The word style, deprived from the Latin word stilius (a writing equipment) is understood to

mean the way in which writers assemble words to tell the story, develop the argument,
dramatize the play, or compose the poem. Often the definition is extended to distinguish
style from content. It is probably wiser, however, not to make this separation but to
consider style as the placement of words in the service of context. The way a thing is said, in
other words, cannot be separated from the thing itself
Style is also highly individualistic. It is a matter is the way in which specific authors
put words together under specific conditions in specific works. It is therefore possible to
speak of the style of Ernest Hemingway, for example, and of Mark Twain, even though both
writers at any time are adapting their words to the situation imagined in their works. Thus
authors may actually have a separate style for narrative and descriptive passages, and their
style in dialogue is likely different from either of these. Indeed, it would be a mark of an
inferior style is a writer were to use the same manner for all the varying purpose that must
exist in a story. It must therefore be emphasize that style is to be judged on the degree of its
adaptability. The better the writer, the more that writer’s words will fit the precise situation
called for in the story. Jonathan Swift defined style as the right words in the right places. We
may add to this definition that style is also the right words at the right time and in the right
circumstances.

Diction: choice of words

The style of style begins with words, and diction refers to a writer’s selection of specific
words. The selection should be accurate and explicit, so that all actions and ideas are clear.
It is perhaps difficult to judge accuracy and completeness, in as much as often we do not
have any basis of comparison. Nevertheless, if a passage comes across an effective, if it
conveys an ideal well or gets at the essence of an action vividly and powerfully, we may
confidently say that the words have been the right ones. In a passage describing action, for
example, there should be active verbs, whereas in a description of a places there should be
nouns and adjectives that provided locations, relationships, colours, and shapes. An
explanatory or reflective passage should probably include a number of words that convey
thoughts, states of mind and emotion, and various conditions of human replacements.

Formal, neutral and informal diction

Words fall naturally into three basic groups, or classes, that may be called formal or
high neutral or middle, and informal or low. Formal or high diction consists of standard and
often elegant words (frequently polysyllabic), the retention of correct word order, and the
absence of contractions. The sentence “It is I,” for example, is formal. The following
sentences from Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” use formal language.

They resolve to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses of
Despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such
Precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion.

Note here words like ingress, egress, provisioned, bid defiance, and contagion. These words
Are not in ordinary, everyday vocabulary and have what we may call elegance. Though they
are used accurately and aptly, and though the sentences are brief and simple, the
diction is ordinary, everyday, but still standard vocabulary, with a shunning of longer
words but with the use of contractions when necessary. The sentence “It’s me,” for
example, is neutral, the sort of thing many people say in preference to “It is I” when
identifying themselves on the telephone. The following passage from Alice Munro’s “The
Found Boat” illustrates middle, neutral diction.

What surprised them in the second place was that when the boys did actually see
what boat was meant, this old flood-smashed wreck held up in the branches, they
did not understand that they had been fooled, that a joke had been played on them.
They did not show a moment’s disappointment, but seemed as pleased at the
discovery as if the boat had been whole and new. They were already barefoot,
because they had been wading in the water to get lumber, and they waded in here
without a stop, surrounding the boat and appraising it and paying no attention even
if an insulting kind to Eva and Carol who bobbed up and down on their log. Eva and
Carol had to call them.

In this passage the words are ordinary and easy. Even the longer words,
like surprised, disappointment, surrounding, appraising, and insulting, are not
beyond the level of conversation, although appraising and surrounding would
not be out of place in a more formal passage. Essentially, however, the
words do not draw attention to themselves but are centered on the topic.
In a way, such words in the neutral style are designed to be like clear
windows, while words of the high style are more like stained glass.

Informal or low diction may range from colloquial--the language

used by people in relaxed. common activities to the level of substandard
or slang expressions. A person speaking to a very close friend is likely to
use diction and idiom that would not be appropriate in public and formal
situations, and even in some social situations. Low language is thus appro-
prate for dialogue in stories, depending on the characters speaking, and
for stories told in the first-person point of view as though the speaker is
talking directly to a group of sympathetic and relaxed close friends. For
example, Sammy's opening sentence in John Updike's
"A & P" illustrates
the informal, low style:
In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits.
Note the idiomatic "In walks," a singular verb, followed by a plural subject.
Note also the use of "these"
girls, an idiom used indefinitely to refer to
specific people. In Grace Paley's story "Goodbye and Good Luck" the diction
is informal; the uniqueness is caused by the omission of certain key words
and the unusual positioning of phrases, as in this passage:
Nowadays you could find me any time in a hotel, uptown or downtown.
Who needs an apartment to live like a maid with a dust rag in the hand,
sneezing?
Note here the misuse of could for can, the omission of at which more
formally would begin the phrase any time. The second sentence is almost
impossible to analyze except to note that it has been arranged with masterly
skill to duplicate exactly the idiomatic speech of the Jewish woman who
is the speaker.
Specific-General and Concrete-Abstract Language
or imagined;
Specific refers to a real thing or things that may be readily perceived
"my pet dog"
° is specific. General statements refer to broad
classes of persons or things.
"Dogs make good pets"
is a generalization.
Concrete refers to words that describe qualities or conditions; in the phrase

"a cold day" the word cold is concrete. You cannot see cold, but you know
the exact difference between cold and hot, and therefore you understand
the word readily in reference to the external temperature. Abstract refers
to qualities that are more removed from the concrete, and abstract words
can therefore refer to many classes of separate things. On a continuum
of qualities, ice cream may be noted as being cold, sweet, and creamy. If
we go on to say that it is good, however, this word is abstract because it is
far removed from ice cream itself and conveys little if any information
about it. A wide number of things may be good, just as they may be bad, fine, “cool,”
excellent and so on. Abstract words like these are difficult to apply specifically, and
thus if we use them we express more about ourselves than the topic we are discussing.

Usually, narrative and descriptive writing features specific and con-

crete words in preference to general and abstract ones. It stands to reason:
When we confront many vague words that may mean a number of things
at once, we become uncertain and confused. Usually, therefore, such words
are out of place in stories and novels. On the other hand, we can visualize
and understand passages containing words about specific things and actions,
for with more specificity and concreteness there is less ambiguity. Because
vividness is a goal of most fiction, specific and concrete words are the
writer's basic tool.

The point, however, is not that abstract and general words do not
belong, but that words should be appropriate in the context. Good writers
manipulate style to match their narrative and descriptive purposes. As an
example, we may observe Hemingway's diction in "Soldier's Home." This
story concerns the aftereffects of war on a sensitive young man who, fresh
from the excitement and danger he has experienced abroad, cannot adjust
to the humdrum life back home. By combining specific and abstract language to get
these ideas across, Hemingway fits style to subject exactly.
Thus, in paragraph 6 (p. 275), Hemingway uses abstract terms to describe
the mental state of Krebs, the young veteran. We read that Krebs feels
"nausea in regard to experience that is the result of untruth or exaggeration," that he
goes into the "easy pose of the old soldier" when he meets
another veteran, and that he has "lost everything" as a result of his malaise.
It is not easy to understand these words.

In contrast, however, Hemingway's next paragraph describes Krebs's

typical daily activities: getting out of bed, walking to the library, eating
lunch, reading on the front porch, and drifting down to the local pool
room. These details are specific; although Hemingway does not elaborate
further on them, we know from the passage that Krebs is bogged down
in aimless boredom. The two paragraphs together reflect on each other,
with the specific examples in paragraph 7 helping to explain the abstract
descriptions of paragraph 6. In short, Hemingway skillfully combines spe-