Lecture 6 Style and Diction 英语专业写作 教学课件.ppt

Lecture 6: Style and Diction Outline I. Style II. Specificity III. Concreteness IV. Conciseness V. Exactness I. Style 1. What is style? 2. Layers of style 3. Popular words vs. learned words 4. What style to adopt for student writers 5. In-class practice 1. What is style? Usually, it is more difficult for a Chinese student to use an English word contextually right than to use it grammatically right. If you want to use a word that is contextually correct or to choose the right word to produce right effect, you have to take the following factors into consideration: (1) The social relationship between the reader and the writer, or the audience and the speaker, or correspondents (which may be that of a friend to friend, son to mother, husband to wife, nurse to kindergarten kids, professor to student, or boss to employee, etc.) (2) The occasion (which may be a family reunion, a class party, a bedroom chat, a grand wedding, a funeral ceremony, or an official reception, etc.) (3) Subject matter (which may be about serious political issues, an academic subject, a film, a new sweater, swimming, or food.) (4) The mode of discourse (spoken or written) These considerations are a matter of style: adjusting your language to fit different context or situations. 2. Layers of style There are five layers of style: 1）the oratorical or frozen style (演说体), 2）the deliberate or formal style (正式体), These two styles are generally used in written reports, official documents, business letters, scholarly and scientific articles, or in a dignified public speech prepared beforehand with a written draft. 3）the consultative or moderate style (商议体), 4）the casual or colloquial style (口语体), These two styles occur in everyday use. Consultative style is a polite and fairly neutral style; it is used when we are talking to a person whom we don’t know well, or to someone who is senior in terms of age or social position. The casual style, implying informality, familiarity, or friendl