High, Middle, and Low Style

Even though you may have no idea what I am talking about when I reference "high, middle, and low styles", I guarantee you use each of these weekly, or even daily.  These styles refer to the choices you make about sentence length, sentence type, vocabulary, and punctuation in order to create a distinct verbal style (Ruszkiewicz and Dolmage 366).  High style is considered to be formal, while low is very informal and colloquial, and middle style is obviously in the middle of the two; it is not formal writing, however it is also not considered totally informal.

High Style Writing: Formal, Scientific, Scholarly

This professional type of writing is found in legal briefs, editorials, scholarly books, professional journals, and other formal documents (Ruszkiewicz and Dolmage 367).  You can recognize high style writing by looking for these signs:

• Serious subjects
• Professional audiences
• Formal vocabulary
• Complex patterned sentences
• No contractions
• Standard document design

High style writing, such as that found in the Holy Bible, can be compared to dressing formally and professionally.

  


Middle Style: Personal, Argumentative, Some Academic

This style falls between the extremes of low and high style.  It is used in journalism, popular books, magazines, and manuals.  Middle style should be utilized in position papers, personal statements, and business e-mails (Ruszkiewicz and Dolmage 369).  Use the following signals to try to recognize middle style writing:

• Serious to humorous topics
• General audience
• Range of points of view (first person, second person)
• Human voice rather than instructional voice
• General vocabulary
• Some slang, dialogue, contractions
• Conventional grammar

Middle style writing, such as that found in People magazine, is comparable to casual but presentable type of clothing, like khakis, nice jeans, and a nice shirt.

         

Low Style: Personal, Informal, Playful

Though low style writing is usually informal and unprofessional, it should not be viewed in a negative sense.  Low style should be utilized for personal e-mails or text messages, blogs, and advertisements (Ruszkiewicz and Dolmage 371).  This style of writing should be used on occasions where you need to sound more at ease and open.  Here are some signs of low writing style:

• Everyday topics
• In-group readers
• Personal points of view
• Short or incomplete sentences
• Pop culture or street vocabulary
• Unconventional grammar
• No systematic acknowledgement of sources

Low style writing, like that used in advertisements, can be compared to extremely casual and informal clothing.