Writing Style

Style is the manner in which one expresses himself. Styles differ as men differ. But there are some cardinal qualities that all good style must possess.

Perspicuity is opposed to obscurity of all kinds; it means clearness of expression. It demands that the thought in the sentence shall be plainly seen through the words of the sentence. Perspicuity is an indispensable quality of style; if the thought is not understood, or it is misunderstood, its expression might better have been left unattempted. Perspicuity depends mainly upon these few things:–

1. One’s Clear Understanding of What One Attempts to Say: You cannot express to others more than you thoroughly know, or make your thought clearer to them than it is to yourself.

2. The Unity of the Sentence: Many thoughts, or thoughts having no natural and close connection with each other, should not be crowded into one sentence.

3. The Use of the Right Words: Use such words as convey your thought–each word expressing exactly your idea, no more, no less, no other. Use words in the senses recognized by the best authority. Do not omit words when they are needed, and do not use a superfluity of them. Be cautious in the use of he, she, it, and they. Use simple words–words which those who are addressed can readily understand. Avoid what are called bookish, inkhorn, terms; shun words that have passed out of use, and those that have no footing in the language–foreign words, words newly coined, and slang.

4. A Happy Arrangement: The relations of single words to each other, of phrases to the words they modify, and of clauses to one another should be obvious at a glance. The sentence should not need rearrangement in order to disclose the meaning. Sentences should stand in the paragraph so that the beginning of each shall tally exactly in thought with the sentence that precedes; and the ending of each, with the sentence that follows. Every paragraph should be a unit in thought, distinct from other paragraphs, holding to them the relation that its own sentences hold to one another, the relation that the several parts of each sentence hold to one another.

Energy is force, vigor, of expression. We use energy when we wish to convince the intellect, arouse the feelings, and capture the will–lead one to do something. When energetic, we select words and images for strength and not for beauty; choose specific, and not general, terms; prefer the concrete to the abstract; use few words and crowd these with meaning; place subordinate clauses before the independent; and put the strongest word in the clause, the strongest clause in the sentence, the strongest sentence in the paragraph, and the strongest paragraph in the discourse, last. Energetic thought seeks variety of expression, is usually charged with intense feeling, and requires impassioned delivery.

Imagery - Figures of Speech: Things stand in many relations to each other. Some things are

1. like each other in some particular; other things are

2. unlike each other in some particular; and still other things stand to each other

3. in some other noteworthy relation than that of likeness or unlikeness. Things long seen and associated by us in any of these relations come at last readily to suggest each other.

Figures of Speech are those expressions in which, departing from our ordinary manner in speaking of things, we assert or assume any of these notable relations. The first and great service of imagery is to the thought–it makes the thought clearer and stronger. Imagery adds beauty to style.

A Simile, or Comparison, is a figure of speech in which we point out or assert a likeness between things otherwise unlike; as, The gloom of despondency hung like a cloud over the land.

A Metaphor is a figure of speech in which, assuming the likeness between two things, we bring over and apply to one of them the term that denotes the other.

A Personification is a figure of speech in which things are raised to a plane of being above their own–to or toward that of persons.

1. It raises mere things to the plane of animals

“The sea licks your feet.”

2. It raises mere animals to the plane of persons.

“So talked the spirited, sly Snake.”

3. It raises mere things to the plane of persons.

“Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own.”

An Antithesis is a figure of speech in which things mutually opposed in some particular are set over against each other.

“The mountains give their lost children berries and water.”

“The sea mocks their thirst and lets them die.”

A Metonymy is a figure of speech in which the name of one thing connected to another by a relation other than likeness or unlikeness is brought over and applied to that other. The most important of these relations are

1. that of the sign to the thing signified

2. that of cause to effect

3. that of instrument to the user of it

4. that of container to the thing contained

5. that of material to the thing made out of it

6. that of contiguity

7. that of the abstract to the concrete

8. that of part to the whole or of whole to the part.

This last relation has been thought so important that the metonymy based upon it has received a distinct name–Synecdoche.

Variety is a quality of style opposed to monotonous uniformity. Words must be properly varied, so the same word does not appear with offensive frequency; long words alternate with short; the usual order now and then yields to the transposed; the verb in the assertive form frequently gives way to the participle and the infinitive, which assume; figures of speech sparkle here and there in a setting of plain language; the full method of statement is followed by the contracted; impassioned language is succeeded by the unemotional; long sentences stand side by side with short, and loose sentences with periods; declarative sentences are relieved by interrogative and exclamatory, and simple sentences by compound and complex; clauses have no rigidly fixed position; and sentences heavy with meaning and moving slowly are elbow to elbow with the light and tripping. In a word, no one form or method or matter is continued so long as to weary, and the reader is kept fresh and interested throughout. Variety adds to the clearness and to the force of what is addressed to him.

Source: Kellogg, Brainerd and Reed, Alonzo: Higher Lessons in English, 1896