Plain style is
a way of writing which delivers ideas with clear and uncomplicated words and
sentences. It is usually used in commercials, children's storybooks, and
product manuals. To make readers get information more easily, quickly and
efficiently, plain style strategies are used in a wide range of essay writing.
As a college student, I often get informational articles during class that tell
me how to do something. Some of them are written in plain style and some of
them are organized with official style. Which one do you prefer? I believe that
most of the answers will be plain style because students can quickly get most
information from plain style articles. However, some students prefer official
style articles since these articles can give more detailed information and look
more credible and professional. From my perspective, using primary plain style with
a little bit of official style strategies can promote the reader's
understanding for informational articles.
In order to
realize the strengths of plain style and official style strategies, it is
necessary for us to distinguish between these strategies and understand their
functions. This paper will give you the chance to realize the benefits of four plain
style strategies in an informational article– “Writing Cover Letters” – that
was assigned in an English writing class. These four plain style strategies are
less formal tone, parallelism, exemplum, and simple sentences. This paper will
also involve two familiar strategies from official style, which can show us the
function of complex sentences and unfamiliar words. The analysis for these
strategies not only can prove my point, but also can show readers some reasons why
writers use a little bit of official style strategies in their plain style
papers.
The chosen
article “Writing Cover Letters” gives readers instructions on how to write a
cover letter. According to an
article readability test on the website “Readability,” the average grade level
for my chosen article is 9.5 and the Flesch reading ease is 52. Usually, the
average grade level for academic articles and official articles are above 12.0
and their Flesch reading ease is below 30. This data indicates that this
article is easy for the public to read and understand. “Writing Cover
Letters” is published on the website “Writing Commons.” By looking the home
page of this website, we can find that the target audiences are college
students and professors who are participating in classes related to writing and
research (Writing Commons). Therefore, the target
audience has a high level education.
Usually, informational
articles that are delivered by professors tend to be more official and
professional. However, this chosen article, delivered in my English class – Writing
for Management, Public Relationship, & the Professions – is written in more
of a plain style. How does plain style benefit readers? Why would my professor
want to assign an article written in this style? Here are four distinctive
strategies used in the chosen article that make the article more approachable
and understandable for me, as a college student: less formal tone, parallelism,
exemplum, and simple sentences.
Less formal tone – using first or second
person
The first
paragraph of the article is:
When reading cover
letters, the key benchmark I use is
simple: Do I get to know both the
person and the professional? As we
read a cover letter, we should have
a sense that no other candidate could have written this particular document in
this particular way. Hence, we
respect and honor the individual (Schall, 2013).
The tone of this introduction is
informal and friendly, in part because it uses a first-person subject. The
author used the first person in each sentence. For example, “we should have a sense
that” was the beginning of making a suggestion. With a first-person subject,
readers would be more willing accept the idea expressed in the following part
of that sentence because first-person subjects make readers feel closer
to the author and makes them feel like they have a real communication with the
author.
Parallelism – putting equally vital
thoughts into similar grammatical structures
The most significant
strategy in this article is the plain style strategy parallelism. Parallelism
means putting equally vital thoughts into similar grammatical structures. This
article uses this strategy to organize its body paragraphs. The most
distinctive example we can find in this article is the format of its subtitles:
·
Tone: Making it Sound
Good
·
Appearance and Mechanics:
Making it Look Good
·
The Heading and Greeting:
Following the Formats
·
The Opening Paragraph:
Showcasing Your Homework
·
The Body Paragraphs:
Selling your Skills
·
The Closing Paragraph and
Signoff: Exiting Gracefully (Schall, 2013)
Its subtitles all consist of
a noun and an interpretative gerund phrase, which shows the key messages for
readers. These subtitles express the most important things in writing a cover
letter. Showing key messages at the beginning of each paragraph and organizing
them within similar grammatical structures is a significant way to draw
reader’s attention. It is also a suitable way to emphasize the key concepts to
audiences.
Exemplum – providing specific and concrete examples
The writer also uses the
rhetorical device of exemplum when the concept is too general for readers to
understand or carry out. For instance, when the author expresses how to make a
cover letter looks good, he lists some specific requirements and examples. Here
is the paragraph:
Appearance and Mechanics: Making it Look Good
·
Limit cover letters to one page, and type them using single-spaced
or 1.5-spaced typing, with about one-inch
margins or more on all sides of the page.
·
Skip lines between paragraphs.
·
Favor short paragraphs over long ones.
·
Use highly readable,
tight, fonts, such as Helvetica or Times,
and point sizes no larger than 12 and no
smaller than 10.
·
Spell check, then
proofread the hard copy carefully. Present the final version of the letter on durable white or off-white paper.
