Editing 4: Style. Denotative v connotative, formal v casual

1. Zsolt Almási: Essaywriting 1
Editing IV: Style
Class 9

2. Zsolt Almási: Essaywriting 2
Stylistic Continuums

3. Formal
In 1965 the bulk of total energy was consumed North
America, Europe and Eurasia- collectively, they accounted
for more than 80 percent of global energy consumption.
Although energy consumption has increased in these regions
since the 1960s, their relative share of the total has declined
significantly. Consumption across the rest of the world has
been increasing, most dramatically in the Asia Pacific where
the total consumption increased more than 12-fold over this
period.
2020.04.06. Zsolt Almási: Essaywriting 3

4. Zsolt Almási: Essaywriting 4
Formal Style
• Long sentences and paragraphs
• Abstract language
• Impersonal tone (few personal references
and no contracted forms)
• formal words
• Serious tone
• Distance between reader and writer

5. Informal
• I’ve been called for a personal round of
interview tomorrow. Do you believe this? I
am so happy! Wish me luck to perform well
tomorrow.
2020.04.06. Zsolt Almási: Essaywriting 5

6. Zsolt Almási: Essaywriting 6
Informal Style
• Variety of sentence length
• Short- to medium-length paragraphs
• Mixture of abstract and concrete language
• Some use of 1st- and 2nd-person pronouns
• Some use of contracted forms
• Action verbs
• Variety of tones to casual to serious
• Little distance between reader and writer

7. Casual
• You know that book I wrote? Well, the
publishing company rejected it. They
thought it was awful. But hey, I did the best
I could, and I think it was great. I’m not
gonna redo it the way they said I should.
2020.04.06. Zsolt Almási: Essaywriting 7

8. Zsolt Almási: Essaywriting 8
Casual Style
• Short- to medium-length sentences, short
paragraphs
• Specific words and vivid language
• Many personal pronouns and references to people
• Contracted forms, slang terms and colloquial
language
• Light tone
• Very little distance between reader and writer

9. Denotative
[C]ontemplation is both the highest form of
activity (since the intellect is the highest thing
in us, and the objects that it apprehends are
the highest things that can be known), and
also it is the most continuous, because we are
more capable of continuous contemplation
than we are of any practical activity.
Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics
2020.04.06. Zsolt Almási: Essaywriting 9

10. Connotative style
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by
drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We
must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane
of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our
creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.
Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights
of meeting physical force with soul force.
Martin Luther King: „I have a dream …”
2020.04.06. Zsolt Almási: Essaywriting 10

11. Zsolt Almási: Essaywriting 11
Denotative - Connotative
Styles
• appeals to reason
• information
• facts
• denotative language
• straightforward,
explicit wording
• statements
• appeals to emotions
• emotionally charged
• ethical, aesthetic load
• figurative language
• rhetorical
constructions
• statements,
exclamations,
questions

12. Zsolt Almási: Essaywriting 12
Editing IV: Style
Class 9