ABSTRACT
The term discourse refers generally to substantial oral or written communication addressed to an audience, as opposed to an expressive utterance, brief comment, or conversation. In this essay, style refers to both the genre or kind of work and the manner of expression. In the Renaissance, rhetorical discussions of style treated many figures of speech involving word patterns (schemes), comparisons, turns of meaning (tropes), and strategies of thought. Authors during the Scientific Revolution expanded and altered the genres of scientific discourse commonly employed in the Middle Ages, and they adopted a wider range of stylistic expression.
