A writer’s style is a reflection of his or her personality, unique voice, and way of approaching the audience and readers.

However, every piece writers write is for a specific purpose—for example, writers may want to explain how something works or persuade people to agree with their point of view. While there are as many writer's styles as there are writers, there are only four general purposes that lead someone to write a piece, and these are known as the four styles, or types, of writing. Knowing all four different types of writing and their usages is important for any writer.

Here are the four categories of writing and their definitions:

1. Expository Writing:

Expository writing's main purpose is to explain. It is a subject-oriented writing style, in which authors focus on telling you about a given topic or subject without voicing their personal opinions. They furnish you with relevant facts and figures but do not include their opinions. This is one of the most common types of writing styles, which you always see in textbooks and how-to articles. The author just tells you about a given subject, such as how to do something.

2. Descriptive Writing:

Descriptive writing's main purpose is to describe. It is a style of writing that focuses on describing a character, an event, or a place in great detail. It can be poetic when the author takes the time to be very specific in his or her descriptions.

3. Persuasive Writing:

Persuasive writing's main purpose is to persuade. Unlike expository writing, persuasive writing contains the opinions and biases of the author. To convince others to agree with the author's point of view, persuasive writing contains justifications and reasons. It is often used in letters of complaint, advertisements or commercials, affiliate marketing pitches, cover letters, and newspaper opinion and editorial pieces.

4. Narrative Writing:

Narrative writing's main purpose is to tell a story. The author will create different characters and tell you what happens to them (sometimes the author writes from the point of view of one of the characters—this is known as first person narration). Novels, short stories, novellas, poetry, and biographies can all fall in the narrative writing style. Simply, narrative writing answers the question: “What happened then?”

Style

Style is the way in which something is written, as opposed to the meaning of what is written. In writing, however, the two are very closely linked. As the package for the meaning of the text, style influences the reader’s impression of the information itself. Style includes diction and tone. The main goal in considering style is to present your information in a manner appropriate for both the audience and the purpose of the writing. Consistency is vital. Switching styles can distract the reader and diminish the believability of the paper’s argument.

Diction

Diction is word choice. When writing, use vocabulary suited for the type of assignment. Words that have almost the same denotation (dictionary meaning) can have very different connotations (implied meanings).

Examples:

Formal Diction	Casual Diction	Slang (very informal)
are not angry	aren't mad	ain't ticked

 

Besides the level of formality, also consider positive or negative connotations of the words chosen.

Examples:

Positive	Negative
pruning the bushes	slashing at the bushes
the politician's stance	the politician's spin

 

Some types of diction are almost never advisable in writing. Avoid clichés, vagueness (language that has more than one equally probable meaning), wordiness, and unnecessarily complex language.

Tone

Aside from individual word choice, the overall tone, or attitude, of a piece of writing should be appropriate to the audience and purpose. The tone may be objective or subjective, logical or emotional, intimate or distant, serious or humorous. It can consist mostly of long, intricate sentences, of short, simple ones, or of something in between. (Good writers frequently vary the length of their sentences.)

One way to achieve proper tone is to imagine a situation in which to say the words being written. A journal might be like a conversation with a close friend where there is the freedom to use slang or other casual forms of speech. A column for a newspaper may be more like a high-school graduation speech: it can be more formal, but it can still be funny or familiar. An academic paper is like a formal speech at a conference: being interesting is desirable, but there is no room for personal digressions or familiar usage of slang words.

In all of these cases, there is some freedom of self-expression while adapting to the audience. In the same way, writing should change to suit the occasion.

 

Trails in fiction

A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers to something as being the same as another thing for rhetorical effect.^[1] It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas. Where a simile compares two items, a metaphor directly equates them, and does not use "like" or "as" as does a simile.

In simple English, when you portray a person, place, thing, or an action as being something else, even though it is not actually that “something else,” you are speaking metaphorically. “He is the black sheep of the family” is a metaphor because he is not a sheep and is not even black. However, we can use this comparison to describe an association of a black sheep with that person. A black sheep is an unusual animal and typically stays away from the herd, and the person you are describing shares similar characteristics

Metaphor is realizing two lexical meanings simultaneously.
Metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, i.e. quite unpredictable, are called genuine metaphors:
A puppet government
He is a mule.
He is not a man, he is just a machine!
Genuine metaphors are mostly to be found in poetry and emotive prose.
Metaphors, commonly used in speech are called dead (stereotyped, hackneyed), fixed in dictionaries: A ray of hope, roots of evil, to fish for compliments, to bark up the wrong tree, to apple one’s eye.

Metonymy is the substitution of one word for another with which it is associated:
‘The White House said…’ (the American government); the press (newspapers and magazines); the grave(death); The hall applauded;
I am fond of Agatha Christie;

Synecdoche is a form of metonymy: using the name of a part to denote a whole or vice versa: the police (for a handful of officers); bread (for food).

