Creative and Critical Thinking: What If? : Style

Creative and Critical Thinking: What If?

Creative and Critical Thinking

Style

Learning Target(s):

Recognize and understand how different forms, formats, structures, and features of texts enhance and shape meaning and impact.

To describe style, it is necessary to explain the techniques the writer has used, and describe how he or she has created a particular voice and given the work a particular tone. Consider the children's rhyme Humpty Dumpty.

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses, and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again

A person might explain the style of the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty as follows:

"The writer's use of rhythmic language and end rhyme creates a cheerful, playful tone. The simple words and short line lengths create a childlike voice that is interestingly at odds with the literal events - the main character's tragic death by falling off a wall."

Style, then, is the result of the author's choice of diction, figurative language, and sentence structure.

One of the hallmarks of a mature writer is control of style. The most proficient writers can write in a variety of styles, just as a skilled piano player can play a Mozart piano concerto in the manner of the late eighteenth century, then play a Fats Waller jazz piece, and do both effectively. Style for a pianist involves a great deal more than simply hitting the right notes; likewise, style for a writer is more than simply arranging words into statements. Style should be consistent throughout a piece; inconsistencies indicate lack of control or, at least, lack of awareness of style.