English 5365 Week Twelve Post
Topic: Refer to high, middle, and low styles with what you read/worked on from the edited collection.
According to Lanham, "The oldest set of categories for prose style is the division into high and low" (p. 160). Lanham notes that high style resulted in our new formal style, which he calls "The Official Style," in which bureaucrats will say things like "an upsurge in suicidal ideation" (p. 160). Lanham states that we crave the high style, yet we fear it. We have developed an idea that "down home, plain, folksy, colloquial, ungrammatical" is sincere, while high style is not (p. 161).
The middle style is more difficult to define precisely. It depends on the placement of high and low styles. Lanham states, " It can be clearly and consistently defined as halfway between the high and low style, whatever we think those extremes may be" (p. 164). This means that my definition of middle style will differ from someone else's definition because our placement of high and low may differ.
I worked on Carl Whithaus's chapter. I would place it firmly in the middle to high range. I did not see anything that I would definitively call low style in the work.
For example, "Grego and Thompson develop the Writing Studio as a systematic method of helping student writers, but their pedagogical practices also allow an understanding of composition’s meaningful work as contingent upon localized needs" is clearly in the middle to high style in my opinion. "Pedagogical practices" and "contingent upon localized needs" are clearly high style. I could not imagine using these terms in everyday conversation. [I do use uncommon words at work frequently, but that is work, which is hardly low style.]
Another example is "the RCS approach engages participants in intensive communication practice for making sense of their engineering research experiences." "Engages participates" and "intensive communication practice" are more high style than low.
However, when I consider that this is a chapter in a book for a professional audience, it makes sense that the author would tend toward higher style. Slang is not usually acceptable in peer-reviewed content.
According to Lanham, "The oldest set of categories for prose style is the division into high and low" (p. 160). Lanham notes that high style resulted in our new formal style, which he calls "The Official Style," in which bureaucrats will say things like "an upsurge in suicidal ideation" (p. 160). Lanham states that we crave the high style, yet we fear it. We have developed an idea that "down home, plain, folksy, colloquial, ungrammatical" is sincere, while high style is not (p. 161).
The middle style is more difficult to define precisely. It depends on the placement of high and low styles. Lanham states, " It can be clearly and consistently defined as halfway between the high and low style, whatever we think those extremes may be" (p. 164). This means that my definition of middle style will differ from someone else's definition because our placement of high and low may differ.
I worked on Carl Whithaus's chapter. I would place it firmly in the middle to high range. I did not see anything that I would definitively call low style in the work.
For example, "Grego and Thompson develop the Writing Studio as a systematic method of helping student writers, but their pedagogical practices also allow an understanding of composition’s meaningful work as contingent upon localized needs" is clearly in the middle to high style in my opinion. "Pedagogical practices" and "contingent upon localized needs" are clearly high style. I could not imagine using these terms in everyday conversation. [I do use uncommon words at work frequently, but that is work, which is hardly low style.]
Another example is "the RCS approach engages participants in intensive communication practice for making sense of their engineering research experiences." "Engages participates" and "intensive communication practice" are more high style than low.
However, when I consider that this is a chapter in a book for a professional audience, it makes sense that the author would tend toward higher style. Slang is not usually acceptable in peer-reviewed content.
posted by Jessica Badger at
5:57 PM
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