ABSTRACT
Helping pupils to find a style Style is one of those wonderfully intangible aspects of writing that is difficult to
analyse and almost impossible to measure, although we know when it’s there
and realise that it’s a powerful influence on our appreciation of the work. I think
of written style as I think of the individuality of someone’s voice. I can make
comments about pitch, timbre, volume, pace, tone and content – but what is it
about the way these things work together that make a voice so charismatic that
I could listen to it all day, or so unbearably irritating that I want to shut it off at
once? Similarly, with the style of any author’s writing. What is it that gives those
words their distinctiveness? Certainly the reader’s personal opinion plays a part.
I remember recommending one of my favourite authors to a friend, pointing
