rhetprimer

Style & Tone

Style

How do you know when something's got style? People often say they know it when they see it. In writing, style—and especially its subset, "tone"— can be illusive, and it can vary based on the expectations of different situations. The style expected in a high school graduation speech is decidedly different from that of a prosecutor's closing argument in court and distinct, too, from a love letter.

Early accounts of the canon of style [...] position style as a bridge across form and content. Style is the “adaptation of suitable words and sentences to the matter devised.” In other words, as the third canon, style comes after the argument has been discovered (inventio) and arranged (dispositio)." (Kirsch 62)

Determining appropriate style, as a rhetorical element, means thinking about the conventions required by a particular text or genre. Does the rhetorical situation call for a formal or informal approach? What does the audience expect? Is it okay to use the first person "I" or the second person "you"?

We'll be working mostly (though not only) on academic style and tone this semester.

Style is also linked to decorum and kairos. In everyday conversations, tone is perhaps the most common element of style that we encounter.

Other related terms: diction, syntax, voice, formal & informal, person/point of view

Voice as resistance, as "deviation from norms"

"But norms actually flatten the nuance and the timbre of writing voice. Voice is the deviation from norms. And I am very committed to my intellectual ideas’ sounding as much like my natural voice as possible because part of my personal political project is naturalizing the sound of expert information in a Black American woman’s voice. And I want you to be able to hear that through my syntax as a way of naturalizing that syntax."

—Tressie McMillan Cottom, qtd. in Toor, emphasis added

Tone

A subcategory of style, tone is about word choice, either in speaking or writing, and how it impacts communication. We are mostly aware, for instance, of the difference between a "formal" and an "informal" tone; whether a tone should be formal or informal is determined by the rhetorical situation.

Tone helps communicate effectively with an audience. A mismatched style or tone can throw a piece of writing entirely off the mark, alienating or even angering a target audience who might feel disrespected, or talked down to, or excluded by unfamiliar jargon. A well-matched tone can draw an audience in, building trust, curiosity, or agreement.

Tone conveys attitude. In speech, tone can also be determined by volume or supported by hand gestures and facial expressions. How do we get those same ideas across in writing? In texting, which tends to employ an informal tone, many of us use emojis. Sometimes WE YELL USING ALL CAPS.

An example: Take a look at this Twitter discussion by a professional comics letterer—that is, a person who adds in the words after the comics writer and the comics artist(s) have completed their work. Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou describes figuring out how to best express, through his lettering and word balloon, a particular phrase:

An image of 7 different comics word balloons, all of the same phrase (“That mother fucker”). Different shapes, fonts, sizes and colors create different tones and statements, annotated with guesses as to the different tones they impart.

Obviously, the swearword here would not be appropriate word choice for most situations (including, arguably, a college course). However, these balloons (and Otsamane-Elhaou's discussion in the full thread) make it clear that how a word is communicated can change tone—and meaning—as well. (Here's another example of variations in tone from Otsame-Elhaou: "I am Iron Man.")

Other examples:

What kind of tone can you identify in our course syllabus? Which choices of words and phrases support this reading? Look for specific language and vocabulary that communicates tone and the attitude being conveyed.
How does tone impact a reader's desire to keep reading? Check out this introduction to a book on a potentially dry topic, which caused one scholar to announce, "this is the best opening to a technical book the world has ever seen and i will fight anyone who says otherwise" (@eaton). "Walter Plecker was an asshole," Lisa Maria Martin, author of Everyday Information Architecture, begins.
Readers often notice vocabulary as tone, and new or specialized vocabulary is sometimes criticized or even attacked as "elitist." Such criticism—in this case levied by political commentator Jonathan Chait against Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez—can say more about the person doing the criticizing, however (as you might note from many of the replies).
Still more profanity in this example (why do discussions of tone and profanity seem to go together? maybe it has something to do with "decorum"?): Comedians Key and Peele make fun of what happens when we have "confusion" over the tone intended in text messages in this video clip, "Text Message Confusion."

Want more?

Style, Genre & Writing

a quick overview from Purdue's OWL

Style for Students Online: Effective Technical Writing in the Information Age

a full (and free) style manual on professional writing from Joe Schall at Pennsylvania State University

Our discussion of academic writing links to some useful style guides

Works Cited
@eaton. "this is the best opening to a technical book the world has ever seen and i will fight anyone who says otherwise." 6 Dec. 2021, https://twitter.com/eaton/status/1467926228720140296?s=12.
@HassanOE (Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou). "A lot of the day lettering is just staring at MOTHERFUCKER until it connects right with the script, the character's personality, the art, and the situation. Balance all of those, add some of yourself, and you get the correct motherfucker balloon." 13 Aug. 2020, 11:47 p.m., https://twitter.com/HassanOE/status/1294163673787891712
Key, Keegan-Michael and Jordan Peele. "Text Message Confusion - Uncensored." Key & Peele, Season 4 Ep. 3, Comedy Central, 8 Oct. 2014. https://www.cc.com/video/1nwt2i/key-peele-text-message-confusion-uncensored
Kirsch, Sharon J. Gertrude Stein and the Reinvention of Rhetoric. University Alabama Press, 2014.
Toor, Rachel. “Scholars Talk Writing: Tressie McMillan Cottom.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 3 Nov. 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/article/scholars-talk-writing-tressie-mcmillan-cottom.

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