Elegant Words For a More Civilized Paper(Discussion Post 3)

Mixing academic and colloquial styles is one of the methods for improving your word choice, given in the chapter Ain't So / Is Not. This section stood out, because mixing formal academic terms with everyday kinds of words is an innovative way to better the quality of a paper. This method really gives writing a more engaging rhythm. Switching between styles holds the readers attention by constantly going from stuffy to chill, then from simplistic to eloquent. Keeping the readers enamored and creating variety makes the paper more pleasant to read which is almost always a good thing. “While one effect of blending language like this is to give your writing more punch, another is to make a political statement about the way, for example society overvalues some dialects and devalues others” making a point your writing itself is an excellent way to convey a message without having to blatantly state it.

Mixing styles is a good way to spice up your writing or inadvertently make a point, but it is important to remember that every paper is directed at a specific audience. So when mixing styles it is necessary to always keep the target audience in mind. If the paper is being written towards a more scholarly or scientific minded group, it would be smart to lean more towards the longer academic terms. However, if the paper is being written for a magazine or somewhere else where a lot of younger people or working class individuals will be reading it. Then going heavy on the colloquial terms would make the paper less boring, and more appealing to those groups. “Because there are so many options in writing you should never feel limited in your choice of words, as if such choices are set in stone. You can always experiment with your language and improve it.” There are hundreds of ways to express ideas in the English language, as a writer one should never feel limited in the way they can express what they want to say. That being said there are better ways to express different things to different groups of people. When using different styles and mixing and matching it is best to focus on one main audience and write in a way that would be most effective in communicating your points to them.