Download Learning Style Rules

Learning Style Rules
Style is a form of writing English that will allow you to convey your message to your readers in
the most direct, coherent, and concise way. The more effectively you use style principles while
you write, the better your readers will understand your message exactly as you intended. With
these notes, we will define some important style rules. Your textbook presents more style rules
for you to follow, but if you follow the style rules below, you will eliminate most of the style
errors common in writing.
Review your parts of speech and grammar rules
Before you understand how to rewrite a sentence for style, you need to understand what parts of
speech make a sentence complete. Remember a complete sentence combines a subject with a
verb to complete a thought. If you have trouble identifying the subject and verb of a sentence,
you need to review your parts of speech and grammar rules. EduSpace provides assessments and
tutoring that will help you review. You can also consult tutors in an English writing lab for more
help.
Use Actors as subjects of your sentences
The subject is what the sentence is about, and actors are people in the sentence. Even if they
don’t realize it, readers understand sentences better when actors are the subjects because they
understand the concept of “people” better than most other nouns. When you write, make actors
the subjects of the sentence. Actors are ideal subjects because they are our most familiar concept.
Remember: no one understands people better than people.
If you can’t use an actor for your subject, then you want to use a subject that your readers
understand well, a familiar concept. For example
Pollution threatens the Wilson Wildlife Preserve.
(subject)
(verb)
In the sentence above, “pollution” is a familiar concept that readers would understand. You also
wouldn’t be able to improve the clarity or concision of the sentence using an actor as the subject.
Use Active Voice in the Verbs of Your Sentences
In addition to using an actor as your subject, you want to make sure your verbs are active. By
using active verbs, you allow your actors to “act.” When your actors are moving, your readers’
minds are moving with them. By using active voice as much as you can, you deliver message
with increasing momentum. This will help keep your reader moving through your message.
Avoid Passive Voice
Instead of allowing the actor to act in a sentence, passive voice shifts the actor out of the subject.
Passive voice acts upon an actor. Passive voice resembles active voice because part of the
passive voice construction includes an active verb in a past tense verb form (called a “past
participle”). However, the active verb is helped by a state-of-being-verb (also called a “to be”
verb). For example, the active verb “walked” becomes passive when the to-be verb “was” is
helping it—was walked. See the following example:
Active
We walked the dog.
(we= subject; we=actors; walked= verb)
Passive
The dog was walked by us.
(dog= subject; us=actors; was walked= verb)
Notice how the passive voice construction removed the sentence’s actor, “we,” from the subject
and puts it after the verb. Active voice is direct; passive is indirect. Your readers’ minds will take
some extra time to process this information directly, which slows their reading.
Avoid Nominalizations (Actions Trapped in Nouns)
Nominalizations are nouns in which the root word is an active verb. Nominalizations usually
contain one of the following suffixes: -tion, -ment, -ion, -ance, -ence, -ery. For example, the
noun “definition” is a nominalization of the active verb “define.” Nominalizations tend to
complicate sentences and keep the action trapped in a noun form. Remember you want to use
active verbs whenever you can. You will add more momentum to your sentences using active
verbs rather than using nominalizations.
Eliminate Modifier Errors
Modifiers are words, phrases, or clauses that act as adjectives or adverbs, modifying other words
in a sentence (called “referents”). You will encounter two main types of modifier errors:
misplaced and dangling.
Misplaced modifiers modify the wrong word because they appear too far from their true referent.
To correct this error, move the modifier next to its referent.
Dangling modifiers don’t just modify the wrong referent, they have no referent to logically
modify. Dangling modifiers are usually introductory phrases. For example,
While eating a slice of pizza, a stone in the sauce chipped my tooth.
(dangling modifier)
In the sentence above, the modifying phrase is modifying “a stone.” This makes no sense, since
stones cannot eat a slice of pizza. However, you cannot correct this error by simply moving the
modifying phrase near the proper referent because it doesn’t exist in the sentence. To correct
dangling modifiers, you can insert the missing referent immediately following the modifier; see
the following correction:
While eating a slice of pizza, I chipped my tooth on a stone in the sauce.
You can also correct a dangling modifier by adding the referent in the modifying phrase. (By
adding the referent, you turn the introductory phrase into an introductory clause.) See the
following correction:
While I was eating a slice of pizza, a stone in the sauce chipped my tooth.