Evaluating Style

Feature Menu

What Is Style?
Diction
Figures of Speech
Sentence Patterns
Review
Tone
Mood
Practice
 What Is Style?

Style is a writer’s distinctive way of using

language. Style can take many forms.

Formal/Informal Comical/Serious Plain/Ornate

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 Diction

Diction, or word choice, is one of the main

elements of style.
Long, elegant words Short, everyday words
vivacious lively
nonplussed at a loss
pandemonium chaos
Formal words Informal words
I kindly accept your invitation. I’ll be there.
in a difficult situation in a jam
was indisposed felt under the weather
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 Figures of Speech

Whether a writer prefers to use figurative or

literal language also affects style.
Figurative language Literal language
He felt as trapped as a cat in He felt completely trapped.
a vet’s office.
Her fingers were She played the piano with a
hummingbirds’ wings light, quick touch.
brushing over the piano keys.
My brother looked as if he’d My brother looked utterly
suddenly awakened to find confused.
himself on Mars.

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 Sentence Patterns

Sentence patterns—the ways writers construct

sentences—also help create style.
Short, punchy sentences
“Tom was tugging at a button
and looking sheepish. He
blushed, now, and his eyes
fell.”
from The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer by Mark Twain
Long, complex sentences
“Children can feel, but they
cannot analyse their feelings;
and if the analysis is partially
effected in thought, they
know not how to express the
result of the process in
words.”
from Jane Eyre by Charlotte
Brontë

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 Review

Compare the style of these two excerpts. Which is

more formal?
When I think of the
hometown of my youth, all
that I seem to remember is
dust—the brown, crumbly
dust of late summer—arid,
sterile dust that gets into the
eyes and makes them water,
gets into the throat and
between the toes of bare
brown feet.
from “Marigolds” by Eugenia W.
Collier
It was in the clove of
seasons, summer was dead
but autumn had not yet been
born, that the ibis lit in the
bleeding tree. The flower
garden was stained with
rotting brown magnolia
petals, and ironweeds grew
rank amid the purple phlox.
from “The Scarlet Ibis” by James
Hurst
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 Tone

Tone is a writer’s attitude toward a subject, a

character, or the audience. Writers convey tone
through their choice of words.

tumbled joyfully OR
rolled around noisily

majestic sweep of dunes OR

empty waste of sand

Plot, theme, and tone

 Tone

You might find the following words helpful in

describing tone:

Words for Tone

admiring comic sarcastic
affectionate forgiving serious
bitter mocking vengeful
 Tone

Listen to this passage from Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen. What is the writer’s tone? What
words help create the tone?

“She was a woman of mean understanding, little information,

and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she
fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get
her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.”
from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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 Mood

Mood is the feeling a story evokes. Writers create

mood through
• diction • figures of speech
tender blooms
in soft light

rolling hills draped by

a shroud of fog

stalks etched starkly

against an orange sky
 Mood

You might find the following words helpful in

describing mood:

Words for Mood

eerie joyful peaceful
gloomy mysterious sad
 Mood
Quick Check
What is the
I still keep in mind a certain wonderful
mood of the
sunset which I witnessed. . . . high above passage? What
the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree words and
waved a single leafy bough that glowed like images help
a flame in the unobstructed splendor that create the
was flowing from the sun. There were mood?
graceful curves, reflected images, woody
heights, soft distances: and over the whole
scene, far and near, the dissolving lights
drifted steadily, enriching it, every passing
moment, with new marvels of coloring.
from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
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 Practice

Choose one of these topics: tests,

friends, school lunches. Then, write about it twice.
Write one paragraph in the formal style you would
use in a research paper. Write the other in the
informal style you would use when talking with
friends.

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The End