Wesley Bates

You know what I love about the English language? I love the way a single word can have many meanings depending on what part of speech it is and the context in which it’s used. For example, when snappy dressers think about style, I imagine they envision the latest fashion in clothing and accessories. As a writer, I hear the word “style,” and my first thought is AP, MLA, Chicago, APA or some custom house style incorporating bits and pieces of all the others. There are probably as many different styles of writing as there are different kinds of writers. They include rhetorical modes, style guide styles, custom house styles and intrinsic writing styles. Rhetorical Modes In college, I had a class called Rhetorical Writing. I had no idea what “rhetorical writing” meant, but I knew I’d get to write, and I loved to write. I soon learned that rhetoric is the study of writing, and rhetorical modes are types of writing. There are many modes/types of writing, but I’m going to focus on the four mai...