Developing your own academic voice is an important part of preparing assessments. When putting together your response to an assessment question, you need to base your answer on evidence from credible publications while making your own voice heard in your writing. You can show your understanding and express your own voice in a number of ways, including through the word choices you make, the way you group information together and by adding your own analysis of the subject.

Example of the writer’s voice expressed in an essay:

… According to Hart (2013), the contradiction of these two roles has led to conflict and this is the main cause of marital breakdown. However, Hart's (2013) explanation cannot account for all cases of divorce. For example, as Apostol and Lee’s (2010) study illustrated, marital breakdown also commonly occurs in families where only the husband is working. Nevertheless, the argument that changes in family relations are related to broader social forces seems to be more promising than one that looks only at legislative change. 

Expressing your own voice in your writing is not the same as including your personal opinions. This is to be avoided in traditional essays.

According to Hart (2013), the contradiction of these two roles has led to conflict and this is the main cause of marital breakdown, but in my experience this is not always the case.