The Style of the Essay
Prior to reading Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style and William’s Style, I was under the assumption that everyone had their own writing style. Once I had read the texts and listened to the classroom discussions I realized that I didn’t really know what style was when it came to writing. We as writers must all follow rules and guidelines for writing in order for the reader to understand what we are trying to get across. Without these rules and guidelines we probably wouldn’t be able to understand what the author is trying to express. I think that the word “style” has been thrown around so much that I never really understood its true meaning.
Before going further let’s briefly look at the authors backgrounds. The Authors of The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, have similar backgrounds. William Strunk Jr. was a professor at Cornell University, an Ivy League school on the east coast. E.B. White was a student of Strunk’s in 1919 and also a professional writer. While enrolled in Stunk’s class White and the rest of the students were required to purchase a little text book that Strunk had written to be used as a reference for writing. Thirty-eight years later White revised the text book by adding passages about the power of words and clear expression of thoughts and feelings (87 Stunk and White). Both authors are now deceased. Joseph M. Williams formally an English professor and linguist still alive as of October 2003, is the author of Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. Style, was originally published in 1981 as a text book and has been revised to reflect the changing times (ix Williams).
Strunk and White’s Elements of Style tends to focus more on rules of accuracy, brevity and clarity etc. They offer few good and bad examples of these rules and write more for an educated White Anglo-Saxon Male in the early to mid 1900’s. Professor Strunk wrote the rules in the form of direct orders; “Sergeant Strunk” as E.B. White has called him focuses on the fundamentals: the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated (xiv Stunk and White).
Williams explains the “styles” of writing more in depth than Strunk and White.
Webster’s dictionary defines style as a particular or distinctive fashion, form or manner. This leaves much unsaid in context to the world of writing. Everyone looks at style differently because everyone has their own interpretation of what it is. The Elements of Style and Grace and Style Toward Clarity and Grace are two different books. Though these books have many differences, a lot of the ideas are the same; they are just written in different styles. I do not believe either one to be overly better than the other. They were both written at different times with different objectives in mind, and you have to take that for what it is worth.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Ed. Stanley Corngold. Trans. Stanley Corngold. New York: Bantam, 2004. Print.
Milne, James. “The Author.” The Page at Pooh Corner. 6 May 2010. Web. 26 Mar 2014.
It is believed that the style used in the Passage “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edward’s is more effective than the style that is used in “The Minister’s Black Veil” by James Hawthorne. Both passages are well written however obviously one style is more effective than the other because of many reasons. Nevertheless, both styles are still effective.
In the metamorphosis by Frank Kafka, there are significant actions and transformations which make the story sad, and strange with a happy ending. Explanations that are dramatic events that intensify the excitement of all these actions. Reality and refection play and important role in this story because the events that happened could be applied and assimilated with modern society.
Personally, I cannot identify my exact writing style. I do write with clear, concise, fluidity; however, I have no sense of “personal style.” I construct each written assignment with the intention of being blunt and supporting my assertions with facts and details that will strengthen my argument. After reading Ch. 1 “The Transaction” I agree with that Zinsser proposes: my writing reflects who I am as a person (5). I am blunt and to the point. I get tasks done in the most efficient way. Maybe my personality does come through in my writing more than I thought.
The works of Edgar Allan Poe are well known to be a rather dark style of writing. Many of the man’s stories and poems tend to revolve around the thought of death. His inspiration for his dark works could have come from the type of life Edgar Allan Poe lived. The author Edgar Allan Poe has a very dark writing style as shown in his works such as “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”.
What is writing style? I started out thinking that writing style is a personal thing and that all writers have their own style. But, this way of thinking is really just a simple way to answer the question. After more careful thought, I realized that style is actually quite the opposite of personal and original. Style is a form of standardization. As writers, we all follow certain rules and guidelines to make our point. Style is these rules and guidelines.
Kafka, Franz, and Stanley Appelbaum. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. New York: Dover Publications, 1996. Print.
Having an identity forms part of a person's character: individuals desire to be distinctive and through writing he or she can achieve that ambition. Writing itself cannot standbyitself to show a person's uniqueness; therefore, style plays a crucial role to enable the author to express his or her thoughts, intentions, and values. The style of an author liberates them to be truly free, writers decided how they will like to convey their message and evoke the clues that will assistance the reader to understand the plot of the story. However, Style represents an opportunity, the extent of style formulating creative thoughts and critical analysis is frankly up to the writer. The author can be a creativity yet complex writer that pushes the reader
Vanwesenbeck, I. (2013). Prostitution Puch and Pull: Male and Female Perspectives . Journal of Sex Research, 11-16.
Writing Style: Why does the author use the stradegies to show the moods in the
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is an amazing story for people who enjoy reading about realistic life challenges. Gregor Samsa is a self-sacrificing young man, who is mysteriously transformed into a giant insect. He supports his entire family by working as a traveling salesman. He really dislikes this job, but as many people, he ended up doing things that he did not want to do. Gregor Samsa devoted his entire life to the benefit of others. Since Gregor was a young man one would think he had an amazing social life, but unfortunately he did not. Gregor did not have any close friends, all he had was his family. It is evident that he would have high levels of repressed resentment towards his family. He sacrificed everything for his sister Grete, and his parents, but they never properly appreciated him. Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis highlights the theme of individual versus society through symbolism and literary devices.
Kafka’s Metamorphosis is a novel containing an astronomical amount of anthropomorphism that help to construct the idea of Mind versus the body or even Animal versus Mankind. These ideas are displayed throughout the work as dualities. These dualities compare two unlike objects that contrast to the point that they highlight the similarities between them. These dualities are often used to enlighten the audience as to important cultural and contextual convictions.
Stylometry is a quantitative investigation into the characteristics of an author’s style. Lann (1995) defines the term as a technique “to grasp the often elusive character of an author's style, or at least part of it, by quantifying some of its features” (1995:271). Matthews and Merriam (1993) agree claiming “Stylometry attempts to capture quantitatively the essence of an individual’s use of language” (1993:203). To put it simply, stylometric analysis is an approach to the investigation of characteristics within literary works through numerical quantitative methods. The relationship between quantitative aspects and literary phenomena is very old. Numerous studies have attempted to explain the stylistic and linguistic properties of authors in terms of quantitative methods and these have been more developed with the availability of computational methods since these methods are accepted by many as more accurate than non-computational ones.