Hello, Is It Me Your Looking For?

            There are items in this life that make good combinations like: butter and jelly, cereal and milk, ham and eggs, and the list could go on. But there is one mix I have a hard time putting together, how to find my voice within academic writing. In a couple of my college classes, I had to do research to write an academic paper. Unless, it is a subject you are very interested in or familiar with this is a daunting task.  

            I was assigned to do a research paper on trauma as it related to September 11, 2001, the attack on America. I had to describe the traumatization of American and how they felt after the assault. Now to do this, I had to research different types of trauma such as: natural disasters, and wars, especially, second generation children who parents were captured by Hitler.  I also had to read journals on the psychology of trauma to understand its effect on individuals, households, and nations. After reading for a while, my eyes begin to cross and the words appeared to repeat.

            I felt tired of reading and write about trauma and I started to feel depressed. There were words I had to look up in the dictionary; afterwards I still couldn’t understand the meaning. I felt lost and I believed it reflected in my paper. I was told academic writing is not meant for casual reading, but it is targeted for particular audiences (academics). It is for those who are in a specific field of study or trying to be in it.  So, as college students it is necessary for us to get familiar with difficult reading. In Nancy Sommers,”Between the Draft”, she states, “…………I am distant, imponderable, impersonal voice,---inaccessible, humorless ………I spoke in an inherit academic voice; it wasn’t mine.(6)” I remember reading one of my paragraph out loud on trauma in a class peer review session. I took time, and carefully choose specific words to construct the perfect sentences. I wanted to sound scholarly and authoritative.  But the teacher told me, I had gotten caught up in the words. She was right, I was caught up. It sounded good, but had no context or meaning.  I was a machine on automatic writing down what I thought an academic paper sounded like. 
            My question is does an academic article always have to read so dry?  After reading a few paragraphs, it reminds me of a Charlie Brown cartoon when the adults are talking to the children and it sounds like, “Wha, Wha, Wha, Wha, Wha…” huh? I want to ask, if there is an interpreter nearby.  Your own personal voice adds life to writing. It is not someone else speaking, it’s you.  I do have something to contribute to this subject along with the backing of the research. It is much easier to be you then to transform into someone else's writing.