[Book] The New Strategy of Style

You need to develop a broad spectrum of style and then be able to move from one end of the spectrum to the other as occasion demands. You’ll develop a basic style but inability to diversify is being like a baller with a drive but no jump shot. Questions to ask: What am I writing about? Who will read what I’ve written? Why did I write it? I’m writing about topics that I want to know more about....

Why Invention? Writing involves a great deal of personal ingenuity. You must see the world clearly and participate in it imaginatively. Observing Only noticing things that most affect you leads to thin development, sketchy generalizations and excessive subjectivity. Expand your perceptual vocabulary: Can “green” apply to the sky? On many late afternoons, the whole Western horizon is a band of vibrating green where the yellow of the sun blends with the blue of the evening....

The Subject The number of words aren’t intuitive to me. Adults tend to read non-fiction at 238 words per minute. So a good test for how appropriate a piece of writing is, “Can the writer cover X in N minutes?” Hugo uses 213 WPM, while Medium uses 265 WPM, suggesting Medium has a bias for skimming over close reading. I wonder if a browser extension that rates the appropriateness of articles given their subject and their word count is a feasible/desirable thing....

Classification Remove material that’s not related to the specific subject-thesis. To hold readers attention, group materials into \(\le\) 6 categories. Order The order in which you present the groups should serve a larger purpose. Spatial Order The furniture in your room, a tour of the Louvre, or a trip across the country. A study of Michelangelo’s Moses: the sweep of marble hair; the furrowed brow; the piercing eyes; the famous hands; the strong angle of the body; the firmly planted feet....

Beginnings Your shot at intriguing or acclimating the reader. Establish the tone, stylistic manner and attitude in the first few sentences. The Direct Beginning State the subject in the first sentence, and the thesis in the first paragraph. Use the first paragraph to define subject or a quick synopsis of the material to come. The Delayed Beginning An attention-getting device, e.g. anecdote, generalization, vivid description, dramatic incident, paradoxical observation, can serve as the background to your thesis....

Brevity has its limitations. Sometimes more words save more time. Horizontal Expansion You can move from effect to cause, or from cause to effect. You go to a new but related idea: and, on the other hand, next, therefore, thus, which leads to, consequently, … Vertical Expansion You may provide examples, descriptions, illustrations for reader to infer the idea, what your subject is not, comparisons and contrasts. It’s a method of analysis, detail and illustration: for example, in particular, on closer examination, which is not, the causes of which are…...

Momentum involves giving the reader adequately developed and reasonably arranged material for a smooth ride. Rereading your own prose will not always disclose gaps since you may unconsciously fill them. The Devices of Momentum Make sure that a strand of an idea runs through the paragraph and the composition. Use recurring images associated with the idea in separate sentences, e.g. insects, ant-heap, swarm, etc. Use repetition, but be wary if it becomes monotonous, e....