12 Style of Writing: Most people can handle some sorts of writing well but struggle with others; for example, they may have the ready humour and sense of timing required for a brilliant speech but can’t organize their thoughts coherently enough for a business report. Perhaps they have the imagination and flair for great prose, but struggle when forced to work within the constraints of producing marketing copy. Or maybe they can produce a brilliant academic essay but can’t write in a way that a less aware audience can understand.
Some writing standards apply to nearly any purpose, such as evaluating your audience, altering your sentence length, and taking the time to analyse whether sesquipedalian language is more appropriate or if nice short words would be better. However, what is correct for one type of writing may be incorrect for another. For example, in business writing, your main goal is to be understood as quickly and efficiently as possible, assuming that your writing will be read rapidly by individuals who have a lot of other essential things to do. There are 12 styles of writing which are as follows:
12 Style of Writing
Business writing
In some ways, business writing is the most straightforward type of writing. It shouldn’t be written with charm, style, or flare, and if you include any jokes, stunning imagery, or delicate, haunting metaphors, you’re doing it wrong. To go right to the point, it must use clear, easily understood language and if you can make that argument in a single page where others may have needed two, it would be better. Being brief and clear are two of the most difficult writing abilities to master, especially if you’re used to padding school and university papers with extra words to make the word count. Set a reduced word count for yourself so that you’re forced to cut the surplus, leaving you with something simple and easily legible.
Academic essays
Academic essays should be structured similarly to corporate writing, with a focus on conciseness and clarity. However, a normal academic essay is larger than a business report, you must know how to appropriately fill that space. The finest essays take a single subject, explain it, and investigate it from every viewpoint, but if your idea is too thin to fill the space, it’s easy to pad it with unnecessary words or go off on tangents that would be better explored as separate pieces. It’s also tempting to utilise overly convoluted sentences and big words to demonstrate your command of them and lots of prestigious academics who should know better do just that. However, it is preferable to keep things simple where possible and complex only when necessary.
Journalism
Journalism, more than either business or academic writing, must be both instructive and compelling. While it’s fine for a business report or academic paper to be boring to anyone who isn’t interested in the specific subject, a good journalistic piece should find a point of interest even for readers who don’t care much about the topic. Finding a human interest tale – “elderly man hurt by risky pothole” with a sympathetic photo is more engaging than “dangerous potholes on the High Street” may be necessary. Alternatively, it could involve figuring out how to make the News more relevant to a larger number of people, such as “High Street potholes causing rush hour delays across town. A journalist’s ability to stick to the facts while making them fascinating, frequently on a tight word count, is essential.
Letters to the editor
The art of responding to anything in the newspaper is a pretty specialised one. You’re probably writing it out of frustration, but getting it published demands a different strategy. A letter page, like any other section of the newspaper, must be enjoyable to read, so having a thought-provoking or unique point to convey is a good place to start. Using comedy whenever possible is even better. A letter to the editor is written for two audiences: the newspaper’s editor, who wants something interesting that isn’t wildly out of step with the paper’s overall voice, hasn’t been printed in three other places, and doesn’t require too much editing to make it readable; and the newspaper’s readers, who want to be surprised, amused, educated, or entertained. It is critical to consider each of these audiences.
Marketing copy
Marketing text can range from a two-word catchphrase to a 60-page brochure and everything in between, but it always has the same purpose: to sell something, or to inspire someone to take activities that could lead to the sale of something. It may be considered persuasive writing, but that is where some writers go wrong. There’s a risk of sounding like a 1950s travelling salesman – “taste our very best supreme sausages just like you used to enjoy as a child, cheaper and better than all competitors” – which may have worked for the 1950s salesperson but doesn’t work anymore. Instead, much of today’s marketing material is focused on building and reinforcing a brand, whether it’s Ryanair’s boisterous cheap-and-cheerful attitude or Marks & Spencer’s dependable luxury. Tone is just as crucial as content: “our very best supreme sausages” may not sell, but finest Gloucester Old Spot pork sausages with a hint of apple “may mash” if you’ve identified the perfect audience for them.
