Resources For Students

How To Use Stylistics

The Routledge English Language Introductions are ‘flexi-texts’ that you can use to suit your own style of study. All the books in the series, including Stylistics, are divided into four sections:-

A. Introduction: Key Concepts in Stylistics
The units of section A take you step-by-step through the foundational terms and ideas, carefully providing you with an initial toolkit for your own study. By the end of the section, you will have a good overview of the whole field. The twelve numbered Units in section A are compact and are ordered in a linear way, so if you read progressively through the section you can assemble a composite picture of the core issues in both stylistic theory and practice.

B. Development: doing stylistics
This section adds to your knowledge and builds on the key ideas already introduced, and the twelve Units it contains draw together several areas of interest. In Stylistics, the units develop the topic introduced in the equivalent numbered unit in section A. They are either illustrative expansions of the model outlined in A or surveys of important research developments in the relevant area of stylistics. By the end of this section, you will have a good and fairly detailed grasp of the field, and will be ready to undertake your own exploration and thinking.

C. Exploration: investigating style
This section provides practical exercises based around language and style, and guides you through your own investigation of the field. The Units in this section are more open-ended and exploratory, and you are encouraged to try out your ideas and think for yourself, using your newly acquired knowledge. In particular, these units provide the opportunity to try out and apply what you have learned from sections A and B.

D. Extension: readings in stylistics
Finally, section D offers you the chance to compare your expertise with a wide-ranging selection of key readings in the area. The readings are taken from the work of well-known stylisticians, and are provided with guidance and questions for your further thought.

The glossary/index at the end, together with the section offering suggestions for Further Reading, will help to keep you orientated.

You can read this book like a traditional text-book, ‘vertically’ straight through from beginning to end. This will take you comprehensively through the broad field of study. However, the Routledge English Language Introductions have been carefully designed so that you can read them in another dimension, ‘horizontally’ across the numbered Units. For example, Units A.1, A.2, A.3 and so on correspond with Units B.1, B.2, B.3, and with Units C.1, C.2, C.3 and D.1, D.2, D.3. There are some minor exceptions in Stylistics: for example, the reading in unit D.5, because of its broad subject matter, covers strand 7 also. As strand 8 includes a detailed workshop programme which goes right down to the micro-analytic features of textual patterning, the space for the reading has been vacated to carry extra practical material (and see further the worked analysis in these web pages). Whatever its narrower variations in structure, the core organising principle of this book is that in every strand a key topic in stylistics is introduced, defined and then elaborated progressively over the remainder of the strand. Reading horizontally will take you rapidly from the key concepts of a specific area, to a level of expertise in that precise area, all with a very close focus. You can match your way of reading with the best way that you work.

You can use the book as an accompanying course text to give you a fast and rich grounding in Stylistics. If you want to learn quickly about transitivity, for example, you can read A6 in a few minutes to get a quick sketch of the key ideas in the area. Then read B6 for an overview of how and why stylisticians have found the model useful over the years. Going on to C6 you will find directed practical exercises that explore some key aspects of transitivity and style. This might give you further ideas for your own study, where you might find resonances in the other literary texts that you have read. Lastly, you can read D6 – on transitivity patterns in a passage from Sylvia Plath – for a professional published study of this area of stylistics. You can use this not only for its ideas, but also to lead you on to similar studies, and so that you can see how to write in a style that is appropriate for academic argument and discussion This Unit also contains suggestions for further work Finally, you can use the Further Reading to explore the area more thoroughly, or check which are the main books you will need if you want to go and write and essay or project on this topic.