Analyzing an Author’s Style
Part 1
Diction
Pace
Tone
Figures of Speech
Sounds boring. Sell me on it.
Analyzing (breaking down) an author’s style
means to NAME what that author does.
We cannot compare unless we can define.
We cannot evaluate unless we can compare.
We cannot know or understand or form real
conclusions unless we can compare.
Sounds boring. Sell me on it.
Review: Tell me about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s
speaking STYLE.
____________________________
Tell me about Donald Trump’s speaking style.
Tell me about President Obama’s speaking style.
How are they different and why does it matter?
Sounds boring. Sell me on it.
Not there yet? Forget English for a minute, and
think for a few minutes about a coach or a
team’s STYLE of play at any level in any sport.
Write a few quick bullet notes about how one
can ANALYZE a team’s or a coach’s style.
Our elements of analysis
Diction: the patterns of word choice used by an
author to create mood and atmosphere in a text
Formal, informal, colloquial, playful,
cerebral, eloquent, poetic, et cetera
Sentence Structure: types used, length, patterns
emerging, interruptions, fragments
Expansive or Economic?
Read the following excerpt from a short story
“The School” by Donald Barthelme:
“And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I
don’t know why they died, they just died.
Something wrong with the soil possibly or
maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn’t
the best. We complained about it. So we’ve got
thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own
little tree to plant and we’ve got these thirty
dead trees. All these kids looking at these little
brown sticks, it was depressing.”
Read the following example from A Tale of Two
Cities by Charles Dickens:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the
epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it
was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of
hope, it was the winter of despair.”
How are these two passages different in terms of
diction?
Our elements of analysis
Pace: Essentially the “speed” with which the
narrative proceeds
• Is there a focus on description (setting,
atmosphere, character)? This often leads to a
slower text.
• Is there a focus on plot or movement? This
often leads to a faster text.
Our elements of analysis
Tone: Yes, I know that this is review for all of you.
Tone is generally the author’s attitude about the
content of a literary work and the mood she/he
creates to help deliver that attitude.
Does the author seem:
sarcastic? Aggressive? Wistful? Pessimistic? In
love? Philosophically
detached? Hopeful? Ironic? Bitter? (And so on...)
Our elements of analysis
Figures of Speech:
Are there any metaphors, similes, or symbols?
Are there any other uses of figurative language
(personification, metonymy, and so on)?
Word Color / Sound: This overlaps with diction
How much does the language call attention to or
depend on the quality of its sound, e.g. through
alliteration, assonance, consonance, dissonance,
rhythm, unusual word choice, and so on?
Review
1. Diction
• Word choice (color / sound too)
• Sentence structure
• Expansive or economic
2. Pace
• Fast or slow depending on focus
3. Tone
• Break out the adjectives to define the writer’s attitude
4. Figures of Speech
• Metaphor, simile, or symbols