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April 13, 2005
Conversations
Conversing with the textual form of Porter Perrin this morning, I find this gem that reminds me why I wanted to get into comp/rhet to begin with:
Much of our work deals really with style, with judging the appropriateness and effectiveness of the language used in a particular circumstance. Style considers not the conventional patterns of the language (agreement of subject and verb, and so on), but the selection among the various possibilities in words and constructions that our vast and various language offers.
yeah. wish I'd said that.
Posted by cageyer at April 13, 2005 12:20 PM
Comments
This reminds me of the awful things that get done to Cicero, Quintilian, and Blair when people get a bug up their colletive butts about style being something that actually be talked about. Yes, we can say that one combination of words has more style than another and the world will not implode. I think it's also possible to prove this without necessarily delving into misplaced empiricism. (How's that for a random two cents?)
Posted by: TR at April 18, 2005 09:18 PM