Feeling and Appealing in Style by Steven Pinker

“Good writing can flip the way the world is perceived” (P 14). Writing well is a skill that I need to acquire. The ability to move people through words is a valiant goal. In chapter one of The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker, we can explore examples of writings that can show important ideas through the use of different literary tools.

Throughout the chapter, Pinker gives four different examples of excerpts all written by successful authors. He then goes through and analyzes them briefly and points out the important tools that each writer uses to make their writing impactful.

The four excerpts are Richard Dawkins’ Unweaving the Rainbow, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s Betraying Spinoza, obituaries by Margalit Fox, and Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns. These four sections of writing each have their own devices that make them memorable. Pinker goes through each, highlighting certain sections, and explaining why each section can be applied to our writing. He references tools such as parallelism, various points of view, allusion, and so on.

He includes some wit and a few unconventional tips to help get the ideas flowing. He includes quotes from other famous individuals and references to popular culture that help the reader to understand his points more completely.

Many of Pinker’s explanations deal with the importance of feeling and appealing. For example, he writes “a philosophical wordsmith can play with swords) to awaken her readers to metaphysical conundrums”(P 16). As if we college students did not have enough existential crises on our hands, a great writer will have the ability to cause us many more.

Get quality help now

Marrie pro writer

Verified

Proficient in: Appeal

5 (204)

“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

I know that good writing can do that to me, even if I am trying to avoid it.

This chapter does not have a typical storyline but it sort of tells a story through each of the sections by the different writers. The problem here is helping the reader to improve his or her writing, so he tries to offer help through tips and analyses of good, quality writing. Along the lines of stories, he does stress the importance of reading to be a good writer. The examples and devices that Pinker goes through are sometimes your typical writing class terms, but he adds in a few that are of his idea. He does not want to be like any other style book in his explanations. He gives ideas on how to make your writing your own and add personal flair while still being professional in style.

I like this chapter a lot because of its sassy comments and applicability. It makes me want to read the rest of the book since I am interested in skill improvement literature, especially in the field of English. Pinker’s ideas on evoking feeling and adding a part of yourself into your writing greatly appeal to me as I continue to write and improve my skills. This chapter offers a lot of great help in a way that is not too similar and dry to a typical style book.