5 Steps to a 5 by Barbara L. Murphy

Author:Barbara L. Murphy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
Published: 2017-04-04T04:00:00+00:00

Style

When you talk about a writer’s choices and the pattern of these choices you are in the world of literary style.

“It’s not my style.” “Have you seen the style section of the newspaper?” “She dresses with such style.” “What style house is that?” “I love standup comedy, but I don’t really like the slap-stick style of comedy.” Sound familiar? We use or hear or see the word style almost everyday. But, if you were to ask someone to define style, chances are that person would have a difficult time putting it into words. So, we’ll do it for you. Style is the unique way an author consistently presents ideas. An author’s choice of diction, syntax, imagery, rhetorical devices, structure, and content all contribute to a particular style. It’s an author’s writing pattern, if you will. Writing style can vary from author to author, subject to subject, period to period, and even among the same author’s different works.

If you were given an empty room and asked to make it your own, what would you do with it? What would you use the room for? What color would you paint the walls? What would be your major piece of furniture? What would be your other pieces of furniture and accessories? How would you light the room? What would you put on the walls and the windows?

You get the idea. Once the room is finished to your specifications, it is yours; it is your style. Thinking about and discussing writing style is very similar to the above process. Any writer comes to the blank page with an idea and purpose in mind. The writer’s style is the result of all the decisions made about how to present that idea to achieve that purpose.

This is true whether you are examining your own writing style or that of a professional writer. Before going any further, here is a list of those items that literary analysts consider when looking at style:

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