Evaluating Style: How It’s Said
by Mara Rockliff and Nancy Dean
Style: Everybody’s Got It
Suppose a friend sends you an e-mail from her dad’s address. Chances are you wouldn’t read
too far before you realized who was really writing to you. What your friend said would clue you
in, but how she said it—the words she picked and the way she put those words together—would
also tell you a lot. That is, her style would be a giveaway.
Every piece of writing has a style—a special way of using words—though not all styles are
equally distinct. If you pick up a city newspaper, all the front-page articles will sound alike, even
though different reporters may have written them. Their style could be called straightforward
news reporting—no frills, no fancy words. Flip to columns by Dave Barry or Miss Manners, and
you’ll find two different styles. Dave Barry is flip and funny. Miss Manners is, well, a little fussy.
Style is created through the choices of the author. In other words, the writer purposefully
chooses his or her “tools” and uses them in ways that create a certain effect. Let’s look at some
of those tools:
Diction: The Power of a Word
Style starts with diction—the words a writer chooses. If you want a research paper to sound
serious and scientific, will you use the expression busted leg or fractured femur? If you write a
story for young children, will you call the hero pertinacious, obdurate, or simply stubborn?
Long words with Latin roots (like pertinacious) tend to come across as formal and intellectual.
They might make the writer sound like a showoff. Shorter Anglo-Saxon words (like stubborn)
sound plain and to the point. Even more casual are slang words (pigheaded or die-hard) and
contractions (He’s stubborn, isn’t he? instead of He is stubborn, is he not?).
Formal diction is what makes many classic novels sound old-fashioned to contemporary
readers.
Take, for example, the first sentence of Washington Square by Henry James,
published in 1880: “During a portion of the first half of the present century, and more
particularly during the latter part of it, there flourished and practiced in the city of New York a
physician who enjoyed perhaps an exceptional share of the consideration which, in the United
States, has always been bestowed upon distinguished members of the medical profession.”
A writer today might say: “Americans respect doctors, and in New York fifty years ago Dr.
Sloper was respected even more than most.”
When writers choose words for their compositions, they look for words that are clear,
concrete, and exact. They avoid words that are especially overused and tired. They also pay
attention to the words’ denotations and connotation. Denotation is the literal meaning of a word,
and connotation is the mean suggested by a word, the feeling evoked by a word. The words
ambitious and eager have roughly the same denotation; however, the connotations of these
words are quite different.
Syntax: Putting It All Together
Of course, the second version uses not just simpler words but fewer words. That’s another
aspect of style—sentence structure, or the way words are put together. This is known as syntax,
which includes sentence parts, word order, sentence length, and punctuation. A writer can use
mostly long, elaborate sentences (as Henry James did) or simple, direct sentences, as the
contemporary writer Gary Paulsen does: “He had to fly it somehow. Had to fly the plane. He had
to help himself.”
One Irish writer, James Joyce, wrote long run-on sentences that sound exactly like thoughts
racing through a person’s mind. One sentence in his novel Ulysses runs on for forty pages!
Ernest Hemingway wrote sentences so straightforward and plain that several generations of
novelists have tried to copy his style; William Faulkner wrote sentences so elaborate and ornate
that several generations of novelists have tried to copy his style.
Figurative Language: Plain Style Versus Ornate Style
Figurative language is when writers use expressions that are based on unusual
comparisons and are not literally true.
Some writers prefer a plain style and so don’t use many figures of speech. Those who favor a
more ornate or poetic style use a great number of them. You might not realize it, but nonfiction
writers often use figurative language. Here is a scientific writer, Lewis Thomas, using a simile to
explain warts: Warts are wonderful structures. They can appear overnight on any part of the
skin, like mushrooms on a damp lawn.
Metaphors, similes, personification, hyperbole, symbols, and irony are some of the specific
types of figurative language that can add richness to an author’s writing.
Tone: An Attitude
Another aspect of a writer’s style is tone. Tone is the attitude a writer takes toward the
subject of a work, its characters, or the audience. Some writers, for example, convey a tone of
pessimism: “I can’t read another one of his books,” someone might say. “They are so
depressing.” Other writers may use language that creates a tone of humor or joy. Some writers
have a satiric tone (think of TV sitcoms). Some have tragic tones (think of a Shakespeare play
like Romeo and Juliet).
Details and Imagery: Painting a Picture
An author’s choice of what detail to include can affect the style of a text. Detail includes
facts, observations, reasons, examples, and incidents that a writer uses to develop a subject.
Detail focuses the readers’ attention on important ideas. Writers can also create a sensory
experience using their details. This is called imagery.
Theme
A writer’s style might not actually create his or her theme, the idea about life that a story is
expressing. Style does have a powerful influence on theme, though. A story that presents a dark
and sad worldview, for example, will almost certainly be written in a somber style.
PRACTICE
Here is a simple sentence:
The boy walked through the woods.
1. Rewrite the sentence using figurative language to create an
atmosphere of gloom.
2. Rewrite the sentence using an ornate style.
3. Rewrite the sentence to indicate a tone of affection for the boy.
Mood, which is the atmosphere a writer creates in a work, is also an aspect of style. Many
writers become famous for the moods or atmospheres they create. Some readers buy every
Stephen King novel that comes out because they love to enter his spooky settings.