Insights on Style :: Style Writing Styles Essays

Insights on Style A writer sits down on his hickory brown leather upholstered chair in a lowered den of a cape-cod house in the country. He slips his bifocals up the ridge of his nose and pulls his typewriter with both arms to a comfortable typing distance. He is now ready to write and write with style. He has in mind that his certain eloquence will provide cohesion, concision and elegance that will be clear and concise so the reader will be able to determine exactly the message he is portraying. He begins with the intent to be clear, concise and understood. Making an impression on a reader is the idea I have about style. When a completed composition is read, there should be a feeling of understanding and comprehension about a certain idea, thought or consciousness. But, â€Å"Who can confidently say what ignites a certain combination of words, causing them to explode in the mind (Strunk and White, pg. 66)?† This is true in most cases; it is not the combination of words that cause a mind to stir but the way it creates thought and stimulus that create an explosion. There is a conscious effort required to give a work of writing style. Two major contributions to the subject of â€Å"good writing† are the books Style: toward Clarity and Grace by Joseph M. Williams and The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. Before I explain about what it is I gained from these two books about style I want you to get an overall, summed-up insight to the books. Strunk Jr. and White have an idea and knowledge of â€Å"g ood writing† and call it style. In their book, The elements of Style, I can depict it like this: they give you the paint, paintbrush, canvas and the tools and say â€Å"This is what style is made of.† Williams, in his book paints a picture and says â€Å"this is style,† leaving the color out and letting that be determined by the reader. â€Å"We visibly organize essays, articles, reports, memoranda into paragraphs, subsections and major sections to signal readers that we have finished developing one part of an idea and are moving to another, to a new thought.