WRITING STYLES

Here is what some well-known people

have said about style:
"A man's style in any art
should be like his dress—it
should attract as little
attention as possible."

-Samuel Butler
Here is what some well-known people
have said about style:
"Style is a matter of coming
to terms with
language. . . .in our
individual writings we
have the same aims—
clearness, truth, evocation,
some touch of grace."

-Elizabeth Bowen
Here is what some well-known people
have said about style:
"I never study style; all that I
do is try to get the subject
as clear as I can in my
head, and express it in the
commonest language
which occurs to me. But I
generally have to think a
good deal before the
simplest arrangement
occurs to me.“

-Charles Darwin
Here is what some well-known people
have said about style:
"Have something to say,
and say it as clearly as
you can. That is the
only secret of life”.

-Matthew Arnold
How You Get Style?
The content of your first
draft might be the gift of
inspiration, but the style
of your final version is
the result of
perspiration: working
hard to write clearly, with
a particular voice, with a
particular audience in
mind.
"Essentially style resembles good manners. It
comes of endeavoring to understand others, of
thinking for them rather than yourself—or
thinking, that is, with heart as well as the head."

-Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

Style Through Words
"Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of
speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word when a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it
out. Never use the passive when you can use the
active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific
word, or a jargon word if you can think of an
everyday English equivalent.

-George Orwell
Concrete, Specific Words
"Vigorous 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.“

-Strunk and White

• Begin by avoiding adjectives and adverbs. Only
use them when the noun or verb can't do the job
alone. Used sparingly, adjectives or adverbs can
have a powerful impact.

Use specific nouns whenever possible:

Instead of: I would like to bestow this great

honor.
Try: I am honoring Mr. Smith with the Emerson
Lifetime Achievement Award.
Instead of: Expensive cars were parked in front
of the funeral home.

Try: The Cadillac, Lamborghini and Mercedes

were idling in front of the funeral home.

Note:
Use concrete, specific words—because such words
create pictures in your reader's head, which
makes your meaning clearer
Omit Unnecessary Words...Weeding

"Never use two words when one word will serve

better." -(Essential Feature Writing)