Style in Prose

7/28/2019 Style in Prose

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/style-in-prose 1/24

Style

In writingwith examples from other areas of expression

that have more and better

Pictures pics Visuals



3 Impressionist paintings



of close boats



But really different

because of



Brush strokes,

color mixing,

texture …

STYLE STYLE



& perspective



Prose style is shaped by choices in:

1. Syntax

2. Punctuation

3. Sentence Structure

4. Diction

Be creative

even quirky

but consistent



1. Syntax

Syntax = Word order

I will go where you go Where you go I will go

She could not forget Spain Spain she could not forget

The sailor is home Home is the sailor

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh fast (Frost’s “Desert Places”)

Bill Bryson

No matter how hard you try you will never be able to grasp justhow tiny, how spatially unassuming, is a proton.

In the first lively second (a second that many cosmologists willdevote careers to shaving into ever-finer wafers) is producedgravity and the other forces that govern physics.



2. Punctuation Commas: 2/3 rules, 1/3 style

The Oxford comma (or “serial comma”): red, white, and blue.

No Oxford: red, white and blue

No Oxford comma risks ambiguity:

• I dedicate this to my parents, Ayn Rand and God

•

Avoid that: To my parents, Ayn Rand, and God (3)or by re-ordering: To God, Ayn Rand and my parents

Always avoid ambiguity

How many items?

My usual breakfast is coffee, bacon and eggs and toast.Eats shoots and leaves

Click here for a lot more about the serial comma

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/eats-shoots-leaves-lynne-truss/1100734289

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/eats-shoots-leaves-lynne-truss/1100734289



Use the em dash - stronger than a comma, less formal than a colon, morerelaxed than parentheses.

• To set off apposatives (a noun ot noun phrase that renames another noun)

– The insect--a blue beatle--crossed the desk.

• To reflect the rhythm of speech or thought

– It was very noble –very grand –very charming! –was all that Catherine had to say.

• Instead of a (more formal) colon

– At thirty he married an English girl, daughter of Jerome Dunn, the alpinist, andgranddaughter of two Dorset parsons, experts in obscure subjects--

paleopedology and Aeolian harps, respectively.• Instead of a (sentence-ending) colon

– There might be particular essays whose shape is more akin to one of the otherbasic natural forms--a sphere or hexagon, a spiral, say, or helix or branch--buton the whole, I think, what essays do best is meander.

• Instead of parenthesis, for more emphasis

– The only thing they could do—if they could do anything at all—was persist.

• Instead of a comma pair (rare & quirky and DFW)

– And the Windsurf Cafe’s coffee—which burbles merrily from spigots in bigbrushed steel dispensers—the coffee is, quite simply, the kind of coffee youmarry somebody for being able to make.



3. Sentence Structure

–Simple

• I am a gunsmith’s daughter.

• For the next week I anxiously awaited role postings.

• My next show was in the spring of my freshman year.

• It was a delicate situation.

–Compound – Two or more independent clauses , joined by FANBOYS

• When I was in high school I was a big, non-athletic kid, and I was painfully

self-conscious of how these things made me different.

• You couldn’t see all the little imperfections of the truck as it barreled downthe narrow street, but on the sides, beneath the freshly painted and nearly

professional looking lettering, was the ambulance’s former city name.



Sentence structure cont.

—Complex

Independent clause joined by one or more dependent clauses.

Joining words: but, because, since, after, although, or when or a relative

pronoun such as that, who, or which

The meanders of water seem equally aimless, but are, it turns out, veryregular in their irregularity--although if you were walking along the

bank of a meandering river, you might find that hard to believe.

There might be particular essays whose shape is more akin to one of

the other basic natural forms--a sphere or hexagon, a spiral, say, or helixor branch--but on the whole, I think, what essays do best is meander.

--From Meander by Mary Paumier Jones



Simple and Complex = contrast, variety

Paumier Jones

There might be particular essays whose shape is more akin to one of the other basicnatural forms -- a sphere or hexagon, a spiral, say, or helix or branch -- but on the whole,I think, what essays do best is meander. They fall short of the kind of circular perfectionwe expect of fiction or poetry. They proceed in elliptical curves, diverging, digressing.

We can float or row or swim or speed or sail along the meandering course of an essay.We can meander on foot on the river bank with the essayist. We expect only to gosomewhere in the presence of someone.

Bryson

No matter how hard you try you will never be able to grasp just how tiny, how spatially

unassuming, is a proton. It is just way too small.*…+

I'm assuming of course that you wish to build an inflationary universe. If you'd preferinstead to build a more old-fashioned, standard Big Bang universe, you'll need additionalmaterials. In fact, you will need to gather up everything there is—every last mote andparticle of matter between here and the edge of creation—and squeeze it into a spot soinfinitesimally compact that it has no dimensions at all. It is known as a singularity.



