Style Controversy :: Writing Styles Style Essays

Style Controversy Upon completion of the both stylebooks, Strunk and White and Williams, I have found that style is much more than whatever one sees fit for themselves. This is true at least for essay writing not necessarily creative writing. As with other debated subjects where guidelines are drawn as to what constitutes a good work of art, film, or music, writing has guidelines which good compositions fit into and can therefore be compared and contrasted with other works. That is not to say there is one way to do any essay but there are parameters which must be met and set for a paper to be critiqued. S&W would like to set up a correct way to do everything; according to them there is only one right way and everything else is wrong. This authoritarian point of view on writing is scary but some of the things they say are poignant. For instance when they speak of participial phrases, as I have mentioned in my first blog writing, they tell and show how to do this correctly and it is easily implemented. â€Å"A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject† (13). To someone who understands what a participial phrase is along with what and where the grammatical subject of a sentence is this makes sense. It is clear, concise, and effective one can quickly look to the rule for reference and continue on with their paper. When looking for quick reference on how to fix grammar mistakes this is a good way to go about finding answers but not for a stylebook. There needs to be more discussion. It would be nice to say that good style is just correct grammar and word usage but it’s not so. Williams knows this and blatantly points this out in his preface of the book. He acknowledges that his book is different from stylebooks in the past mentioning that this book is not for everyone. Williams divulges secrets of the trade in an interesting although sometimes hard to grasp conversation with the reader on all subjects of writing. This does include grammatical problems and word usage concerns but Williams explains both sides and shows how at times both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ aspects of writing can be right depending on the context it is used in.