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Style: what is it?
Task B - Different ways of 'doing it'
Although we have used examples of writing so far, it is important to
notice that all sorts of things, not just writing, can be said to have
style. Different soccer players have different, recognisable styles of
running, passing and shooting, and different tennis players have different
styles of serving, playing backhands etc. Different singers have different
styles of singing, different guitarists have different ways of playing
the guitar, and so on.
Essentially, in order to have style you need to have alternative
ways of doing the same thing. Think, for example, of the different ways
in which you can eat an ice cream cornet.
Describe your style of eating an
ice cream and compare it with Mick Short's style.
Mick's way
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Mick licks in upward strokes of his tongue, while rotating the
ice cream cornet, in order to prevent drips. Then, after he has
got the ice cream down in size a bit, he uses his tongue to push
down on the top of the ice cream, in order to force it down inside
the cornet. Next, he breaks off the bottom of the cornet and uses
it to scoop a bit of ice cream off the top in order to create
a mini-ice-cream, which he devours. Finally, he crunches the cornet,
now full of ice cream, a bit at a time.
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Do only individuals have style?
It is not just individuals who have style. Groups of people can also
have different styles of doing things, too. Indeed, whole nations often
do the same thing in different typical ways. The British sandwich style
involves two slices of buttered bread with a filling in between. The
Danish sandwich, on the other hand, is open, with just one slice of
bread. Chinese cooking is based on the stir-fry technique, whereas British
cooking is based on oven-cooked dishes. These are effectively different
styles of cooking.
And the products of human beings can have style too. Think of hair
styles or dress styles, for example, or their written equivalents like
tabloid vs. broadsheet newspaper styles. Note that the work we did on
style variation was effectively
about the borrowing of styles from various different kinds of writing
into literary texts, so that the style varies from one part of the text
to another, with resultant local textual effects.
Writing Styles
Because style depends on varying ways of doing the same thing, writing
styles depend on linguistic choice, and can occur at more than one level
of language. Note that we have a variety of labels to refer to style:
e.g. formal, informal, jokey, simple, complex, intricate, which appear
to relate to sets of linguistic features.
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