This Guy's Got Style

Richard Lanham seems to be a guy who really loves what he does. From everything that I read about him, I got the impression that he was doing exactly what he wanted to do in life. He has made a name for himself in the areas of technology, copyright law, and most importantly, style.

It was his work in style that I found to be the most interesting. This is an area that I am very interested in, but do not get to work with very often. In the high school setting, it seems that style gets pushed to the back. I spend most of my time working on complete sentences and actual words. It is one thing if a student chooses to use a variation of the language as a stylistic choice, but that is very rarely the case. Lanham suggests that style is the key to really understanding writing. He believes that it should be the primary focus in writing instruction. If we neglect style, we neglect the joy that can be associated with writing. We can’t be complacent in our writing and allow it to become stale and stagnant. If all writing begins to look the same, then there is no reason to write. We have to find the pleasure that use to exist in writing.

He also stresses the importance of understanding style in order to fully comprehend what a student is reading. Most readers look through the style in order to find the meaning behind the words. Others become too occupied with the style and never gain an understanding of the text because they only look at the style. Lanham suggests that in order to truly understand a piece of writing, you have to be able to look both through it see the meaning of the words, and at it in order to understand the author’s use of style. Changes in the style can affect the meaning that an author was attempting to pass along to the reader.