Kurt Vonnegut's "How to write with style" is a step-by-step guide on how to improve our style as writers. He notes the importance of this is out of respect for the readers.
Vonnegut uses the rhetorical appeal pathos to convey his points. He starts off by telling us to get real with our selves and to choose a subject we really care about because this passion will reveal glimpses of who we are and win the readers over(Vonnegut 66). Vonnegut reveals his humour in point two "Do not ramble, though I won't ramble on about that."(66). In point five Sound like yourself, Vonnegut states "lucky indeed is the writer who has grown up in Ireland"(66) This is the readers view into who they are spending time with. We see that he admires Joyce not only as a writer but is perhaps jealous of his accent and first language. You see how humble he is when he describes writers and himself alike as "ink-stained wretches"(Vonnegut 66) and compares his vocabulary "as un-ornamental as a monkey wrench"(Vonnegut 67).
When Vonnegut advises us to keep it simple he references Shakespeare and Joyce as well as the Bible. I find it ironic in a paragraph emphasizing "the simplicity of language"(Vonnegut 66) the examples used are from the most complex and hard to read material. I agree,however, with his meaning of using basic short sentences that are profound and move the reader emotionally.
I first got the sense that Vonnegut was specifically writing to Americans on page 66 when he was comparing different accents to his own. It is all a matter of perspective; what seems normal to one person may be odd to another. This was later confirmed on page 67 with his reference to the Constitution. He tells us, no matter what, we should treasure our first language and be true to ourselves as our readers will trust us. I am finding this to be a reacurring theme.
I appreciate that Vonnegut is recommending us to take pride in our own style and agrees that teachers seem to pound it in to us to write like "cultivated Englishmen of a century...ago"(67) If only we were tought the importance to be well understood with the same urgency we wouldn't be "exasperated by such teachers"(67).
Vonnegut asks us to pity the readers, as reading is an art that takes most people alteast 12 years before they can even begin to master it. This reiterates his opening point of having respect for the readers. He knows that writers don't have many options when it comes to style which makes having an unlimited choice of topics so meaningful. He warns, however, "if you have something worth saying and wish to be understood" don't break the rules of punctuation, string words together any way you wish and make up your own meaning (Vonnegut 67).
Upon reading the blerb within the borders at the end of this article I realized this was intended to stress to the American's the value of the printed word to communicate better on a whole. While riding the bus to work the other day, I noticed how out of the seven people I saw before me, all seven had earphones in, including myslef. We are so in tune with the technology that is meant to bring the world to our fingertips we are losing awareness of what is happening directly around us. To me, it seems we are losing the art of communication to a generation of texting and self gratification through I-pods or playing games rather than conversing with a neighbour. How can you truly be understood with words like these:hw cn u B sussed W wrds lk deez?
Looking back through the years, what do you think the language of the future will be?
Vonnegut, Kurt. "How to Write With Style". IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. PC 24 Vol 2. Print.
