“Official Style”
Critique: Chiara Quaranta
Chiara
Quaranta is a doctorate student of Film Studies at the University of Edinburgh,
under the supervision of Dr. David Sorfa.
Quaranta has also acquired a bachelor’s degree as well as two masters’
in similar studies. In such
high-education institutions and research, it is only fair to assume individuals
like Quaranta have been long exposed to the “Official Style” and how to
effectively use it. In order to affirm
this notion, I have chosen to explore an excerpt of Quaranta’s research
article, “A Cinema of Boredom: Heidegger, Cinematic Time and Spectatorship”
(2020). It is a piece for the highly
academic world, so it was only necessary, in this view of Quaranta’s
environment and goals, that she also work with a language and writing style
that was of similar professional standards and for her fellow peers to observe.
The
initial focus of the critique combed through textual evidence. What sort of style strategies were being
utilized to indicate an “Official” theme?
Or, what makes the piece sound “Official” and convinces us, readers,
that the writer is knowledgeable on the topic?
Beginning with some stability was also a goal, so to build some
foundations, I collected a few numbers of data from a general readability
calculator that reads as follows:
Gunning Fog Index (17.43), SMOG (16.14), Flesch Reading Ease
(35.13). The two former data indicate an
estimated grade level of education needed to understand the article; the latter
represents a level of complexity—lower-scoring numbers being more challenging
to read. Thus, from small data research,
we can form a preliminary hypothesis that Quaranta’s writing qualifies for the
“Official Style;” The numbers show that Quaranta’s article requires a higher
level of education for better comprehension of the writing.
Now,
what about specific, detailed evidence? How
can we conclude an individual’s writing style to be official based upon solely
numbers? As for textual evidence,
Quaranta provides a lot for the general understanding of the “Official Style”
such as, simply put, longer and more complex sentences and structure. But specifically, the writing utilizes a lot
of examples of “Official Style” key strategies.
In the introductory section alone, there were several relative clauses,
prepositional phrases, many appositives, and various conjunctive adverbs, just
to name a few. In addition, the article
was sanctioned off by various ideas for better, “Official” organization and had
interesting diction choices like “counterintuitively,” “etymology,” and more.
Quaranta’s
article was published by the Edinburgh University Press, in the February 2020
edition of Film-Philosophy.
Directly from the press’s website, they state that the journal “is an
open access peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the engagement between film
studies and philosophy” and are “interested in the ways in which films develop
and contribute to philosophical discussion” (EdinburghUP). This information,
alongside Quaranta’s own education, provides an indication of what kind of sphere
of human activity the writing operates in.
The subject of philosophy tends to complicate things for many right off
the bat, however, this topic can also insinuate why Quaranta writes in the
fashion that they do. For example, the
heavy use of conjunctive adverbs makes a connection to logical arguments,
namely conclusions, in philosophy.
Quaranta presents ideas, or premises, but often indicates when they are
connecting ideas and creating a flow of thought. This logical current resonates more
effectively with those that may be familiar with philosophy, and some of the
content resonates better with individuals who are familiar with Heidegger, film
theory, or specific ideas like “horror vacui” (3). This also gives the readers a chance to
manifest and evaluate their own questions as if participating in the article or
the philosophy of the argument. The
downfall, however, comes from readers who cannot or do not dig deeper with
their thoughts and ideas. Some readers
will have more questions than others regarding Quaranta’s piece and may find it
even more difficult to engage with the text and other resources.
The
average adult can comprehend reading at a level around the seventh grade;
therefore, pieces that portray an “Official Style” tend to be more complex and
harder to evaluate and consider. Chiara
Quaranta, a student of higher-education and many years of professional and
higher-lever writing exposure, is just the individual to follow an “Official
Style” to operate within their specific sphere of activity. Quaranta’s writing is from a professional for
other professionals, and it perpetuates the need for a specific style. It does not indicate that we ought to write
in a certain way, but it nevertheless creates a separation of understanding
between people. In Quaranta’s case, many
people may be left out or isolated from the values of the writing because they
may lack the education, among other variables, needed for full comprehension
and involvement.
Brittany Estes
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