Authorial voice in academic writing: A methodological proposal for its analysis

Academic writing has gradually lost its traditional label of objective and impersonal discourse becoming a persuasive endeavour involving the interaction between writer and reader. Despite its popularity, the notion of voice is far from being a univocal concept and its meaning varies according to the perspective adopted. Problems involve its definition, the relationships with other related concepts, and methodological issues concerning the appropriate dimensions and the relevant aspects that should be addressed when observing, analysing and assessing traces of voice in a specific text. The paper has three main objects. Firstly, we revise research studies that in the last ten years have devoted their efforts to clarify the notion of voice considering their conceptual, theoretical and disciplinary framework. Our revision does not intend to be exhaustive but representative of the studies carried out from each theoretical perspective and its main findings. Our second aim is to build our own perspective of voice integrating the findings of previous research. Finally, a methodological proposal is established detailing three dimensions of analysis which are closely related, each one of them focused on the aspects that, according to the revision, we consider relevant for the study of voice.