Style and Language Analysis

Guide
A Guide for

Analyzing Style and Language

AN EXPLANATION OF WRITING STYLE

An author’s writing style is not incidental, superficial, or supplementary:

style identifies how ideas are embodied in language. In other words, the
effect of how an author uses words and literary elements is important for
understanding the meaning of a text.

An author’s writing style includes all of the items on the list below, including
specific word choice (diction), kind of tone, use of formal or informal
language, etc.

The author adopts a variety of style elements depending on his or her

purpose, audience, and genre. Analyzing an author's style involves
understanding the particular way a text is written. Style in writing is not what
is said but how it is said. Analyzing an author's style involves analyzing the
writer's unique way of communicating ideas. Styles in writing are created
deliberately by the author to convey a specific mood or effect.

Style is often aligned with pathos, since its figures of speech are often
employed to persuade through emotional appeals. However, style has just
as much to do with ethos, for an author’s style often establishes or mitigates
one's authority and credibility. But it should not be assumed, either, that
style simply adds on a pathetic or ethical appeal to the core, logical content.
Style is very much part of the appeal through logos (appeal to logic and
reason), especially considering the fact that schemes of repetition (e.g.
outlines) serve to produce coherence and clarity, which are attributes of the
appeal to reason. In other words, most pieces of writing have all three
appeals (pathos, ethos, logos), but one or the other may be more dominate
depending on the purpose of the piece of writing.

WHAT DO I DO NOW?

In order to analyze a piece of writing, go through this list to evaluate how an

author is using these styles elements. Then, choose which ones are most
dominate in a particular piece that will help you to interpret the meaning of
the piece, which is ultimately the entire point of doing a close evaluation of a
piece of writing.

1. Vocabulary/word choice: Are the words simple or fancy? Long/short,

simple/complex, many modifiers/few modifiers? Are they technical,
flowery, colloquial, formal, cerebral, lively, exciting, vivid, etc? Use of
dialect, standard, non-standard English? Does the text or this passage
make use of shocking, taboo language? Does the author pile on the
details? Does author use slang or jargon specific to the topic? For
example, does the writer utilize sports jargon to describe non-sports
things, people, events, or places? Or military jargon to describe non-
military things, people and/or places? How does the author’s word
choice contribute to the message?
2. Point of view: Who is telling the story? Is the novel or this passage
written in first person (I, we, us) or second person (you, your), or third
person point of view? If it’s third person point of view, is it limited or
omniscient? Is the narrator reliable? Does the point of view alternate to
impact the way the text is read?
3. Is there dialogue, monologue, or reported speech? Dialogue is a
conversation between two or more people. It is essential to fiction
writing, and some types of nonfiction.
4. Sentence Structure: What is distinctive about the sentences in this
passage of writing? Are the sentences long or short? Do they contain
many subordinate clauses or are they often fragments? Are there any
digressions or interruptions? Is the word-order straightforward or
unusual? Are the sentences short and punchy?
5. Figures of speech: Are there any metaphors, similes, analogies,
hyperbole, understatement, personification and/or symbols? Any other
 use of figurative language? Use of sensory details through imagery?
6. Flashbacks: Does the author use flashbacks? A flashback is an
interruption to the narrative that presents an earlier episode. Flashbacks
move a story back in time giving readers insights about characters they
don’t know well. Used effectively, flashbacks enhance the emotional
movement of a story, deepen the story’s imagery, and organize a story
by weaving information into the narrative at critical times.
7. Structure: What’s interesting about how the author constructs the
literary work? Are there flashbacks (see above), flash forwards, literary
montage, vignettes, journals? Is the work chronological? What specific
form is used in structuring the narrative? How does this form impact the
way one reads the work? Does it contribute to the overall meaning or
message of the work? Definition for montage: “a literary, musical, or
artistic composite of juxtaposed more or less heterogeneous elements.”
8. Characters: A character is what he does. How does the author
characterize the people in his novel? Characterization is the
presentation of character, whether by direct description, by showing the
character in action, or by the presentation of other characters that help
define each other.
9. Allusions: How often and how does the author refer to other texts,
myths, symbols, famous figures, historical events, quotations, and so
on?
10. Sound devices: Use of alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhythm, rhyme,
and/or repetition?
11. Does the writer use any of the following: Puns, euphemisms, archaic
language, affixation, ambiguity, idiom, clichés, stream of consciousness,
phonological features, foreign words, nonsense words, anecdotes,
didactic, satire, vernacular, sarcasm, disclaimers, footnotes...?
12. Paragraph structure: Are the paragraphs very short, or are there
enormous blocks running across many pages? Are the paragraphs
indented or flush left?
13. Irony: Is there a use of irony? In situational irony, expectations
aroused by a situation are reversed; in cosmic irony or the irony of
fate, misfortune is the result of fate, chance, or God; in dramatic irony,
 the audience knows more than the characters in the play/film, so that
words and action have additional meaning for the audience.
14. Rhetorical strategies: Has the rhetor appealed to pathos and/or logos?
In what way has the rhetor established his or her ethos? Is there a
rhetorical use of humor? An appeal to an authority? The use of a logical
fallacy?
15. Tone (the writer’s implied relationship to the reader and the subject
matter): What is the author’s attitude? Does the author seem sarcastic?
Remorseful? Fearful? Condescending? Praising? Critical/satirical?
Wistful? Pessimistic? Academic? Philosophically detached? Hopeful?
Bitter? Sad? Intimate/distant? Angry/calm? Informative/entertaining?
Humorous/serious? Ironic/literal? Passionately involved/aloof? Is the
tone consistent or does it shift? What feeling is evoked in the reader by
the language used by the author? What type of tone shifts exist that
impact meaning?
16. Most Importantly, how do all of these elements create meaning?
What does the passage mean and how does it contribute to the
meaning of the piece of writing?
What To Avoid In Style and
Language Analysis
THINGS TO AVOID/WHAT CAN GO WRONG:

