Rebecca
Jackson
ENGL
328
Professor
Krause
My
New Style Rule
I
found it challenging to complete an assignment that asked me to devise my own
stylistic writing rule. As a rule follower it was difficult to change into the persona
of a rule maker. I certainly do not feel qualified to make a rule after
studying only two style books. In William Strunk Jr.
& E.B. White’s The Elements of Style and Joseph M. Williams’ Style:
Toward Clarity and Grace, rules of style and
grammar are presented in bulk and it becomes overwhelming to invent a “new”
style rule. How could they not all be taken? It seems that Strunk
and White and Williams together have looked at grammar from every possible
angle. With a
little help from both Strunk and White and Williams, I was able to incorporate
each of their individual definitions of style into my own. My rule reads as
follows: Avoid using the word “not” when writing a statement unless you are
using a positive and negative in opposition or denying an allegation.
The first part of my rule came from Strunk
and White’s The Elements of Style and
reads as follows, “Put statements in positive form” (Strunk
and White, 19). This rule made sense to me since statements that are positive
seem more powerful and effective than statements that are negative. I am a
strong willed woman and do not like being told what to do. I would rather know
what I am allowed to do than what my restrictions are. When someone is told
that they can’t do something, it makes them curious as to how they can break
the rule, so why not make all statements in the positive form?
The writer/audience relationship is built upon trust and
when negative statements are used in writing, it will only bring tension and a
sense of conflict into the relationship. It is ideal
for the reader to engage in a sort of discussion with the text where the text
is inviting, informative and feeds the reader’s thought process. Negative
statements will only make the reader feel alienated from the text, as if they are
not on the same level and as though their opinion is of no value. Most readers
will not open up to a text if it simply tells them what to do. When a statement
is in its positive form the reader will incorporate the knowledge learned from
the text and build from those ideas. The writing will not seem like a command;
it will be only what the writer thought. In this way readers will be encouraged
to write themselves and won’t view writing as such a negative endeavor. The
word “not” makes a sentence have a negative meaning and is seen in religion,
law, the school system and, most importantly, style books. If the rules in
style books were written in a positive form, students would be more likely to
see that once they master the rules, they can be used to their own advantage.
Laws tell people what they cannot do and therefore people are temped to break
them.
In
addition to forming more powerful and inviting statements, the positive form is
also more concise.
Example:
She was not happy. vs. She was sad. In the first
sentence the reader must take a guess at the writer’s intention. If the girl
isn’t happy she could be feeling a
number of different emotions including anger, excitement and
confusion. Writers will often times use too many words to say what could be
said in a few words.
Take a look at this sentence:
I have no liking for soccer.
The statement would be clearer and more powerful by
writing I hate soccer.
Using the positive form when making a
statement leaves the reader fulfilled.
Negative Form
Positive
Form
She does not have a voice.
She is voiceless.
The tree does not have leaves. The
tree is leafless.
Not guilty
Innocent
Not anxious
Calm
Thou shall not commit adultery. Adultery
is a sin.
Notice
that if I wrote a portion of my rule in the negative form it would look like
this:
Don’t not use the positive form when writing a statement.
Besides
being a double negative, this rule is almost impossible to understand unless we
first change it into a positive statement or to what we are allowed to do.
Negation
is acceptable in some cases because not all words weaken and add confusion to a
sentence as “not” does. Strunk and White encourage
using a negative and positive together in opposition to strengthen a sentence’s
meaning.
Examples:
Not
that I mind doing homework, but I like shopping more.
It’s
not how long a man lives, but how well he uses the time allotted him.
It’s
not that I wanted to take off work, but I’m glad that I did.
These
sentences put stress at the end of the sentence as Williams would see fit. We must also remember that auxiliary verbs
such as “should” and “would” might cause unnecessary doubt in the reader’s mind
so use them only when true doubt is present.
