Blog 17: "What is Style?" Part 2

When I wrote my first blog about “style” in early September, I wrote about what I thought the word meant as a universal definition. I still have the same general opinion about style. However considering style in relation to ENG328, I can adapt my original definition.

ENG328 Style is how words, images, graphics, and other objects are placed in a pattern to convey or express a message or meaning.

In class we discussed several types of writing technology. We read about the history of orality, literacy, writing technology and communications through the Internet and considered the social impact of the development of writing and how we communicate. We looked at writing style through Strunk and White’s Elements of Style and Joseph Williams’ Style: Toward Clarity and Grace to question why we observe the writing rules that we use today and also to give ourselves permission to ask “why” – to question and get answers about the rules.

We learned about visual rhetoric – the vocabulary and elements in order to evaluate and write about imagery and graphics. We learned about how style works in communication today and how it has developed over time and why it is important to be able to make the most of it in school, work, and life today.