Always clarify with adjectives—for example, do not write “the author

uses diction,” write “the author uses understated diction,” or “industrial
imagery,” or “chronological organization,” etc. If you write that the author
uses diction, this is just stating the obvious. If diction is word choice,
then everything ever written--ever!--uses diction. No piece of writing can
exist without choosing words to use. You must clarify WHAT KIND of
word choice the author has used, which is the whole point of analyzing
the piece of writing. The word choice often determines a clue to the
meaning of the piece.
Always, always explain with specific examples from the text.
Do not use specific examples until your have made a general assertion,
usually in a topic sentence of a body paragraph. For example, write: The
author establishes the unsettling tone of this passage with detailed
description. Then, provide the examples.
Do not praise the author or personally comment on the quality or validity
of the content of the piece. In other words, never use these kinds of
words: great, excellent, etc.
Do not use first or second person. Stay in the formal third person point
of view. (At least in academic writing for this course as you are learning
to write in an objective, academic way at the college level).
Try to avoid stale or inaccurate verbs. Do not use “this shows,” or “this
tells the reader…” Use active verbs, such as “connotes,” “emphasizes,”
and “relates.”
Avoid using "the reader" as a crutch (unless specifically addressing
audience as a style element).
Do not be overly general in any part of the essay. The more specific, the
better is a great rule of thumb for all writing.
No overly general "funnel" introductions (always be as specific as
possible in an introduction--get straight to the point or you are just using
filler), or preachy conclusions (always use facts and appeal to logos in
academic writing).
Do not use truisms (Down through history, there have always been the
poor), quotes as openers, or “hooks.” Simply state your point in a
straightforward way. When in doubt, start with the thesis statement. Or,
you can start with introducing the author and the context of the work, but
do not waste more than a paragraph on summary or background--and
do this only if needed. In most cases, you should assume that the
person reading your analysis has actually read the piece you are
analyzing. (At least for now as you are learning to write college-level,
academic analysis.)
Do not merely paraphrase or summarize passages; you must analyze
the use of stylistic devices in a passage. You may need to include
enough details so that what you are writing makes sense, but assume
that the person reading your analysis did read the piece of writing that
you are analyzing. (Again, at least in the context of this course as you
are learning college-level, academic writing.)