1. Analyzing author’s style
AP Language
Analyzing author’s style

2. Agenda Bell Ringer Notes on Style Practice analyzing style
Style and TTTC
I can analyze an author’s style for its rhetorical purpose.

3. Bell Ringer
Complete the ACT Schmoop Bell Ringer

4. Style
When we talk about an author’s style, we aren’t talking about his/her clothing.
Style according to classical rhetoricians is an author’s choice of diction
and arrangements of words
in sentences (syntax).

5. Style: Review of Diction/Syntax
Kinds of diction
General or specific
Abstract or concrete
Formal or informal
Polysyllabic or monosyllabic
Common words or jargon
Denotative or connotative
B. Length of sentences
C. Kinds of sentences
Grammatical: simple, compound, complex, compound-complex
Rhetorical: loose, periodic, antithetical
Functional: statement, question, command, exclamation

6. Style
But wait, why are we learning this again? Patterns in diction and syntax will often characterize a text as one of three major categories of “style.” -Low/Colloquial Style -Middle Style -High/Formal Style

7. Style
But wait, why are we learning this again? Patterns in diction and syntax will often characterize a text as one of three major categories of “style.” -Low/Colloquial Style -Middle Style -High/Formal Style

8. Low/Colloquial Style
Colloquialism: a word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation.
Features of low style:
Simple words (casual vocab, colloquialisms, slang, etc)
Monosyllabic words
Contractions
1st and 2nd person pronouns
Frequent simple repetition (repetition of words but maybe not sophisticated repetition like Epistrophe)
Short sentences, use of fragments, etc

9. Middle Style Middle style is all about balance.
Pretty even distribution of monosyllabic and polysyllabic words
Short sentences reserved for emphasizing important info
More or less even distribution of simple, complex, compound, and compound-complex sentences
Uses some classical formal stylistic patterns, but is stingy with them—this style is about not drawing too much attention to the speaker

10. High Style High Style is sophisticated, professorial
Polysyllabic diction
Mostly 3rd person pronouns (although sometimes can include 1st and 3rd)
Longer sentences with more complex structures
Intentionally uses more complex rhetorical strategies: Anaphora, antithesis, parallelism, metaphor, irony, metonymy, synechoche, litotes, hyperbole

11. Name That Style
As we watch the videos, write down features of style that will help you categorize them as high, middle, or colloquial style.
Pep Talk from “Stripes”
Graduation Speech from “Billy Madison”
V’s Speech from “V for Vendetta”
Discuss—which styles do these speakers use to accomplish their rhetorical goals?

12. Why Style?
Discuss:
What does it mean when I tell you “the form of a text contributes to its content?”
Why do you think speakers would choose each of these styles?

13. Why Style?
Why do you think speakers would choose each of these styles?
DECORUM

14. Why Style? Consider this:
One sentence, two ways:
Bill is a jerk, and I’m not going out with him anymore.
I am not going out with Bill anymore because he is a jerk.
What does this small stylistic change do to the meaning of these sentences? Discuss.

15. Why Style? Consider this:
One sentence, two ways:
Bill is a jerk, and I’m not going out with him anymore.
-Parataxis: a COORDINATE relationship to emphasize the immediate reaction.
I am not going out with Bill anymore because he is a jerk.
-Hypotaxis: a SUBORDINATE relationship shows a processed reaction
STYLE MATTERS!

16. Style Practice:
Since it’s about to be Valentine’s day, you are going to show me you understand the three different styles by composing three different Valentine’s Day cards: one in low style, one in middle style, and one in high style.
Your cards must be at least 3 sentences each, and they must use at least 3 features of each style. Use your models of each style for reference.

17. Homework Read the last two chapters of The Things They Carried.
Be Prepared for a Socratic Seminar over the entire text, especially 2nd half of the book!
Write at least 3 questions
FIG: F – Fact, I – Inference, G – Global
Pick out one section of the text (write it out on a new sheet of paper) from these chapters that best exemplify O’Brien’s Style.