The idea of “style” in writing and in speaking goes back thousands of years. In ancient Rome, style was one of the five elements of a successful speech, and a successful speech was essential if you were trying to persuade the governing body to do things your way. A good Roman orator paid attention to: 1. Invention (coming up with what he wants to say) 2. Arrangement (putting the material in a particular order so that it has the most impact on the audience) 3. Style (making su

You don't write fiction, but you want to write a novel. You might need outside help.

The fact that men and women have different styles of communication has been obvious for a long time. When I was working towards my Ph.D. in the English Department at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1990s, Deborah Tannen’s book You Just Don’t Understand Me was all the rage. In it, Tannen explains how women use language to establish rapport and connection, whereas men use language to convey information and solve problems. Tannen argues that these two different communication

In my historical/supernatural novel, The Dark Fire , my main character Anne Drake makes friends with the Baron von Klausenberg. The baron...