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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. [End of Section].
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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 [End of Section]
Diction Diction, or word choice, is one of the main elements of style. [End of Section]
Figures of Speech Whether a writer prefers to use figurative or literallanguage also affects style. [End of Section]
Sentence Patterns Sentence patterns—the ways writers construct sentences—also help create style. [End of Section]
Review Compare the style of these two excerpts. Which is more formal? [End of Section]
Tone Tone is a writer’s attitude toward a subject, a character, or the audience. Writers convey tone through their choice of words. OR tumbled joyfully rolled around noisily OR majestic sweep of dunes empty waste of sand Plot, theme, and tone
Tone You might find the following words helpful in describing tone:
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 [End of Section]
Mood Mood is the feeling a story evokes. Writers create mood through • figures of speech • diction 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:
Mood Quick Check What is the mood of the passage? What words and images help create the mood? I still keep in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed. . . . high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun. There were 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 [End of Section]
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. [End of Section]