by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: February 16, 2009

What essentially is writing style? I would suggest that it is the unique way in which a writer strings a sentence together, structures his paragraphs, presents his information and draws his conclusions, as well as a great many other things. It is as unique to every writer as his or her fingerprints and is what marks them as distinct from other writers in the same genre or field. So how do we go about choosing our writing style? I would submit that it is not something we choose so much as something we find.

The first step in becoming a writer is to decide upon which field we wish to write to. There are a great many field to choose from, such as fiction, technical writing, poetry and travel writing to name but a tiny fraction of them. It is apparent to all that these fields named in the previous sentence would each require a very different style of writing as the information or details contained in each are so drastically different. It is up to the individual writer to therefore determine which one appeals most and to which he believes he would be able to write best.

I making this determination, the writer ahs subconsciously taken the first step in finding his writing style. He is likely to be aware of which genre appeals most to him but also of which he believes his writing style could help him be most successful in. After all, someone most comfortable writing poetry is not overly likely to produce a masterpiece technical article propounding theories on particle physics!

The next step in finding his writing style for the writer is the easiest of all. He simply begins to write. He experiments with different topics and different ways of relating his information or structuring his prose. This is a learning curve for the writer and as in so many other avenues of life, the best teacher of all is experience.

Very soon, the writer swill start to find various ways in which he is most comfortable structuring his writing and getting his message across. Essentially, this is his own particular style of writing developing and beginning to shine through. This is the most important thing which will please editors and attract readers in the long term as the writer who has truly discovered his own style will produce quality work which reads as being authentic.

It can therefore hopefully be seen that although we cannot choose a writing style we can actively go about finding that which is suited to us and will help us to produce our very best writing in the genre to which we are best suited.

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