The Significance of Style
Robert Burton, lifelong scholar and librarian in the 16th century, wrote: “It is most true, stylus virum arguit,--our style betrays us” (qtd. in Bartlett). Whether inserting the most complicated words possible in order to sound scholarly, littering sentences by overusing slang and contractions, or keeping every sentence to a tight structure of subject, verb, object with no variation—these elements of style used improperly say something, even if unintentional, about the writer. In the end, the writer ends up sounding pompous, uneducated, or stilted and boring. While it would be easy to confuse style with voice and insist that every writer must be true to their voice and so cannot “learn” style, it is clear that style is much more than just the voice of the writer. No one writes in order to sound pompous, uneducated, or boring; we write to educate, to entertain, or even to make connections. Two books, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace by Joseph Williams, and The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, address the issues of style and attempt to give the writer tools to improve their writing style. While there are many important elements to style, the ones I found most helpful deal with audience, clarity, and emphasis.
Few people write for the pure pleasure of writing alone—writing is meant to be read. According to Williams, it is important “to understand not only [writings] social origins but its social consequences” (xi). He asserts that when writing is unclear, often the reader mistakenly makes the assumption that it is their fault when it is the writers. In other words, writers have a responsibility to write clearly for their intended audience. The elements of style that...
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...s control of his words—they are “tumbled about” for people to understand or misunderstand (362). In taking the responsibility for a clear writing style, writers can more effectively allow their audience to understand their intended meaning, and they can set at least one of Plato’s fears to rest.
Works Cited
Bartlett, John. “Bartlett’s Book of Quotations.” June 2000.
http://www.bartleby.com/100/151.6.html>. Bartleby. 17 Oct. 2004.
Bowron, Kelly. “Prompt Five.” < http://bkellyaf.blogspot.com/>. 17 Oct. 2004 Exploring Writing. 18 Oct. 2004.
Plato. “From Phaedrus.” Readings from Plato to the Digital Age. Evelyn B. Tribble and Anne Trubek, Eds. New York: Longman, 2003. 360-364.
Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. New York: Longman, 2000.
Williams, Joseph M. Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. Chicago: University Press, 1990.
Many people argue whether not Canada has any culture at all, and why American culture seems to have such a big influence on Canadian music, art and television. Over the years the Canadian government has tried to protect and develop talent in Canada. Once British traditions started to fade away, the influence on Canada from America became stronger. If Canada was to become a strong independent country they needed their own identity. The government support has played an important role in the arts development, as has the establishment of numerous art schools and colleges across the country .Canada has produced a variety of well-known films, actors, and authors. Even though American culture has strongly penetrated and influenced Canadian culture, the government has created many different openings for Canadian culture to be protected and expanded throughout Canada using things like; the national film board, creation of the CBC and the Canadian content rule.
First we will examine Morse v. Frederick, a case on free speech that took place in 2007 and revolved around the legality of a student to present speech that could be considered as promoting or glorifying illicit drug usage. Public opinion has changed somewhat in recent years, from the widespread, publicly accepted and supported “war on drugs” that began in the Reagan era, to a more “libertarian” approach that is held by many. This Libertarian approach holds that as long as the illicit drug use of a person does not infringe on the rights of others in society, or put others in danger, then the drug usage is acceptable in a private setting and should not be illegal. In the year 2013 as many as 58% of Americans held the opinion that marijuana should ...
From the start of the 1920's, Canadians have faced a considerable amount of threat towards the Canadian culture from it's American neighbours. For Canada, living so close causes a concern on Canadian identity from American implementation, however, being in a close relationship with the States, it has also promoted Canadian culture. An examination of the nation's success with CBC from America's involvement in the airwaves, Canadian nationalism is promoted through Hockey Night in Canada and the establishment of the National Film Board during the growth of American entertainment industries, will clearly prove that American influence has not diminished Canadian identity but in fact has strengthened it.
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In the last 20 years the penetration of the Canadian market by American cultural industries is still extremely strong. The United States is still the main source of culture products. American products represent 81% of all culture commodity imports. Canadians watch American TV shows, listen to American music, love American sports teams, drive American cars and buy American goods at American stores like Walmart. They eat American food, drink American beer (sometimes).
Plato. The Works of Plato. Trans. Irwin Edman. New York : The Modern Library, 1983.
A successful writer is he who is able to transmit ideas, emotions, and wisdom on to his readers. He is cable of stirring emotions and capturing the reader's attention with vivid descriptions and clever dialogues. The writer can even play with the meanings of words and fuse reality with fiction to achieve his goal of taking the reader on a wonderful journey. His tools are but words, yet the art of writing is found in the use of the language to create though-provoking pieces that defy the changing times. Between the lines, voices and images emerge. Not everyone can write effectively and invoke these voices. It is those few who can create certain psychological effects on the reader who can seize him (or her) with inspiring teachings, frightening thoughts, and playful games with the language. These people are true writers…
Canada as a nation has been striving to characterize itself as more ?Canadian? for decades. This has included numerous struggles and events such as protests, bans, and the creation of the Massey Commission, to encourage national development in the arts, and support major companies like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and National Film Board (NFB). However, this has not been an easy task for the Canadian government, as major influences from below the border (the United States) have been captivating the Canadian audiences by large. American media has had a momentous revolutionizing effect on Canada, even through efforts made to define Canada with its own cultural identity.
Religious liberty in public life. (2010, 24 2010). Retrieved 11 24, 2010, from firstamendmentcenter: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/rel_liberty/free_exercise/index.aspx
Any craftsman knows that you need the right tools to complete a project successfully. Similarly, people need the right language and usage to communicate in a positive way. How people write is often a problem because they don’t have the right tools, but a bigger problem occurs when a writer “is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything at all” (592). If a writer carries this mentality, why try to communicate in the first place? People need...
This paper has effort to generally show youths growing up gay. A number of issues have been presented involving gay identity formation, parental interaction, and disclosure. Homosexuality is a very controversial subject. By no mean does this paper try to say that it is “totally correct.” However, the paper does examine logical theoretical ideas of what gay adolescents endure, using and combining research and reports of other gay studies.
Williams’ views on style are more diverse. According to him, style should be more about the audience the writer is writing to rather than the writer himself. Williams explains how to write or the reader. In his last chapter Williams states how to write in a constructive voice, how to the flow of information affects the reader, what words to use when the reader has prior knowledge of the subject and when he or she does not, and how to be clear for the reader.
...tive impact of the American culture and only a great emphasis on the negative factors. He should consider the fact that while Americans can seem as a threat to Canadian culture, there are also their neighbours and establishing a good relationship could mean a greater market for Canada’s domestic goods.
What is branding? Branding has been advocated as a potentially successful response to heightened market concentration; it offers the possibilities of centralized control and format standardization, and an added value or cost driven strategy can be used to differentiate the retail offering and reinforce market positioning. Brands provide informational cues for buyers about the store's merchandise quality, and favourable images of brands positively influence patronage decisions." Successful retail branding can provide a form of "insulation" against price competition and states: "Where the store brand name is itself a brand name based on a quality appeal, it will be easier to position the own brand as a premium product under the same name" (Schmidt, R., & Pioch, E., 2005). Further as consumers, we tend to think about brands as symbols like the Nike swoosh or McDonald’s golden arches; the working definition of a brand is broader. A brand is usually defined as a name, logo, symbol, words, or combination of these, intended to distinguish a particular company’s offerings from those of competitors. In this sense, the modern use of the word “brand” harkens back to its older meaning which is a distinguishing mark or burn to identify wine, livestock or other commodities by their owner (Koehn, N., 2013).
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