Writing with Style

Edited by Rebecca Stott and Simon Avery

Series Editor: Rebecca Stott

SUB GSttingcn 7
214 733 645

2002 A 831

An imprint of Pearson Education

Harlow, England • London • New York • Reading, Massachusetts • San Francisco • Toronto • Don Mills, Ontario • Sydney
Tokyo • Singapore • Hong Kong • Seoul • Taipei • Cape Town • Madrid • Mexico City • Amsterdam • Munich • Paris • Milan
 CONTENTS

Authors Acknowledgements viii

Publishers Acknowledgements x

Introduction 1
Rebecca Stott
How to use this book 4

1 Style in writing 5
Rebecca Stott
What is style? 5
Fitting style to a purpose 7
Writing about prose style 9
Stylistic analysis 13
Personal styles and house styles 18
Summary 23

2 Styles in context 24
Anna Snaith
Register 25
Word choice 32
Discourse worlds 36
Humour 38
Summary 41
VI CONTENTS

3 Writing in clear English 43

Simon Avery
Clear English in the public sphere 44
Writing in a clear English style 47
Legal writing 61
Clear English in academic work 62
Clear English in Literature 63
Summary 65

4 From draft to draft: refreshing words 67

Rebecca Stott

Cliche in speech and writing 68

. Overwriting 74
Refreshing words: drafting 76
Summary 84

5 The rhythms of prose 86

Simon Featherstone
Listening for the voice 86
Rhythms in writing for the stage 89
Rhythm for rhythm's sake 91
Rhythm and comedy 93
Rhythm, voice and oral cultures 95
Rhythm and voice in non-literary writing 98
Rhythm and voice in academic writing 101
Summary 103

6 Styles of journalism 105

Dominic Rowland and Simon Avery
Newspaper layouts 106
Audience 108
The language of headlines 109
Structure and style 111
Keeping it concise 115
Slanting and bias in news reporting 116
 CONTENTS VII

Other types of journalism 120

Summary 126

Glossary 127
Further reading 130
Index 132