Voice is the sense of a real person behind the writing, and it comes from particular details, not loudness. Children in Year 7 now sit the exam in Year 8, in June 2027 Expected, ending with Writing.
In each "after", you can hear who is writing, though the facts are much the same. Ask your child to read the "before" aloud and say who could have written it. If the answer is "anyone", read the "after" together and find the detail that changes that.
Worked explanation 1
Write about your favourite place.
Write about your favourite place.
My favourite place is the beach. It is very nice. I like it a lot because it is fun and relaxing.
My favourite place is the rock pool at the far end of our beach, the one only my family seems to know about. I could sit there for hours, watching tiny crabs and pretending I'm a marine scientist.
The "before" could have been written by anyone about any beach. The "after" sounds like a real person: it names a particular spot, shares a private detail ("only my family seems to know about") and lets a little humour show. That sense of a real writer behind the words is what "voice" means.
Worked explanation 2
Persuade your class that everyone should learn to cook.
Persuade your class that everyone should learn to cook.
Everyone MUST learn to cook!!! It is the most important thing EVER and if you don't learn you are making a huge mistake!!!
You will eat about 20,000 meals before you turn eighteen. Wouldn't it be good to make a few of them yourself? Learning to cook is cheaper than takeaway, more fun than it sounds, and the fastest way to become popular at a sleepover.
The "before" tries to sound strong with capitals and exclamation marks, but it reads as shouting and gives no reason. The "after" sounds confident and friendly: it opens with a surprising number, asks the reader a question and ends with a light touch of humour. A persuasive voice comes from sounding sure and reasonable, not loud.
Worked explanation 3
Write a story told by someone starting at a new school.
Write a story told by someone starting at a new school.
It was my first day at a new school. I was nervous. I didn't know anyone. I went to my classroom and sat down.
Rule one of being the new kid: never sit in someone else's seat. I learned it at 9.02 on Monday, when a girl with a red pencil case looked at me, then at the chair, then back at me. I moved so fast I knocked over my water bottle.
The "before" tells us the character is nervous. The "after" lets the character's own way of thinking show it, through a made-up "rule", an exact time and an awkward moment. The reader hears a person, not a report. Keeping a voice like this steady across a whole story is hard, which is why this is the hardest of the three.
How should my child approach it?
Treat voice as a way to make ideas clearer and more convincing, not as a box to tick. That's the honest approach: ACER says the test looks at conveying ideas in precise language, with the ideas organised coherently, it doesn't mention voice, and it publishes no marking criteria.
A particular detail does both jobs at once. It makes an idea precise, and it shows who wrote it. These steps are ours.
Choose the particular, not the general
Not 'the beach' but the rock pool at the far end of it. A particular place or thing already sounds like someone's own.
Let one personal detail show
A private fact or a small joke, like pretending to be a marine scientist, tells the reader a real person is writing.
Sound sure, not loud
Capitals and a row of exclamation marks read as shouting. A surprising fact or a question to the reader sounds confident instead.
Show feelings through thoughts and actions
Instead of 'I was nervous', let the character's own way of thinking, and an awkward moment, show it.
Match the voice to the task
Friendly and reasonable to persuade; the narrator's own way of seeing things in a story. Then keep it steady to the end.
The slip to check for is a sentence any child could have written about any place. Read your child's piece against the versions below and see which one it sounds like.
Writing anyone could have written. "My favourite place is the beach. It is very nice" could be about any beach, by any child.
Shouting instead of persuading. The cooking example uses capitals and exclamation marks but gives no reason. Confidence comes from sounding sure and reasonable.
Naming the feeling. "I was nervous. I didn't know anyone" reports the first day. The made-up rule about seats lets us hear the new kid think.
How can we practise it at home?
The examples show voice in a short passage. Practice test 1 is free and has the exam's 2 writing tasks, written by hand in 40 minutes, so it shows whether your child's voice lasts. Afterwards, read both aloud: a flatter second piece means the voice slipped under time pressure.
Voice is easiest to hear, so do some of this aloud.
Read your child's piece aloud. Ask: does it sound like a person talking, or like a form being filled in?
Take one flat sentence and rewrite it as a grandparent, a sports commentator or a cat might say it.
Write the same short message twice: once to a friend, once to the school principal. Talk about the change.
Read first-person novels and notice how the narrator's thinking shows.
