What is writing style and how can I improve mine?
What is style?
Writing style is the way you construct sentences, or put groups of sentences together; things like word choice, tone or voice, sentence structure, sentence order, paragraph structure all combine to create style. Speaking objectively, there is no such thing as a bad style, or a good one for that matter. Different readers, instructors and fields of study have varying ideas about what makes for good writing style. For example, some readers may be very sensitive to word choice, while others may focus solely on the content of your writing. Or, if you were writing a science paper or journal article, it would be more acceptable and expected for you to write in a passive voice than if you were writing a paper for a course in the humanities. So, as is always the case when you are writing, it is crucial to determine your target audience and your goals before you begin your project.
Things to keep in mind:
- Style is subjective: a reader might identify “writing problems” in a sentence that is technically grammatically correct.
- Since style is subjective, it can be difficult to understand what you are doing wrong or how to correct it. This is why asking friends, family or advisors to read your writing before you submit it is extraordinarily helpful; these people can discuss your writing with you, pointing out what works, and what doesn’t.
- Another bit of helpful advice: read your writing ALOUD to yourself. This will help you recognize sections where the flow is awkward, where the word choice is off, where you are being too wordy and where you may need to add some explanation.
Style for scholarship essays
Even though style is subjective, and you are never going to please all readers all of the time, there are some things to keep in mind when you consider the style of your scholarship essay. Whether or not you are given a prompt for your scholarship essay, it is safe to say that your reader is approaching the essay as a way to get to know you, and to determine whether or not you are a good fit for the program. This means that your most important goal when writing your essay is to introduce yourself in an appealing and straightforward manner.
A few recommendations to achieve this goal:
- Watch your tone: avoid distracting your reader from what you are trying to say by how you are saying it. Scholarship essays are not academic papers. So, avoid the temptation to try sounding smart by using overly complicated sentences full of multi-syllabic words. You do not want to risk being opaque or unclear because you are trying to sound like a brilliant college student. However, your scholarship essay is also not a letter to your best friend. You also want to avoid being too casual or personal with your reader. Avoid slang.
Be clear, concise and professional—imagine you were interviewing for a job. You want your personality to show, but you also want to be articulate and to impress your reader
2. Word choice: sometimes it can be very difficult to find the right word. Ever writer has this problem; this is why editing and revisions are so vital. Often, when writers struggle to find the correct word, or are having difficulties being precise in their arguments, they resort to clichés, over-use of qualifiers, redundant sentences, stock phrases, and the overuse of prepositional phrases. I found a great handout from the University of North Carolina’s writing center that discusses strategies for finding and replacing such problems in your writing—check it out here: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/style/.
- Carefully organize your essay so that it flows from one sentence to the next, and from one paragraph into another. The effective use of transitions can really help your essay feel like one cohesive piece, and will make your reader’s experience much more pleasant.
I have written a few other posts that will help you consider more specific elements of your style and useful writing strategies for your scholarship essay. See my post on self-disclosure: https://scholarshipsojourn.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/self-disclosure/ my list of general writing tips: https://scholarshipsojourn.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/do-this/.
Scholarship Sojourn 