Canons of Rhetoric: Style

Style is created by repeating conscious decisions regarding sentence structure and diction.Or is it the unconscious, spontanious, expression of an authentic self? The subject matter, the audience's expectations and needs, the genre, the occasion, and the ethos you wish to convey should all be considered when selecting a style. The ultimate goal is appropriateness: Match the style to the circumstances. Don't curse in a church or wax sermonic in a bar. Clinical terminology is inappropriate for love letters; business letters shouldn't sound like lawyers' briefs.

Traditionally there are three styles, high, middle, and low. High style is reserved for elevated subjects at important moments in formal settings. The middle style is for business transactions and instruction, while the low style is how one speaks at home or among friends. In the table below you will find a list of the characteristics typical of each style, but keep in mind that the categories are not rigid; there may be elements of one that work in another. You can bring low words into a high setting to relieve tension, seem more approachable, or show passion. If you bring high words into low places you will sound pretentious unless you manage to sound ironic or otherwise amusing.

The Three Styles of Prose
	High	Middle or Plain	Low
places	senate, courthouse, civic center, church	boardroom, office, school	home, arena, bar, park
subjects	politics, law, religion	science, economics, technology, business	daily life
goals	inspire	inform	entertain, bond
diction	Latinate	standard	vernacular, slang
sentences	long, complex	short, simple	incomplete, simple, but sometimes also complex
rhythm	iambic	iambic	??
tone	ritualistic, lofty	neutral, plain	friendly, familiar, scatological
metaphor	for the sake of elevation	for the sake of education	for many reasons, for flash, flex, humor, can't find the right word
allusion	literature, art, classical music, important events, history	current events, sports, pop culture, pop music, workplace	family, neighbors, friends
humor	little, refined	some, non-exclusionary	lots, puns, jokes, anecdotes

More About the Middle or Plain Style -- Brevity and Clarity

Cicero is said to have said that "Brevity is a great charm of eloquence." Shakespeare's Hamlet observed that "brevity is the soul of wit." There's no denying that getting the words exactly right is the goal of all effective communicators. The problem is, brevity is a very small target. You have to do a lot of rhetorical work to say only exactly what needs saying. And there are risks. Horace (BCE 65) said it well, "I strive to be brief, and I become obscure." Brevity perfected is silence. To use an obvious transformation of the most common topic of all, at some point less is less. Most of the time, however, less is more (in the sense of better).

Wiki has a classical chreia about the laconic style, the terse, blunt, and elliptical style made famous by the Spartans.

For most kinds of professional discourse, whether academic or business, the middle (plain) style is preferable. The plain style uses simple, direct sentences constructed in a subject, verb, object word order, using only necessary adjectives. The diction is common so that readers do not have to look up words or infer their meaning from the context. The goal of such writing is to convey information efficiently. The writer and his or her words seem almost invisible to the reader.

Below is a list of plain style editorial practices

As with all recipes, salt to taste.

• Use the shortest meaningful sentence.
• Keep modifiers next to the things they modify.
• Use subject, verb, object sentence structure.
• Most of the time, use the most important idea as the subject.
• Use an introductory or prepositional phrase only if it is necessary for a transition.
• Use concrete nouns for subjects.
• Favor active verb forms.
• Use simple rather than compound verb forms.
• Minimize the verb "to be" (search all and then eliminate any you can).
• Rethink infinitive verb forms (to write).
• Avoid nominalization -- turning verbs into noun phrases.
  came to an agreement -- agreed
  put one in jeopardy -- jepordize
  an observation -- observed
  a desire for -- desires
  more...

  on want of -- needs

  a requirment -- requires

  a demonstration of -- demonstrated

  the indication of the results was -- the results indicated

  take into consideration -- consider

  we must enact a refusal -- we refuse

  there was a decline in revenue -- revenue declined

  made a contribution to -- contributed
• Don't inflate your prose with unnecessary words
  advanced reserveation -- reservation
  basic fundamentals -- fundamentals
  totally obvious -- obvious
  more...

  completely finished -- finished

  general public -- public

  different kinds -- kinds

  full circle -- completed

  bald headed -- bald

  final destination -- destination

  free of charge -- free

  an interesting thing to ponder -- interesting

  false pretenses -- pretenses (?)

  Don't say the same thing twice
• Don't use vague words or clichés
• Always be concrete, specific, and detailed.
• Use positive rather than negative expressions whenever appropriate.
• Minimize the preposition "of".
• Eliminate empty expressions (sometimes when you can't quite think of what to say, you fill the discourse with the written equivalents of "um" and "er").
• Eliminate self talk (like, "as said before" "that is to say").
• Use technical expressions precisely and only when required.
• Use metaphors only when necessary to aid understanding.
• Don't mix metaphors.
• Favor monosyllabic over polysyllabic words.
• Use familiar words rather than foreign or old-fashioned words.
• If you use a word your audience does not know, define it.
• If you use a word in an atypical way, explain how you are using it, or don't use the word in that way.
• Each word should have only one meaning.
• Don't vary your terminology merely for variety's sake.
  As a plain style writer, your job is to inform not entertain.
• Spell out acronyms before employing them, unless they are commonly understood.
• Base all new information on already understood information. Don't say anything that your reader's don't have a context for. (If they don't know why you are saying something, then they can't fully interpret it).
• Develop only one idea per paragraph.
• Ensure that the topic sentence of each paragraph is clearly identifiable and near or at the top.
• Use recognizable organizational patterns: hierarchical, geometrical, geographical, logical, conventional, temporal, spatial, sequential.
• Cue your reader by using signposts--transitions, forecasts, summaries.