In my rule I took into consideration both Strunk and White’s and Williams’ advice. In order to please
Williams my agent matches up with its action (Williams 27). Both Strunk and White and Williams’ style manuals clearly
express that rules become the most clear to a reader through examples.
Therefore I have incorporated examples that illustrate my rule and some that do
not.
In The Elements of Style Strunk
and White explain that “vigorous writing is concise,” that we should “omit
needless words,” and make “every word tell” (Strunk
and White 23). Making our writing more concise seems simple, but Strunk and White offer only examples and no advice on how
to apply them. Their book leaves the reader confused and with unanswered
questions. Joseph Williams answers the questions that Strunk
and White leave for us in his book Style:
Toward Clarity and Grace. Williams provides useful
details and teaches his reader how to write in a way that is clear and that can
be understood by the reader’s audience.
The negative form leaves doubt in the readers mind and,
therefore, it is best to use the positive form as often as possible. Williams
explains that in order “to understand many negatives, we have to translate them
into affirmatives, because the negatives may only imply what we should not do
by telling us what we shouldn’t do. The affirmative states it directly”
(Williams, 130). Williams agrees with Strunk and White that the negative form leaves room for
misconceptions and doubt when reading. As readers it is more useful to us to
know what we are allowed to do than what we aren’t.
When we read a negative statement we must translate it into a positive one to
understand it. We translate the statement in our mind to see what we can do. If
the writer always uses the positive form then there won’t be any confusion
between about the writer’s purpose.
Although always using the positive form is our ideal,
this isn’t always possible. Williams acknowledges this when he states that, “we
can’t translate every negative into an affirmative. But we can rephrase many.
Some negatives allow formulaic translations into affirmatives” (Williams, 130).
Williams provides such examples as:
not
possible - impossible
not
clearly - unclearly
did not
remember – forgot
The second part of my rule comes from Williams and states
that the word “not” can be used when denying an allegation. When we want to
correct a statement we may use the word “not” to deny the first part of a
statement. Williams states that “one of the most common ways we introduce
discourse is to deny, to say “not so” to someone
else’s idea of truth, or even some possible truth. Once we deny it, we then go on to assert the truth as we see it. (Williams, 131). Once we deny a statement, we must then put
the statement back in positive form to continue with our argument. If someone
states that they did not break the law then they must explain further and give
proof of what they did do to make the argument convincing and understandable.
Williams demonstrates this type of explanation in this sentence: “In the last
decade of the 20th century, we will not find within our own borders
sufficient oil to meet our needs, nor will we find it in the world market. The
only way we will increase our oil supply is by developing the one resource that
we have so far ignored: massive conservation” (Williams, 131). In this sentence
the author states that having sufficient oil to meet our needs is not possible
and then goes on to explain why.
From Stunk and White and Williams we are able to
incorporate each individual definition of style into our own. Good style does
not reveal any signs of effort. Strunk and White
believe that their way of presenting style is the best and only way, while
Williams believes that there are some rules to be followed, but not all. His
book is more helpful to the advanced writer and gives step-by-step instructions
on how to make your writing more focused and easily understood by your reader.
Williams knows that if you followed every grammar rule exactly, then your
writing would be stifled and boring. The key for Williams is that we must
practice “until we have learned the rules so well that we obey them without
thought. This guarantees that we never offend anyone. But once we decide to
follow all the rules, we deprive ourselves of stylistic flexibility” (Williams
178). We now know that writing in the positive form when possible will make our
sentences clearer and more concise. Negatives can be used to deny and can also
be placed in opposition with positives to make a statement stronger. Using the
positive form allows us to take Strunk and White’s
advice to “avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, noncommittal language” (Strunk and White, 19). Some rules will stay and some will
fade away, but in order to achieve the best style, we must try not to take
advice from one source alone. Each writer must find his or her own style.
Works
Cited
Strunk, William Jr. & White, E.B. The Elements of Style 4th Ed. Allyn and Bacon:
Williams,
Joseph M. Style: Toward Clarity and Grace.