulkner's short story, A Rose for Emily, point of view has an even more diverse outlook. His story is told in a plural point of view, also known as alternating point of view. The whole town narrates the story, with the word 'we' used to describe the collective narration of A Rose for Emily: "One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair." Any point of view in a story that derives from the norm can be called alternating point of view, like when two types of narration are used in the same story, switching from third to first-person point of view.