Bedford Researcher Ch.16 - Writing with Style

                Writing with style is the emphasis of Ch. 16 in The Bedford Researcher. Your writing style will be based on your experience, writing situation, and/or prompt. Beginning to write with style will include: writing in a briefer manner, productively using active and passive voice, make sure you use a consistent point of view, choose words conscientiously, and use different sentence structures. Writing more briefly includes removing unnecessary words, information, and “stock phrases,” or phrases that could easily be shortened. Writing concisely allows your reader to understand what you’ve written without working too hard at it, but isn’t too vague either. Using active and passive voices are important when trying to get to the point, or emphasize the person carrying out the action to supply an adequate amount of information. In The Bedford Researcher they talk about how important using a consistent point of view in your paper. If you switch from one point of view, such as first person, to another, like third person, it could confuse the reader and make it harder to understand. To conscientiously choose words you have to first identify the formality in which you’re writing, who you’re writing to, and words that will clean up your sentence/paragraph structure.

                Polishing your style is the subject of the next section in ch.16.  To enhance the value of your research writing paper, The Bedford Researcher tells you to change up your sentence structure, transition from one sentence, idea, or paragraph to another productively, avoid using language that could imply sexist meaning, consulting a handbook, and reading widely. Varying your sentence structure keeps your reader from getting bored and makes your writing more attractive. Transitioning can signal small shifts within your sentence, to larger shifts within your document. Using author’s ideas or quotes should be introduced in a more elaborate way. Avoiding sexist comments can be just as simple as taking out the gender focus of a sentence that negatively conveys a person or person’s action. The Bedford Researcher then suggests to consult a handbook for further ways to “polish” your writing style. The last way they suggest to perfect your writing is to simply read more and diverse books.