Page 887 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing
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The Importance of Style
1 Explain why writing with style matters.
Of course, you want to be clear and grammatically correct when you
write. But that’s just the beginning. If you want to be a writer who
catches and holds a reader’s attention, then you also want to write
with style.
What adds style to your writing depends on many factors. Among
them are your personality, your vocabulary, and your natural way of
expressing yourself. Unless you are writing a police report, a
description of a scientific experiment, or something else for which you
deliberately conceal your natural mode of expression, the “you factor”
should always come through in your writing.
Although style is partly an expression of who you are, it is also an
expression of what you know: how large your vocabulary is, how well
you know grammar, and how agile you are with sentence structure.
This brief chapter presents a few tips to help you tighten your writing
and dazzle and delight your reader.