·
Mail your letter and
resume flat in a large envelope
rather than folded in a small one. That
way they will be easier to read and Xerox (Schall, 2013).
These requirements and examples give the reader direct access to
information about how to write a good-looking cover letter without further
searching. The audience will know most formatting requirements directly from
this paragraph because of the clear and logical steps. This instance shows how
the plain style strategy of giving examples can express informational
instructions more obviously and efficiently.
Simple sentences – using imperative and uncomplicated sentences
Most of the sentences in the
article are simple sentences, omit the subject “you,” and are imperative
sentences. For example:
The Closing Paragraph
and Signoff: Exiting Gracefully
·
Keep your closing short
and simple. Do not waste time. Be gracious and sincere, not falsely
flattering nor pushy. Respectfully
indicate your desire for further action, reminding the company of your
availability.
·
Remembering that a
company could try to call you over a break or during the summer, indicate relevant phone numbers right
in the text. Provide your e-mail
address as well.
·
Under the final
paragraph, skip a line or two, then,
directly under your heading address, type
“Sincerely,” then handwrite and type
your name beneath.
·
Indicate that a resume is
included along with the letter by typing the word “Enclosure” at the left
margin near the bottom of the page (Schall, 2013).
These sentences not only omit the subject – you, but
also omit the imperative mood aid – please. They start with verbs in the simple
present tense to point out the requirements of writing a closing paragraph of a
cover letter. This structure shortens the number of words in a sentence so that
the readers can see the key information directly. Therefore, this strategy
helps to save readers’ time to get key messages.
Complex sentences – using different clauses
and phrases
Although most of the sentences in this article are
simple sentences, we still can find some complex sentences. For example, the
second paragraph is constituted by two complex sentences:
In conversation, the
term “cover letter” is used loosely to mean any professional letter that you write in an attempt to get a job, with
the term “cover” denoting that the
letter is usually a “cover piece” designed to introduce and accompany your
resume. Thus, too many writers think of the cover letter as mere mechanical
introductory fluff—disposable goods—when
in fact it can be more important than your resume (Schall, 2013).
The first sentence uses relative clause, infinitive
phrase, and absolute phrase to explain the definition of “cover letter.” It
looks similar to make a definition for an unfamiliar jargon. In this way, the
author explains the function of a cover letter to us. Coordination and
subordination are used in the second sentence, which emphasizes the importance
of writing a good cover letter.
Another reason why the author uses some official style
strategies in these two sentences at the introduction paragraphs is to establish
her credibility which helps to make readers believe that the author can teach
them how to write a great cover letter. It is easy to see that complex
sentences can tell readers more details of a specific topic to make the content
more concrete, because complex sentences allow the author to make longer, more
abstract or complex statements than a simple sentence would.
In addition, several complex sentences can be found in
the body paragraphs. In these sentences, the official style strategy shows another
different intention. For instance, when explaining the format for a cover
letter, the author suggests that “limit cover letters to one page, and type
them using single-spaced or 1.5-spaced typing, with about one-inch margins or
more on all sides of the page” (Schall, 2013). This
sentence contains three requirements which can be said separately, but the
author puts them in the same sentence.
In this case, the author chooses to list three
requirements within a complex sentence, possibly because two of the
requirements – using single-spaced or 1.5-spaced typing and making one-inch
margins or more on all sides of the page – are familiar to the audience. For
readers, familiar knowledge is easy to process. Thus, in this situation,
official style strategies of complex sentences will not increase the
understanding challenge for readers, but will help them to realize the new,
unfamiliar, and more important information.
However, with the use of different sentence combing
strategies, sometimes, complex sentences increase the difficulty of reading and
understanding for readers. In the case of this article, although the target
audiences are college students and professors, it will also be read by individuals
who have less education but are trying to write a better cover letter to find a
job. At that time, the first-two sentences might be a little difficult for them
to understand within a short period. This is a small example to show how
complex sentences perplex some readers. In fact, for common readers, these
troubles have existed in official style articles for a long time. For example,
in some official documents and regulations which have legal effect like
corporate responsibility statement, complex sentences and proprietary
vocabulary make articles difficult for readers to read or understand. Therefore,
using primary plain style with a little bit of official style strategies will
be a good way to write an informational article.
On the one hand, some people believe that official
style articles are more suitable for informational instructions because they
are more credible and professional. On the other hand, many people maintain
that plain style articles are more convenient for readers to grasp the main
ideas and key messages. According to my analysis in this paper, I argue that
the best way of delivering information in instructions is to use plain style
with a little bit of official style strategies. We do not have to completely
resist the official style, nor do we need to use just the plain style because the
purpose of informational instructions is not to create an impressive writer but
to help students better understand information.
Yingning Cao
4/20/2018
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