Styles of Writing (or, Style of Writing) is
- the way a writer writes or how writers from a particular historical period or discourse community write.
Key Words: Rhetorical Stance; Persona; Tone; Voice.
People use a variety of criteria to describe a writer’s style. For instance, people could focus on
- the modes of writing, aims of discourse, or genre of writing that the writer employs.
- For example, you could sort texts by mode (e.g., classification, definition, description, exemplification, exposition, narration) or genre (e.g., annotated bibliography, recommendation report).
- the writer’s use of stylistic elements.
- For example, you could say someone’s style is concise or wordy. Or you could say someone’s prose flows well or reads like a shopping list. Or, someone’s text could be described as unnecessarily obtuse or remarkably clear and simple.
- the writer’s use of grammar or mechanics
- the writer’s diction
- the writer’s use of rhetorical elements
- the writer’s use of point of view
- For example, does the text use first person or second person?
Different media, genres of writing, rhetorical situations, and discourse communities invoke different writing styles.
Prior to writing a text, writers are wise to take the lay of the land: rather than working harder, they can work smarter by conducting a rhetorical analysis. One important step in rhetorical analysis and rhetorical reasoning is to analyze the styles of other writers working in the same space—the same scholarly conversation.
Also, it hopes to engage in some self-reflection about your own writing style. For instance, Joe Moxley, one of the authors of this article, is well aware that he tends to write really wordy drafts. Thus, he knows, based on past reader feedback, that before submitting a work to an audience, he needs to to cut it in half.
Related Concepts
Another way to categorize texts is to sort text according to the writer’s aim. This approach includes both genre and modes of discourse.