Prose
‘Prose’ is a fairly small word that covers a wide range of diverse forms of literature, from Tolkien’s Silmarillion to Ernest Hemingway’s saddest six-word short story. This is one among the 12 Style of Writing. This is typically used to narrate a story of some kind, usually but not necessarily with a beginning, middle, and finish. The length and style of your writing will vary: a thriller will typically have sharp sentences and lots of quick-fire dialogue, whilst a coming-of-age story may have stream-of-consciousness sections and a fantasy novel will lavishly describe landscapes and individuals. What matters is that you write in a style that fits the story you’re presenting; if you’re attempting to make us believe in a naive, passionate young man who’s fallen deeply in love, just characterizing the object of his emotions as “beautiful” won’t do.
Poetry
It’s difficult to describe poetry, but broadly speaking, it’s writing that seeks to express a notion, feeling, or idea into words without regard for the typical grammatical, structural, or syntactical restrictions of prose writing. It does not have to rhyme, but it is more than just prose with unexpected line breaks; ideally, it expresses more than its counterpart in prose. Even the worst poetry follows these norms in broad strokes; greeting cards contain dreadful poem because “happy birthday” or “congratulations on your wedding” are insufficient to express the message that needs to be sent, so we use poetry instead. Writing a decent poem requires having a concept that you want to express through poetry – else, you’ll wind up with prose with weird rhymes and odd line breaks.
Diaries
Diaries are usually not written for publication though they are usually edited first, that’s why they are so interesting to read. They give us an insight into everyday life and the experiences of others that we are usually denied – for example, Pepys’ diaries from Restoration London are enjoyable not only because they tell us so much about that period in history, but also because we learn about Pepys’ endearing flaws as a human being. One example is his repeating commitment to himself to gamble less, followed by an entry detailing his gambling a few days later. If your diaries are unlikely to be read in hundreds of years, consider what makes them distinctive and interesting now. That could be an uncommon take on current events or genuine emotional honesty.
Memoirs
A memoir is similar to a journal in that it tells the tale of a period in a person’s life; however, unlike a diary, which is written at the time with no intention of publishing, a memoir is written looking back on events. It could be on a specific theme, such as a food memoir or a trip memoir, or it could be about the person’s experiences in general. A good memoir may not be totally true, instead reflecting the writer’s personal memories of events. Unlike conventional prose, a memoir with a lot of conversation may violate your reader’s suspension of reality because it may not seem reasonable that you could remember what was said at a specific time word for word. Instead, giving more memorable details gives the reader the impression that they are sharing those events as if they were present.
Scripts
Writing a script is the first shot in a collaborative effort between the writer, director, actors, and everyone else engaged in a film or theatre production. It’s a blueprint rather than a finished result because it should provide enough structure for everyone else engaged in the collaboration to work from without dictating so much that they can’t exercise their own creativity to the benefit of the entire project. That is, a script should be dominated by dialogue, with any guidance or description limited to what is necessary to tell the plot. Writing lively language that brings the characters to life is an important component of scriptwriting.
Speeches
A speech can be convincing (for example, persuading people to vote for a specific political candidate) but it must also stay on time and be engaging. Most forms of writing put you at a distance from your audience – the journalist usually doesn’t know which portions of their article made readers yawn but when someone delivers a speech you wrote, the feedback is immediate. That includes making your speech’s topic as fascinating as feasible and employing rhetorical methods to hold your audience’s attention. Jokes can also be effective in most speeches, including serious ones.
Eulogies
A eulogy is a speech or piece of literature that pays honour to a deceased person. It has similarities to other speeches and memoirs, but it also has its own traditions and standards. There are clichés to avoid, such as “we are gathered here today…”, as well as statements that might be expressed about anyone, such as “she always tried to do her best”. The best eulogies portray the deceased in the best possible light, acknowledging their imperfections while remembering them as a whole and rounded human being who is greatly missed. Significant elements from their life should be presented, as well as tales that sum them up as a person, and parts of the eulogy should be addressed to the person who has died.
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