James Moffett in his essay "On Essaying" illustrates how to use a personal voice in an essay to define ideas of universal value. He expressed the idea as "how to express ideas of universal value in a personal voice." People cannot do an essay without involving themselves in it. Writers need to express their ideas in a way that they could feel comfortable in their words. Writers show their character and personality in their work.
What are ideas of universal value? Well, it does not have a definitive definition. One time during a class discussion about Moffett's essay "On Essaying" some students got in a group and started to debate about the meaning of "ideas of universal value." Some students said that it was what everybody knows, belief or perceptions of a specific topic. Others students said that it was little of knowledge in a diverse field that everybody knows just for the good to know, statement that every person in a specific culture could know, or some idea that can be debate over time. We as a group conclude that "ideas of universal value" are ideas or statements that people can debate over time. They could agree or disagree with those ideas, but still they are talking about them. By example the Greek philosophers that lived thousands of years ago, Socrates' idea of knowledge "To know, is to know that you know nothing.…show more content… You can add more personality to your work, more character. It will attract more the reader that just simple general ideas about something. What attracts more the attention of the reader are personal stories so they can relate to them. In the end, the readers can make the essay theirs. Some professors may say that it is incorrect, and quote the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers that specificities that define academic papers as assignments are "require us to go beyond our personal knowledge and