{"id":193,"date":"2022-12-15T21:33:14","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T02:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/professionalwriting\/?post_type=chapter&p=193"},"modified":"2022-12-15T21:33:40","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T02:33:40","slug":"understanding-style-and-voice","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/professionalwriting\/chapter\/understanding-style-and-voice\/","title":{"raw":"2.3 Understanding Style and Voice","rendered":"2.3 Understanding Style and Voice"},"content":{"raw":"

Module Overview<\/h2>\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. \r\n

    What is Style?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n
      \r\n \t
    • Definition<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Example<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Analysis<\/li>\r\n \t
    • When does Style change?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t
    • \r\n

      Developing an Effective Style Through Language<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n
        \r\n \t
      • Clarity<\/li>\r\n \t
      • Brevity<\/li>\r\n \t
      • Correctness<\/li>\r\n \t
      • Elegance<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

        \u00a0What is Style?<\/h1>\r\n[embed]https:\/\/youtu.be\/vPk2MeVa3vA[\/embed]\r\n\r\nWhat is Style? Naturally crossing the genres of both academic and creative writing, style exists as part of the writer\u2019s craft. It represents voice and identity. In the art of writing, style influences both the effectiveness of sentences and the beauty of composition. The former addresses communication; the latter, design. Style as choice reveals the writer\u2019s priorities, attitudes, and values.\r\n
        \r\n\r\nFor example, Professor William Strunk, Jr. writes:\r\n\r\nVigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. The Elements of Style, p. 17.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nStrunk\u2019s writing itself is a rhetorical tour de force with no unnecessary words.\u00a0 The phrase, \u201cno unnecessary,\u201d repeated four times in connection with \u201cwords,\u201d \u201csentences,\u201d \u201clines\u201d and \u201cparts,\u201d underscore Professor Strunk\u2019s values about the economy of language and design at both the sentence and paragraph levels. His sixty-three word treatise thus effectively communicates what he clearly argues: powerful writing makes \u201cevery word tell.\u201d Though not expressed, one can add that concise writing is also a virtue: by intentionally making \u201cevery word tell,\u201d a writer shows respect for the time a reader invests.\r\n

        When does Style change?<\/h2>\r\nStyle changes with rhetorical context, especially in tone, language, and formality. Who is your audience and what are the expectations of that particular culture, community, discipline, or genre? What is your topic and your purpose? In terms of tone, an academic audience in the United States would expect your writing to sound confident instead of timid. In terms of language, the lab report on fruit flies for biology class differs from the literary analysis of a poem for English class. In terms of formality, the text you dash off to your best friend is far less formal than the business letter you craft for a potential employer.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[embed]https:\/\/youtu.be\/-PRAcI6nfi4[\/embed]\r\n

        Clarity<\/h2>\r\n\u201cSuit the action to the word, the word to the action\u201d (3.2. 18-19), as Hamlet advises in William Shakespeare\u2019s play. Using subjects to name the agents of a sentence, and using verbs to name their important actions are important principles of clarity.\r\n\r\nFor example, \u201cWhen Rosa Parks resisted giving up her seat on the bus, she became a civil rights hero\u201d is more vigorous than \u201cWhen Rosa Parks was resistant to giving up her seat on the bus, she became a civil rights hero\u201d (Hacker 128). While there are appropriate instances for using the passive voice, the active voice is generally more direct and vigorous.\r\n\r\nFor instance, \u201cI shall always remember my first writing seminar at Boston University\u201d is bolder and more direct than \u201cMy first writing seminar at Boston University will always be remembered by me.\u201d\r\n\r\nUsing definite and specific language also lends force and power to a writer\u2019s prose. George Orwell once rewrote a passage from the Bible and rendered it lifeless. Compare this passage from Ecclesiastes: 3 \u201cI returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all\u201d with \u201cObjective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must inevitably be taken into account.\u201d Quoted in Elements of Style, p. 17\r\n

        Brevity<\/h2>\r\n\u201cCompression is the first grace of style,\u201d says the American Modernist poet Marianne Moore in \u201cTo a Snail,\u201d paraphrasing the Greek philosopher Demetrius. Eliminating redundant, meaningless, and empty words can help restore power to one\u2019s prose. \u201cVigorous writing,\u201d as Strunk has said, \u201cis concise.\u201d For example, phrases like \u201cin my opinion,\u201d \u201cit seems that,\u201d \u201cI think that\u201d are empty because they are implied, and therefore should be cut. \u201cDue to the fact that\u201d is wordy, and can be replaced by one word: \u201cbecause.\u201d\r\n

        Correctness<\/h2>\r\nAttending to correct grammar, punctuation, syntax, and word choice helps a writer communicate with focused accuracy. Furthermore, every word has its denotation, or dictionary meaning, and connotation, or its associated meanings. Choosing words with appropriate connotations comes with knowledge of reader response, and skilled writers learn to master this art. Describing someone as arrogant implies a negative quality, whereas the adjective confident evokes a more positive feeling.\r\n

        Elegance<\/h2>\r\nThe balance and coordination of ideas can lend grace to a writer\u2019s prose, and one way to achieve elegance is to use parallel structure. Correlative conjunctions (\u201cboth, and\u201d; \u201cnot, but\u201d; \u201cnot only, but also\u201d; \u201ceither, or\u201d; \u201cneither, nor\u201d; \u201cjust as; so\u201d; \u201cwhether; or\u201d) also give weight and emphasis to ideas. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who received his doctorate from Boston University\u2019s School of Theology, articulates his vision for a harmonious America in his famous speech, \u201cI Have a Dream.\u201d Observe the rhythms, repetitions, and structure of his powerful prose: \u201cI have a dream today\u2026I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, [and] every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe first two sentences demonstrate parallels not only in structure, but also in meaning: \u201cevery valley\u201d contrasts with \u201cevery hill and mountain,\u201d even as \u201cevery valley shall be exalted\u201d and \u201cevery hill and mountain shall be made low.\u201d In his fight for blacks and other minorities to acquire civil rights, King believes that justice will prevail: \u201cthe crooked places will be made straight.\u201d King\u2019s emphasis of collective action in the word \u201ctogether\u201d stays the same even as his direct, active verbs, in present tense, change (\u201cto work together,\u201d \u201cto pray together,\u201d \u201cto struggle together,\u201d \u201cto go to jail together,\u201d and \u201cto stand up for freedom together\u201d), the action finally culminating, he hopes and dreams, in all being \u201cfree one day.\u201d\r\n\r\n ","rendered":"

        Module Overview<\/h2>\n
          \n
        1. \n

          What is Style?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
            \n
          • Definition<\/li>\n
          • Example<\/li>\n
          • Analysis<\/li>\n
          • When does Style change?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
          • \n

            Developing an Effective Style Through Language<\/strong><\/h3>\n
              \n
            • Clarity<\/li>\n
            • Brevity<\/li>\n
            • Correctness<\/li>\n
            • Elegance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              \u00a0What is Style?<\/h1>\n