Sentence structure, continued

–Fragments

• When it was light enough to use the binoculars he glassed the valleybelow. Everything paling away into the murk. The soft ash blowing inloose swirls over the blacktop. He studied what he could see. Thesegments of road down there among the dead trees. Looking for

anything of color. Any movement. Cormac McCarthy

–Parallelism

• But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate --

we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, whostruggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to addor detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we sayhere, but it can never forget what they did here. Lincoln

D ( b l h )



4. Diction (vocabulary choices)



Diction range 1: from Casual and Colloquial >>>>>

Formal and Standard



“Ain’t everybody’s daddy the deadest shot in Macomb County.” Harper Lee

Not everyone’s father is the best marksman in the county of Macomb….

Now pack into that tiny, tiny space about an ounce of matter…

-A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

what’s up hey how are you? greetings Peace be to you

see ya so long bye goodbye farewell live long & prosper

walk hit the pavement stroll meander perambulate

split take off fly the coop leave decamp absquatulate

To sleep, maybe to dream ?

Eighty-seven years ago, our grandparents and greatgrandparents built, on this continent, a new country …

D C Ab



Diction range 2: Concrete >>>>> Abstract

Red Ford Escort with a dented bumper damaged compact car vehicle

Rhododenrun bush big shrub plant

Ride the stairmaster for 20 minutes exercise engage in physical activity

crumpled bit of old parchment piece of old paper paper product

Very concrete and specific can be fun



“Dirk Calloway was a German not-so-gentleman with a huge hat. He wore jeans

tighter than latex and wore flourescent light-bulbs (he was all about saving the

environment) sewn to his clothes due to the fact that he was nearly sightless

(hence the enormous pair of rayban wayfarer style glasses that adorned hissquinty-eyed face) and often had trouble reading signs and other posted

propaganda. The wires that ran through his clothes to keep the lights running kept

him warmed him through the wintertime, although it was very uncomfortable in

the summertime.”

From “The Dance of The Hipsters 2,” Creative Writing group, Fall 2010



Very abstract can be meaningless, evasive, dishonest

or, worst of all, . . . wordy

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not tothe swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread tothe wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yetfavour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth tothem all. --from Ecclesiastes

George Orwell’s translation into modern English:

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomenacompel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive

activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate withinnate capacity, but that a considerable element of theunpredictable must invariably be taken into account.



Diction range 3: Prosaic >>>>> Poetic

Prosaic: Common speech, ordinary, pedestrian, colorlessPoetic: employing simile, metaphor, alliteration, images, rhythm and meter

•The sun went down

• The sun dropped below the horizon

• The golden orb of the sun sank from sight

•The fiery chariot achieved its destination at long last and movedbeyond the grasp of human vision.

You get the idea



Quirky diction choices

Protons are so small that a little dib of ink like

the dot on this i …



Contrasting prose styles

Faulkner’s “The Bear”

There was always a bottle present,so that it would seem to him thatthose fine fierce instants of heartand brain and courage and wiliness

and speed were concentrated anddistilled into that brown liquorwhich not women, not boys andchildren, but only hunters drank,drinking not of the blood theyspilled but some condensation of the wild immortal spirit, drinking it

moderately, humbly even, not withthe pagan's base and baselesshope of acquiring thereby thevirtues of cunning and speed but insalute to them.

Anne Beattie’s “The Doctor’s House,”

Some time ago, my brother Andrew

began looking up girls from high school.

At first I didn't think much about it,

because I didn't realize it was going to be

girls, plural; I thought it was just going tobe Josie Bower. That was the girl he

mentioned: Josie, who had survived

cancer, but missed much of fifth grade. .

. . I had some curiosity, myself, about

how Josie was doing…. I didn't exactly

get it back then; I thought it was nice

that he wanted to find out how she was

doing after twenty-five years.



Easier, perchance, to hear style

• Douglas Adams

– Turn predictable sayings on their head• In the beginning the Universe was created.

This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

• The first ten million years were the worst," said Marvin, "and the second ten million years, theywere the worst too. The third ten million years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.

• Don't give any money to the unicorns, it only encourages them.

– A certain way with metaphor• The storm had now definitely abated, and what thunder there was now grumbled over more

distant hills, like a man saying "And another thing..." twenty minutes after admitting he's lostthe argument.

• He paused and maneuvered his thoughts. It was like watching oil tankers doing three-pointturns in the English Channel.

– Matter of fact description of fanciful “facts” (:56)

–

Repetition, running bits • I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed (Marvin)

• ...a nice hot cup of tea (Arthur)

– Throwaways• “I wonder if it will be friends with me” (start)

• Adapted from Project Galactic Guide

(add an entry for extra credit)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUQGYMvI5sk&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUBAe5j2HlE&feature=related




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIZeJmGpKeg&feature=related



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h02a2HSB58M&feature=related

http://www.galactic-guide.com/articles/6R62.html



http://www.galactic-guide.com/articles/6R62.html


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h02a2HSB58M&feature=related













Documents

Style in Prose