ELEMENTS OF LITERARY STYLE

ELEMENTS OF LITERARY STYLE

1. SENTENCE STRUCTURE
(i) Are the sentences long or short?
(ii) Why do sentences change?
(iii) Do sentences contain many subordinate clauses, or are they often fragments?
(iv) Are there any digressions or interruptions?
2. PACE
Is the writing heavily descriptive, with emphasis on setting and atmosphere, OR
Does it focus on action and plot movement?
3. EXPANSIVE/ECONOMICAL DICTION
(i) Is the writing tight and efficient, or elaborate and long-winded?
(ii) Why does the author sue one or the other mode, and why?
4. VOCABULARY
(i) Are the words simple or fancy?
(ii) Are the words technical, flowery, cerebral, punning, obscure and son on ----?
5. FIGURES OF SPEECH
(i) Are there any metaphors, similes, or symbols?
(ii) Are there any other uses of figurative language (personification, metonymy, and so on)?
6. USE OF DIALOGUE
(i) How often does dialogue tell the story?
(ii) Do we see whole conversations or just fragments?
(iii) Does the conversation use slang or is it formal? Does it appear natural or contrived?
(iv) Does the dialogue give a sense of pacing, of pauses, of the unsaid?
(v) How much does it substitute for narration?
7. POINT OF VIEW
Possibilities: first, second, third, omniscient, limited omniscient, multiple, inanimate, free indirect discourse.
8. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
(i) How does the author introduce characters?
(ii) How do we see characters evolution in the story?
(iii) What is the function and motivation of characters?
(iv) What kinds of characters are they? Full/round? Stock characters? Stereotypes? Caricatures?
9. TONE
(i) What is the author's attitude?
(ii) What is the mood of the story?
(iii) Does the author seem sarcastic? Aggressive? Wistful? Pessimistic? In love? Philosophically detached? Hopeful? Ironic? Bitter? And so on ----.
(iv) Whatever the tone, where is it visible in the narrative?
10. WORD COLOUR, WORD SOUND
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?
11. PARAGRAPH / CHAPTER STRUCTURE
(i) Are paragraphs very short, or are they enormous block running across many pages?
(ii) Are the chapters short or long? How many are there, how are they organized, and why is this important?
12. TIME SEQUENCING / CHRONOLOGY
(i) How has the author organized the chronology of events? To what effect?
(ii) What is the work's structural 'rhythm'?
13. ALLUSION
How and how often does the author refer to other texts, myths, symbols, famous figures, historical events, quotations, and son on?
14. EXPERIMENTATION IN LANGUAGE
Are they any unusual techniques, such as stream-of-consciousness, mixing styles and genres, unusual layout on the page, breaking rules of grammar and form, odd or unstable narrative perspectives, onomatopoeia, aporia, and so on?
15. METAFICTIONAL TECHNIQUES
(i) Does the author call attention to his or her own process of narration?
(ii) Are the narrator's position, role, and thoughts as a storyteller mentioned explicitly in the text?
(iii) What function does this serve?

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