Elements of Style

Elements of Style

Definition –

1.      Proper words in proper place (Jonathan Swift)

2.      Dress of thought (Lord Chesterton)

3.      A man’s style is his mind’s vice (Emerson)

4.      Style is a thinking out into language (Cardinal Newman)

·         Choice of words

·         Construction of sentences

·         Development of paragraphs

·         Presentation of the total information

Style is the way you write.

The Scientific Attitude – To make your report effective, you have to develop a scientific attitude in writing. It helps you to

i.                    Remain objective in your approach to problems

ii.                  Impartial in the analysis of the data

iii.                Truthful in the presentation of facts

Language which has these qualities is terse, direct and informative. It does not make use of figures of speech or emotive words. No ornamental are used. The effort is not to make the language beautiful and pleasing to the reader. Rather, it is to make the contents clear and unambiguous by using simple and straightforward language.

The author keeps his personality out of the work. He does not allow his own thoughts, feelings or opinions out and presents the facts as they are without favour or bias. He presents the facts with mathematical plainness.

But that does not mean that it should be rigid, stiff and dull. It must have the elements of variety, and creativity to keep the reader’s interest from flagging. The aim should simply be to convey your thoughts as clearly as possible, not to impress the reader with your command over the language and the ability to employ devices that make it look beautiful.

You should try to use the passive voice and the third person as far as possible and avoid the active voice. Similarly, the se of the first person pronouns like I and we should be excluded.

However, the active voice may be used sometimes if it can express an idea more clearly and forcefully.

The first person pronouns should be used only if you have collected the data single-handedly. But if you have worked as a group, the first person should be avoided. The use of WE is sometimes confusing as it does not make it clear who are the people it includes besides the writer. The aim should be to make it clear to the reader who the agent is.

Readability – The report must be readable by the targeted audience. To achieve this goal, you must have some idea of the intelligence level, the professional knowledge, and the linguistic competence of your readers. You should use the kind of language that they can easily understand. The general rule is that very long sentences and difficult words should be avoided. Use short sentences and easy to understand words. The fog index (calculated by dividing the by the sum of the percentage of difficult words and the percentage of difficult words by 0.4.) should be less than 10.

Formulas -  

1.      Choice of Words –

i.                    Precision – a. Use the word which conveys the meaning clearly and exactly without leading to any confusion. There should be no possibility of the reader taking it to mean something else. (Write a report, not produce a report)

b.      Concreteness – The Tribune v/s a particular newspaper.

c.       Conciseness – As few words as possible. Be brief, not wordy.

d.      Plainness - Simplicity – Expedite v/s speed up, sesquipedalian/ very long

e.      Avoid clichés – too often used phrases which have become popular due to their aptness.     Burning Question

f.        Avoid jargon if writing for a non-specialist audience

g.      Foreign words to be avoided

2.      Construction and length of sentences –

i. Use short sentences.

ii. Use simple sentences instead of compound and complex sentences.

3.      Construction and length of paragraphs –

i. One idea in one paragraph

ii. One topic sentence (beginning, middle or end of the para) followed by details, proof, evidence, supporting facts, arguments etc.

iii. Sentences to be suitably linked by using proper linking devices

iv. a. No strict rules regarding length.

 b. But do not make them too long or too short. Provide eye relief.

                                               c. The test is adequate development of the idea treated in the para.