Style and its Relationship to Good Writing Essay -- Writing Education

Style and its Relationship to Good Writing Style. It’s a small word that packs a powerful punch, and most writers do not stop to think about what it truly means. Initially, I thought style was a personal element in writing specific to the writer and to change this personalized style of writing was absolutely forbidden. However, through our class exploration of the two style manuals, Style Toward Clarity and Grace and The Elements of Style, this original definition was challenged, and eventually changed based on the compelling evidence. Contrary to popular belief, style is not specific to one’s writing; it is much more involved than that. This notion of style takes into consideration the reader and the ease of the reading material. So, it is not selfish, it is actually focused on the reader and values the thoughts and considerations of the audience. With this in mind, it is important to apply it personally to one’s own writing by changing the perspective about what you, as the writer, are trying to say and take a step back, critically look at your writing and wonder about how it will affect your audience and what they will walk away with. Now that there is an understanding about what style actually means, a quick analysis of each text is in order. Both books are style manuals, each with the purpose of educating writers to be better writers. However, their approaches are vastly different, and it’s important to explore each manual to see how, in some cases, they compliment and contradict each other. To better appreciate different teaching techniques and explore which one should be used based on the goals of the writer a study of each of the writing stylebooks is in order. The first impor... ...adability of the text and a concern for the audience that is reading the writing piece. It is about well-written work that is not personalized with each writer, it’s more general. Manuals are written because there is a need for writers to write more clearly and with style. Each one has its elements of positive and negative and it is the ultimate responsibility of the writer to incorporate the information found within these manuals to assist with readability ease and style. Works Cited: Haas, Christine, http://people.emich.edu/chaas/, date accessed March 3, 2004 McGahey, Michelle, http://people.emich.edu/mmcgahey/eng328/, date accessed March 4, 2004 Strunk Jr., William and E.B. White The Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York: Longman, Inc., 2000. Williams, Joseph M. Style Toward Clarity and Grace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.