Choosing a Writing Style

A WRITERS STYLE IS WHAT SETS HIS OR HER WRITING APART and makes it unique. Style is the way writing is dressed up (or down) to fit the specific context, purpose, or audience. Word choice, sentence fluency, and the writers voice all contribute to the style of a piece of writing. How a writer chooses words and structures sentences to achieve a certain effect is also an element of style. Style is defined as the prose style used for news reporting in media such as newspapers, radio and television. News style encompasses not only vocabulary and sentence structure, but also the way in which stories present the information in terms of relative importance, tone, and intended audience. There are two basic types of story content, whether investigative, hard news or feature and this affects writing style as well: chronological in which the story unfolds through time, and sequence and actions are the material of the investigation (narratives; following a situation through a period of time; following the actual investigation as it unfolds); and topical in which the story revolves around issues and arguments (depending on the specic story, these may be systems, processes, trends or explanations). According to James Glen Stovall, author of Journalism-Who, What, When, Where, Why and How, all professional writing is subject to some kind of style -- the rules of writing for the medium in which the writing will appear. Style rules impose a consistency on the writing, and all writers need to learn and apply style rules to their writing. Style also involves an attitude that journalists should develop about their writing. Journalists should be interested in the language and how it develops. They should be willing to take special care to make sure their writing is efficient, precise and accurate. They should understand that their own opinions and attitudes are of little consequence to the reader, who simply wants the information they have to provide. Journalists, just like publications also have distinctive styles, and they need to know how to vary their styles to fit different audiences. For example, the firstperson narrative style of a popular magazine like National Geographic is quite different from the objective, third-person expository style of a research journal like Scientific American, even though both are written for informational purposes. Style is not a matter of right and wrong but of what is appropriate for a particular setting and audience. Consider the following two passages, which were written by the same author on the same topic with the same main idea, yet have very different styles:

Experiments show that Heliconius butterflies are less likely to ovipost on host plants that possess eggs or egg-like structures. These egg mimics are an unambiguous example of a plant trait evolved in response to a host-restricted group of insect herbivores. Heliconius butterflies lay their eggs on Passiflora vines. In defense the vines seem to have evolved fake eggs that make it look to the butterflies as if eggs have already been laid on them. (Example from Myers, G. (1992). Writing biology: Texts in the social construction of scientific knowledge. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 150.) What changed was the audience. The first passage was written for a professional journal read by other biologists, so the style is authoritative and impersonal, using technical terminology suited to a professional audience. The second passage, written for a popular science magazine, uses a more dramatic style, setting up a conflict between the butterflies and the vines, and using familiar words to help readers from non-scientific backgrounds visualize the scientific concept being described. Each style is appropriate for the particular audience.

Elements of style
Many elements of writing contribute to an authors style, but three of the most important are word choice, point of view, sentence fluency, and voice. Word choice Good writers are concise and precise, weeding out unnecessary words and choosing the exact word to convey meaning. Precise words active verbs, concrete nouns, specific adjectives help the reader visualize the sentence. Good writers use adjectives sparingly and adverbs rarely, letting their nouns and verbs do the work. Good writers also choose words that contribute to the flow of a sentence. Polysyllabic words, alliteration, and consonance can be used to create sentences that roll off the tongue. Onomatopoeia and short, staccato words can be used to break up the rhythm of a sentence. Using the Right Point of View Another consideration is point of view in your writing. Feature stories for newspapers are most often written in third person, but in some situations, such as personal experience articles, columns, and travel articles, the writing is often in first person. Remember that when you choose to write in first person, you become

