Style

Contents

• Dimensions of Style
• Word Choice
• Tropes
  • Figures of Speech
  • Schemes or arrangements of words
• Evaluating the Aesthetics of Style
• Strategic Choices of Style
  • To vivify
• To activate
• To reorient
• To frame change

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Dimensions of Style

Style involves a number of choices that a speaker makes in formulating the language of his/her message:

Choices in the invention of text

• Word Choice. Words have synonyms and variety of possibility in meaning. Why do we choose the words we choose in our message?
• Tropes or Figures of Speech. We can not only use words for their literal meaning, but in non-literal ways that touch our imagination and augment the power of our messages. Why does some phrasing carry greater power?
• Arrangement of Words. Particular arrangements of words can make them memorable and more powerful. What arrangements wield such power?

Choices of delivery

• Pace. We can speed up our delivery or slow it down. We can involve those who hear us differently with the difference in the pace of our message.
• Rhythm. We can use cadences, climax, and other forms of rhythm to enhance the power of our messages.
• Attitude and Tone.  We can build an attitude and emotion into our presentation.

Word Choice

Nouns: The Power to Name

• A choice of names places things into a framework or an orientation. The choice of particular names emphasize different characteristics of the thing we name. Whether you are called "a student," a "son" or "daughter," of "a member of the X generation" is a choice that places you into different frameworks.
• A choice of names focuses attention on those characteristics. We can use words to emphasize the characteristic that we want people to focus upon. The name we choose among those above concentrates our attention on particular characteristics.
• A choice of names provokes strong feelings and attitudes. The connotative power of terms is one of the capacities which language has. It can lead us to embrace or to reject things that affect us.
  • Denotative meaning is the power of words to point to something, to help us understand the reference is to this rather than that.
  • Connotative meaning is the power of words to invoke feelings and attitudes beyond the pointing function.
  We have strong feelings of love and affection toward our father. So, calling someone the "father of our country" not only points to George Washington but expresses our feelings toward his contributions.
• A choice of names allows us to exploit abstract language or concrete language.
  • Abstract language
    • Ignores difference to emphasize commonality
    • Postpones consideration of differences
    • Forms a basis for negotiating difference
    • Unites diverse people into identifications
  • Concrete Language
    • Provides greater clarity of reference
    • Provides vividness of experience
    • Better conveys connotative power

Verbs

The verbs chosen help to manage the activity in discourse.

• Active verbs communicate a level of activity by people. Which active verbs are chosen shape action. Are you "arguing"? "suggesting"? "stating"? "insisting"? "pleading"? or "implying"?
• Passive verbs or versions of the verb "to be" deaden action. They do not specify actors so they project things happening rather than being directed. "The economy is slow right now."

Adjectives

Adjectives modify nouns and augment their characteristics.

• Adjectives communicate values. The speech was a remarkable tribute to his life.
• Adjectives communicate characteristics of people, things, events. "He was sincerely contrite for his action."

Adverbs

• Adverbs modify verbs by augmenting the way an action occurs. Do you speak "aggresively"? "tenderly"? "meekly"?
• Adverbs can also intensify adjectives and adverbs. He gave a very good speech.

Clusters of Words

In truth, we seldom select individual words. Rather, we select a set of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that go together in common clusters of words. Some examples:

• The war metaphor employs nouns such as "soldiers," "enemy," "allies"; verbs such as "attack," "defend," "sacrifice"; adjectives such as "honorable," "intense"; and adverbs such as "violently," or "bravely."
• A narrative of achievement employs nouns such as "success," "effort," "wealth"; verbs such as "toiled," "worked," "succeeded"; adjectives such as "dedicated," "wealthy"; adverbs such as "unceasingly," "worked hard."
  

Negating

• underlies comparison as a basic form of expression.
• underlies the power of language to change because it allows us to envision the unexperienced
• gives us the power to see difference
• provides the power to divide people who can envision their disagreements and differences

Tropes

Figures of Speech

Figure of Speech: An expression in which words are used in a nonliteral way to achieve an effect beyond the range of ordinary language.

Schemes or arrangements of words

Discourse can be amplified by arranging words in certain patterns. Our ears catch the arrangement and recognize its signalling of significance.

Evaluating the Aesthetics of Style

• Clarity. Good style communicates the message in a way that is understood by all in the communication.
• Vividness. Good style makes the speaking vivid. It gives the message an interesting sound and involves those in the communication in an exciting discussion.
• Appropriateness. A complex judgement that ranges from whether the stylistic strategy achieves the objectives of the communication to whether it violates the expectations of the audience in the situation.
• Consistency. Because style can communicate attitude, tone, objective, intensity and so many other things, the style must work consistently toward the objectives of the communication.
• Beauty. An overall judgement that captures admiration for a speaker who uses the language to stir us.

Strategic Choices of Style

Style is not only selected for aesthetic reasons but also to make your discourse more effective.

To vivify

• Concrete Description. In general, concrete language provides a more vivid and active message.
• Visualization. Vivid messages allow those in the communication to have a concrete, visual experience of the events or the result of the action.
• Figures that vivify.
  • Personification
  • Hyperbole
  • Rhetorical Question
  • Irony
  • Synecdoche
    

To activate

• Pace. A more rapid delivery will contibute to a feeling of action. Building pace is particularly effective since it brings the audience from rest to activity.
• Rhythm. A speech that provides a rhythm in which the audience can become involved in the speech will also activate.
• Arrangments which activate.
  • Alliteration
  • Assonance
  • Antithesis
  • Climax Construction
  • Anaphora
  • Epistrophe

To reorient

• Labeling/Renaming. The power of names are never more important than when new names are used to change the way we look at old things. For example: Declaring the use of corporal punishment to be a form of child abuse.
• Slogans. Effective reorientation provides people with ways of seeing their experience in the future. Messages which contain memorable words and phrases that can be easily remembered and invoked in later experiences are powerful. For example: Martin Luther King's use of "I Have a Dream."
• Identification. Stylistic strategies which allow people to see themselves in relationship to the new orientation are more powerful. For example: A description of the benefits of better time management.
• Narrative. A narrative provides a kind of logic to a new way of seeing a series of events. It can therefore be a powerful addition to a message of reorientation. For example: A narrative of the difficulty that single mothers have in providing adequate schooling for their children may be enhanced by a well told story of one mother.
• Figures of speech that reorient
  • Metaphor
  • Allusion
  • Metonymy
  • Personification
Arrangements of material that reorient
• Antithesis
• Parentheses

In addition, however, stylistic arrangements that aid memory, that provide slogans are useful too.

• Anaphora
• Epistrophe

To frame change