Think about all you've read in Baron, Lanham, and Williams--as well as the presentations and discussions you've seen. Define style (again). And, list out as many elements of style as you can.


Style at the most basic level is a series of suggested rules that allow writers to compose clear and graceful prose. Style, conversely, can be expressed by breaking rules. A confident rule-breaker can begin sentences with “And” or “But” and throw off a rule that serves no purpose. Style for mature writers, therefore, is a series of choices that allow them to achieve a specified purpose in communicating with a given audience. Stylistic choices must be made in the areas of:
• Cohesion
• Concision
• Correctness
• Elegance/Gracefulness
• Eloquence
• Emphasis
• Metaphor
• Person
• Repetition
• Rhythm
• Symmetry/Shape
• Transparency/Opaqueness
• Voice

Writing style changes from discipline to discipline, and evolves from one time period to the next. Lanham notes that visual conventions differ in scholarly books from popular books, and in scientific treatises versus Victorian texts. He further notes that a writer can produce text converted into shape, in imagistic self-consciousness. Texts may be transparent; texts may be ornamental; writers in their stylistic choices create texts that convey ideas, emotions, and content.