To start studying components of style is to start with words. Which words should you choose to help accumulate, for you, a certain style? Word origins may play a role–and these are things you already sort of know just from being a writer and speaker of English, for however long you have been doing that. Below, I outline (mostly with the help of Jeanne Fahnestock’s Rhetorical Style book that is basically my Bible) how word origins relate to different kinds of stylistic decisions writers might make.
Here is what English sounded like about 1,000 years ago:
The influences on English are extensive and are continuing—English has become a global language over the last 50 or so years and there will be/are a lot of borrowings, split dialects, etc. as a result of various world Englishes influencing the more standardized forms we hear and read in the media and in professional contexts.
Three Main Influences
There are three main influences on contemporary English:
Take-Aways: “Formality”
Reading more about the three influences might lead you to an overly simplified analysis of language, but the general sense of it holds true.
It is not always true that core words are perceived as “simple and concrete” or French words are always “elevated” or that Latin/Greek are always “scholarly” (e.g., “practice” is fairly simple word from French), but this rule generally applies.
Why think about this? A common stereotype about professional and academic writing is that you should try to sound “formal.” This is sort of true, but it is difficult to pin down exactly what this means.
Further, it often conflicts with another stereotype that professional and academic writing should be “clear, direct, concise, etc.” What is true is that depending on the situation, you might want to be more formal, or more informal, or more concrete, or more abstract…or, well, probably a combination of all of these.
Here are some examples of synonyms across core, French, and Latin/Greek:
walk/ stroll/ ambulate
hate/loathing/antipathy
fix/ correct/ emend
Using more of them or less of any of those categories of words can help build the tone you want. Mixing them, too, can be an asset at strategic moments, as I point out in the below section.
Using different words for tone (click here)
Click the above to learn more about a way to strategize taking on a “formal” tone.
So what is the point here?
The main idea is that, usually, it doesn’t make much sense to get caught up in figuring out if you should be “formal” or “informal.” All languages and contexts for language use typically are a mix of formal/informal, let alone other stylistic labels you might use (e.g., reassuring, warm, intimidating, humorous).
Task
In a comment below, take a sentence that you wrote in your Blog Post or in your Literacy Narrative draft and rewrite it in one of two ways followed by a brief explanation.
You will need to have read the two pages linked above on this page to be able to do the task below.
Choose one of the options below:
- Rewrite as two sentences. The first sentence will sound more formal/scholarly/elevated. The second sentence will sound more informal/concrete/direct. Feel free to look up some word origins to help you out! Take one or two more sentences to explain how this might be effective and why you made the choices you made.
- Use synonymia and rewrite a sentence that uses a bunch of synonyms that either uses a bunch of scholarly/elevated words to start before working to core words, or take the other direction and work from the core down. Take one or two more sentences to explain how this might be effective and why you made the choices you made.
Once you did your rewriting and explaining in a comment below, click the “Click here to continue” button to move on to the next page in the module.
As time went on my language would evolve and influence many changes in my life. I would start to speak with more slang and start to think and act differently.
This is effective since it expands on the previous sentence and gives more insight. I made the changes so it isn’t as vague and a little bit easier to read and digest.
As I read literature for previous classes, I would never grasp the meaning behind the words that were written. The written words would go in one ear and out the other, completely not understanding what the author is trying to convey.
The is effective because the formal sentence can be the main idea your trying to get across, then follow up by the additional information that is introduced in a informal method to make it seem as your have a conversation.
At an early age, I learned an invaluable lesson. Language and literacy are a key element to a person’s identity and to the cultures and subcultures that they identify with.
I think this is effective because it helps drive the point in the second sentence. Helps the reader focus on one big thought.
“The lack of attention to what my mother instructed and my American compulsion to alienate Cantonese through middle school would eventually hit me hard in the summer of 2015.”
Changing out some words to more scholarly words effectively sets a tone and makes the sentence more concise and less vague.
To this day, even in our home country of Montenegro, the capital city of Podgorica, teaching the Albanian language is not permitted.
I think this is effective because it explains better what I’m trying to say in a much more formal manner and I made these changes because it just makes it sound better as well. When reading it to myself it sounds way better than what it was prior. Also I feel as if this makes the reader want to continue reading.
The lackluster behavior of those boys was utterly inexcusable and I hope they do not do what they did again.
This way of writing is effective because psychologically, people usually associate formal writing with good writing. When someone starts off their sentences sounding scholarly, their ideas are more likely to be merited and by the end, the main purpose of the sentence has probably already been expressed.
Your tongue is your root. Once your tongue is cut, you can no longer tell your stories.
Your argot is your origin. Once the head of the snake is cut, the body can no longer move. I think this might be effective because it makes the sentences sound way deeper than they actually are. It just sounds more sophisticated, like I know what I’m talking about.
I lost the enjoyment I used to get from it because I just didn’t find it as enticing as basketball. It wasn’t as fun as video games too. I feel like this is effective because it shows the reader that you have style.
The explanation for this is that none of my parents ever interacted with me in their native language, and I cannot relate to Anzadula’s experiences. This method is effective because it makes the sentence sound better