 

Simile is a figure of speech in which the subject is compared to another subject. By means of the comparison the objects are characterized.
The formal elements of a simile are like, as, as if, as though, such as, seem, etc.
2. She seemed nothing more than a doll.
3. Maidens, like moths are ever caught by glare.
In the English language there is a long list of hackneyed similes, which are not genuine similes any more but have become cliches:
Faithful as a dog; to work as a horse; stubborn as a mule; slow as a tortoise; busy as a bee; hungry as a bear; to swim like a fish

 

Irony (‘mockery concealed) is a form of speech in which the real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the words used.
Well done! A fine friend you are!
‘What a noble illustration of the tender laws of this favoured country!’
Irony must not be confused with humour, although they have very much in common. Humour always causes laughter. But the function of irony is not to produce a humorous effect. Irony is generally used to convey a negative feeling: irritation, displeasure, pity or regret.

 

Epithet coveys the subjective attitude of the writer as it is used to characterize an object and pointing out to the reader some properties or features of the object. Epithet aims at evaluation of these properties or features.
Heart-burning smile; wild winds; fantastic terrors; voiceless sands;
unearthly beauty; deep feelings; sleepless bay.

 

Oxymoron is a combination of two words in which their meaning clash, being opposite in sense:
Sweet sorrow; pleasantly ugly face; deafening silence; horribly beautiful.

Allusion is reference to a famous historical, literary, mythological, biblical or everyday life character or event, commonly known. As a rule no indication of the source is given.
It’s his Achilles heel.

 

Antonomasia is intended to point out the leading, most characteristic features of a person or of event. It categorizes the person and simultaneously indicates both the general and the particular. Antonomasia can be defined as a variety of allusion:
Vralman, Molchalin, Mr. Zero, Don Juan.

 

Zeugma (syllepsis) is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations. It creates a semantic incongruity which is often humorous:
1. He lost his hat and his temper.
2. ‘…and covered themselves with dust and glory.-Mark Twain

Pun (also known as paronomasia) is a deliberate confusion of similar – sounding words for humorous effect. Puns are often used in jokes and riddles.
2. The name Justin Time sounds like ‘just in time’
4. Officer.-What steps (measures) would you take if an enemy tank were coming towards you?
Soldier. - Long ones.

 

Interjections and Exclamatory Words are used to express our strong feelings; they are conventional symbols of human emotions.
The interjection is not a sentence; it is a word with strong emotive meaning. Oh! Ah! Pooh! Gosh! Alas! Heavens! Dear me! God! Come on! Look here! By the Lord! Bless me! Humbug! Terrible! Awful! Great! Wonderful! Fine! Man! Boy! Why! Well!

 

Periphrasis denotes the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter and planer form of expression. It is also called circumlocution due to the round-about or indirect way to name a familiar object.
There are traditional periphrases which are not stylistic devices, they are synonymic expressions:
The giver of rings, the victor lord, the leader of hosts (king),
the play of swords(battle), a shield-bearer(warrior),

Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a phenomenon or an object.
He was so tall that I could not see his face.

 

Proverbs and sayings are brief statements showing in condensed form life experience of the community and serving as conventional symbols for abstract ideas. Proverbs and sayings have some typical features: rhythm, sometimes rhyme and or alliteration.
1. ‘Early to bed and early to rise,
2.Out of sight, out of mind.

Epigrams are terse, witty statements, showing the turn of mind of the originator. Epigram is a stylistic device akin to a proverb, the only difference being that epigrams are coined by people whose names we know, while proverbs are the coinage of the people.
‘A God that can be understood is not a God.’

 

Quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech and the like used by the way of illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation on the matter.

 

Allegory is a device by which the names of objects or characters are used figuratively, representing some more general things, good or bad qualities.

A type of allegory is Personification.

Personification is a form of comparison in which human characteristics, such as emotions, personality, and behavior and so on, are attributed to an animal, object or idea.
The proud lion surveyed his kingdom.
The primary function of personification is to make abstract ideas clearer to the reader by comparing them to everyday human experience.

Onomatopoeia (sound imitation) is a combination of speech sounds which imitate sounds produced in nature (wind) by things (tools), by people (laughing), by animals (barking). ▲ plink, plink, fizz.

Direct onomatopoeia: words which imitate natural sounds. ▲ buzz. Indirect: combination of sounds which makes the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. ▲ Камышишуршатвтиши.

Alliteration: repetition of similar consonant sounds in close succession. ▲ Functional, fashionable, formidable.

Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually in stressed syllables. ▲ Grace, space,pace.

Rhyme: repetition of identical or similar terminal sounds or sound combinations in words. ▲ One, two, three, four, five. I caught a fish alive. Assonance of vowel [ai].

Rhythm: complex unit defined as a regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables (strong and weak elements) which determine the meter in poetry or the measured flow of words in prose.

▲ One, two, three, four.Mary at the cottage door.

Graphical expressive means include the use of punctuation, graphical arrangement of phrases, violation of type and spelling.

Graphon: the intentional violation of the generally accepted spelling used to reflect peculiarities of pronunciation or emotional state of the speaker. Types of graphon: multiplication, hyphenation, capitalization, apostrophe. Functions: - to give the reader an idea about smth (level of education, emotional state, origin). – to attract attention. – to make smb memorize it. – to show smth, explain. Graphical means are popular with advertisers. They individualize speech of the character or advertising slogan. ▲ A better stain getter. ▲ How do you spell relief? R-O-L-I-P-S – to make reader / listener to remember it.

 

Litotes is a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. For example, instead of saying that someone is mean, you can say he is not very generous.

He's not a very generous man.

She is not very beautiful.

He is not the friendliest person I 've met.