[Goodness! I got so excited by everybody else’s stuff I forgot to upload my own! Thanks to those readers who grabbed the PDF and noted the difference!]
Forty-nine issues. An average of 24 pages of articles and content per issue. With about 500 words per page. That’s almost 600,000 words we published last year.
600,000 words poured out from the brains of fellow students and others within or from the AU community for you. Words created for your education, enjoyment, enlightenment, or even just to bring you a connection with others in the AU community.
So you can imagine that narrowing that down to get the “Best of the Voice 2018” is no easy task. And for those few of you students and others who diligently made the effort to dig through them all and find what you felt were the best, my endless appreciation.
For those of you who just remembered that one story that struck you and let me know, my thanks also go to you.
For everybody, though, this is the result. Thirty pages of content. Thirty pages of some of the most affecting, surprising, thought-provoking articles that writers from the AU community provided.
In here you’ll also find articles emblematic of The Voice Magazine experience. As an example, I’ll let you in on a little secret: nobody actually voted for a Course Exam article, for instance. Yet, by the reader counts we have, the Course Exam articles are consistently among the most popular articles we publish in The Voice Magazine. Is it really the Best of The Voice? Well, even if you don’t necessarily remember it above some of the other great writing we have, it’s obviously part of what draws people to The Voice, so could I really do a Best of the Voice, showcasing what we’re all about, without one? Of course not.
All of which means what you’ll get here is not just The Best of the Voice in 2018, but the best of the Voice experience. That’s part of why I like to start each year off with one of these. If someone’s looking to see what The Voice Magazine is all about, these issues are a great place to point them to.
Of course, I couldn’t resist but add a little commentary to each pick, giving you some background information about when we published it and why it’s been included. I’m quite confident that you’ll find all the choices this year deserve to be here, but if you still think there’s something I missed, let me know. After all, nothing says there can’t be a quick list of honorable mentions next issue.
Until then though, enjoy the read. I certainly did!
