Language Network

Developing Style

Writing Style

Writing style is a combination of the words and images you choose, and the types of sentences you write.

Developing Style

Developing Style

Word Choice

Specific Words

Denotations and Connotations

Practice and Apply

In addition to using a particular level of language, a writer may choose to use concrete words or abstract words, specific words or general words.

The writer’s selection of words makes up his or her diction.

Specific Words

GENERAL: The man saw a car.

SPECIFIC: The patrol officer saw a blue sedan.

The man saw a car.

The patrol officer saw a blue sedan.

Specific Words

Precise nouns and verbs also can be used to replace a string of words and modifiers.

Specific Words

The car shifted from lane to lane through traffic.

The car zigzagged through traffic.

The car shifted from lane to lane through traffic.

The car zigzagged through traffic.

Specific Words

Words have two kinds of meanings, called denotations and connotations.

The denotation of a word is its dictionary definition.

The connotation of a word is the set of associations and feelings the word evokes.

Denotations and Connotations

Cheap, inexpensive, and economical all mean about the same thing, but their connotative meanings are very different.

That car is really economical.

That car is really inexpensive.

That car is really cheap.

POSITIVE CONNOTATION

NEUTRAL CONNOTATION

NEGATIVE CONNOTATION

Denotations and Connotations

In many dictionaries you can find explanations of connotations in the lists of synonyms that follow words’ definitions.

Denotations and Connotations

Rewrite the sentence by replacing the underlined word with a more specific one.

Tony ate all his soup noisily.1.

Practice and Apply

Rewrite the sentence by replacing the underlined word with a more specific one.

Jane threw the ball over the fence.2.

Practice and Apply

Explain how these two sentences differ in meaning.

Nora showed her first-place ribbon to the crowd.Nora flaunted her first-place ribbon to the crowd.

3.

Practice and Apply

Explain how these two sentences differ in meaning.

After John tripped over the book, he smiled.After John tripped over the book, he smirked.

4.

Practice and Apply

Developing Style

Imagery and Figurative Language

Imagery

Figures of Speech

Practice and Apply

Imagery

Imagery conveys sensory impressions. It helps the reader see, hear, feel, taste, and smell what is being described.

Imagery

STUDENT MODEL

The crisp winter day with its dazzling light and scent of new snow was a perfect setting for the women’s halfpipe competition. The densely packed crowd huddled together for warmth and tried to avoid sliding on the slippery, steep slope. The competitors whizzed by, shredding the slopes, inches from the spectators. What an exciting day!

This description appeals to several senses.

STUDENT MODEL

The crisp winter day with its dazzling light and scent of new snow was a perfect setting for the women’s halfpipe competition. The densely packed crowd huddled together for warmth and tried to avoid sliding on the slippery, steep slope. The competitors whizzed by, shredding the slopes, inches from the spectators. What an exciting day!

Imagery

Figures of Speech

Figures of speech, or figurative language, communicate ideas beyond the ordinary, literal meaning of words.

Figures of Speech

Simile, metaphor, and personification are three examples of figures of speech. You can use them to create strong, memorable images for the reader.

Figures of Speech

A simile is a comparison that contains the word like or as. Fresh similes compare things that a person might not normally think of comparing.

Figures of Speech

LITERARY MODEL

. . . Then, like a bursting Roman candle, the gum tree ahead of us was shattered by a bolt of lightning.

. . .[the rain] fell straight down in parallel paths like ropes hanging from the sky.

—James Hurst, “The Scarlet Ibis”

Similes make the scene from James Hurst’s story more vivid.

. . . Then, like a bursting Roman candle, the gum tree ahead of us was shattered by a bolt of lightning.

. . .[the rain] fell straight down in parallel paths like ropes hanging from the sky.

—James Hurst, “The Scarlet Ibis”

Figures of Speech

In a metaphor something is treated as though it were something else. The comparison is made without the use of like or as.

Figures of Speech

LITERARY MODEL

. . . without my knowing it, the locomotive of my heart was rushing down a dangerous slope, heading for a collision, heedless of the warning red lights that blinked all about me, the sirens and the bells and the screams that filled the air.

—Richard Wright, Black Boy

Richard Wright uses the metaphor of a runaway train to describe the path his life was taking.

Figures of Speech

. . . without my knowing it, the locomotive of my heart was rushing down a dangerous slope, heading for a collision, heedless of the warning red lights that blinked all about me, the sirens and the bells and the screams that filled the air.

—Richard Wright, Black Boy

Personification is a figure of speech in which a writer gives human characteristics to an animal, a thing, or an idea.

Figures of Speech

Susan Doro uses personification to present a poem as a main character.

LITERARY MODEL

But tonight the poem saw that she was having a good time, joking with her “buddies.” It was an hour and a half later when the poem looked in again.

—Susan Doro, “The Cultural Worker”

Figures of Speech

Use imagery to complete the sentence.

I’m walking in the snow and getting very cold . . .

5.

Practice and Apply

Use a simile to complete the sentence.

The television was like . . .6.

Practice and Apply

Use a metaphor to complete the sentence.

Football games are . . .7.

Practice and Apply

Write a paragraph that uses personification to describe how one of these objects acts.

a computer a softballa picturea sunset a CD player

8.

Practice and Apply