Comp\Post

Style: The Machinery of Strong Writing

Any writing course in America today should aim at an acute self-consciousness about style. [Richard Lanham, Style: An Anti-Textbook]

These criteria will help us pay attention to key elements of style that can make our writing stronger. Strong writing emerges through technical skill and craft, sometimes more narrowly called “grammar” and “mechanics”; but such skill is not simply a matter of correctness or avoiding errors. The technical craft of your writing needs to inform and be informed by the interest and ideas of your writing. Another word for this definition of writing as interesting and skillful: style. We will be discussing and experimenting with style throughout. Richard Lanham argues, and I agree, that we improve our style by being more self-conscious (and deliberate) in looking AT it, working on it during revision, experimenting with our hands on the machinery behind the curtain. You might recall that Oz says at this moment of revelation: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” In experimenting with these criteria in our writing projects, we are pulling back the curtain; great and powerful voices and vision in writing are all mediated by the levers of style.

One way to experiment with this machinery: take up one or two items from this list as you revise and edit your writing—and give it more attention, pull the lever. Look AT your movement or form or detail. Play with it, try something different, and consider what might make that particular quality stronger and how that would change (strengthen or weaken) the effectiveness of the writing overall.  Talk with me in conference about your experiments–I will often ask, what have you been working on, experimenting with regarding style? In workshop, we will be exploring these criteria and elaborating them with examples from your own essays and experiments.

Adapted from Dan Kirby, Dawn Latta Kirby, and Tom Liner, Inside Out: Strategies for Teaching Writing (Heinemann, 2004).

Strong Writing is INTERESTING to read

/1/The writing has a Voice:

One human being talking to another; makes the reader believe; a strong, recognizable imprint of the writer, sometimes called style.

 /2/The writing expresses Movement:

The writing moves: starts here and goes there, pulls the reader along, has variety and turns, sometimes surprises.

/3/The writing has a sense of Humor:

Writer doesn’t take herself/himself too seriously, has light touch, even-tempered.

/4/The writing is Informative:

Has substance, says something, is important; makes reader feel time has been well spent.

/5/The writing is Inventive:

Says something new, or something old in a new way; has imagination

Strong Writing is crafted with TECHNICAL SKILL

/6/The writing has a sense of Audience:

Makes contact between writer and reader, anticipates reader’s needs, compliments reader with meaning.

/7/The writing uses Detail:

Selection of details that are vivid and concrete, suit the piece and audience, particularize experience for the reader.

/8/The writing has Rhythm:

Is rich in imagery and associations, strong in rhythm, uses the language resources of the poet.

/9/The writing has Form:

Is graphically well designed and has a presentational sense.

/10/The writing makes Sense:

Thoughts are communicated clearly, points are developed effectively, the organization aids meaning.

/11/The writing observes conventions of Mechanics and Usage:

Observes conventions of spelling, punctuation, grammar, and (since we are in an academic domain) the usage of standard written English; is aware and deliberate whenever breaking those conventions. For further help, consult this list of the most common formal errors in writing you should give your attention to (and might work on as needed).