a significant part of the story. Do you want to be the focus of the article? If so, chose the first person "I." If not, write in third person or even second person. Sentence fluency Sentence fluency is the flow and rhythm of phrases and sentences. Good writers use a variety of sentences with different lengths and rhythms to achieve different effects. They use parallel structures within sentences and paragraphs to reflect parallel ideas, but also know how to avoid monotony by varying their sentence structures. Good writers also arrange their ideas within a sentence for greatest effect. They avoid loose sentences, deleting extraneous words and rearranging their ideas for effect. Many students initially write with a looser oral style, adding words on to the end of a sentence in the order they come to mind. This rambling style is often described as a word dump where everything in a students mind is dumped onto the paper in no particular order. There is nothing wrong with a word dump as a starting point: the advantage of writing over speaking is that writers can return to their words, rethink them, and revise them for effect. Tighter, more readable style results when writers choose their words carefully, delete redundancies, make vague words more specific, and use subordinate clauses and phrases to rearrange their ideas for the greatest effect. Voice Because voice is difficult to measure reliably, it is often left out of scoring formulas for writing tests. Yet voice is an essential element of style that reveals the writers personality. A writers voice can be impersonal or chatty, authoritative or reflective, objective or passionate, serious or funny. Differences in characters personalities their styles are often revealed through the words they speak. There are 3 major distinctive writing styles for feature stories: EXPOSITORY The purpose of stories written using this style is to explain all sides of an argument or issue to inform by examining both sides of an issue

 to provide a balanced discussion of different views to present the pros and cons so readers can make up their own minds The intention is to explain, describe or interpret a situation, issue or event. It explains, it does not present an argument .An expository story considers all aspects of an issue without taking a side or setting out to prove a case. For example if you wrote an expository account of an issue and then tried to demonstrate the benefits over the disadvantages, you would be adding argument; an expository text would explore both without showing preference IMAGINATIVE The purpose here is to: to entertain, amuse, to shock to make reader think about ideas or issues in new and different ways to provoke or to move readers emotionally to stimulate thoughts and feelings Imaginative texts are just that, imaginative in nature. The intention is to present ideas, issues and arguments in an imaginative and credible way through description, characters, settings, figurative language, five senses, etc. While a work of imaginative fiction, it should be credible and plausible. It strives to convey information through description and figurative language, Engage audience when there is an element of credibility involved: the reader needs to believe, in some way, in the 'world' that has been created. Imaginative texts, show don't tell narrate and describe events, characters, situations (e.g. Sam felt tired is telling; whereas Sam studied the clock through half-closed eyes shows that Sam feels tired). PERSUASIVE The purpose here is to: to persuade the reader to agree to argue and convince that author's viewpoint is correct to influence others to agree with viewpoint

Persuasive texts set out to argue and prove a case, and they aim to convince targeted audience of the validity of a viewpoint on an issue by presenting logical argument. They present ideas that follow in logical progression, anticipate and answers possible objections or opposing arguments, and present well researched evidence to support the case. Persuasive texts provide facts from reputable authorities and research to prove, or disapprove, a position and are written with precision and authority. With whichever writing style chosen, it is important to pay particular attention to: 1. Focus - What is it you want to say? Be clear on what you want to say and that you are responding relevantly to the set prompt or topic. This is where you need to have developed your understanding of the Context and the texts. Have a clear focus; this gives your writing its coherence and unity. Unfocused writing meanders and lacks impact or punch. The fundamental question to ask yourself is: What is my central theme or focus? 2. Purpose - We may wish to inform, explain and persuade; or to draw on personal experience to create an imaginative narrative text; or to create an imaginary exchange of dialogue to argue a particular point of view and so on. Whatever you write, clarify your main reasons for writing. While you will often have more than one purpose in writing, you will also find that there is an over-riding or primary purpose behind the story idea. 3. Form - Have you chosen a form appropriate to your purpose? Have you adopted the appropriate conventions and stylistic features of the form? 4. Language - Have you chosen language suited to your purpose and audience? Any effective written text has its language well matched to its form, audience and purpose. Language is how your ideas are communicated. It includes such conventions as style, 'voice' and 'stance', tone, vocabulary, specialised or technical vocabulary, variation of sentences, punctuation, tenses, imagery, metaphor, symbols, dialogue, persuasive strategies, and so on. 5. Audience - Have you addressed a specific audience? Ensure you consider how best to address your audience. Always ask yourself: For whom am I writing? Know your reader. This attunes you to the need to adapt writing to your audience, which enlivens your writing. Therefore, the most effective writing takes into account the nature of the audience that the writer is addressing. Consider the technique writing to a specific person.