Style, a definition:

Using certain kinds of sentences and words that serve the your and your audience’s values, expectations, and goals.

Style can be thought of how you manage patterns, repetition, and disruptions of those patterns and repetitions. Deciding on those patterns, repetitions, and disruptions matters when you consider your audience.

In the Blankenship reading, the consideration of audience is what that audience might expect from you and what your audience’s values and expectations are:

• what sorts of words are they used to hearing? (e.g., technical vocabulary, colloquial language) What do they value? (e.g., investors respond well to language that centers a return on investment)
• what kinds of sentences would your audience expect and value? (e.g., long ones, complex ones, simple ones)
• what kinds of organization or paragraphing? (e.g., long paragraphs, short ones)

Here is what we will focus on this semester, more specifically, in regard to style:

• Voice and Audience
• Word origins and tone
• Words and register
• Sentences: Phrases and Clauses
• Sentences: Active and passive voice
• Sentences: Cohesion
• Sentences: Types
• Sentences: Length
• Sentences: Punctuation
• Sentences: Tropes and Figures

When you think about style, what comes to mind OTHER than writing and speaking? Comment below in response to this question by naming 1-2 things in the comments section below and how style in that domain is similar and/or different from how style is used in terms of writing and speaking.

After commenting below, click on the “Click here to continue” button to go to the next module page.