Grade by Grade
C. Comprehension: Understanding and Responding to Texts · Reading Like a Critic: Understanding and Responding to Texts

Elements of Style: Voice, Word Choice, Word Patterns and Sentence Structure in Poetry and Prose

C1.5About 70 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can identify voice, word choice, word patterns and sentence structure in poems and prose.
  • I can analyze how each element of style helps create meaning.
  • I can explain why a style is appropriate (or not) for the text's form and genre.
  • I can read a poem closely, noticing line breaks, enjambment and sound.

Words to know

style
The way a text is written: the combination of voice, word choice, word patterns and sentence structure.
voice
The personality, attitude and sound of the speaker or writer that comes through the words.
speaker
The voice that talks in a poem. It is not always the poet.
diction (word choice)
The specific words a writer chooses: formal or informal, plain or vivid, with particular connotations.
connotation
The feelings and associations a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning (growl vs sound).
word patterns
Repetition of sounds, words or structures: rhyme, alliteration, assonance, refrain, anaphora, parallelism.
enjambment
When a sentence in a poem runs past the end of a line without a pause.
end-stopped line
A line of poetry that ends with punctuation and a natural pause.
imagery
Language that appeals to the senses, helping readers see, hear, feel, smell or taste.

Remember from Grade 8

In Grade 8 you looked at style and narrators. In Grade 9 you'll analyze style element by element, in poetry especially, where every word, sound and line break is chosen, and you'll judge whether a style fits its form and genre.

Hook: the same snowplough, twice

Text A (an invented city notice): Snow clearing begins at 4 a.m. Please move vehicles off the street. Thank you.

Text B (a poem written for this website):

Snowplough, 4 a.m.

Nobody thanks the plough. It comes at four, a yellow-eyed growl shouldering the street aside, scraping, scraping, pushing the night into banks so the morning can walk.

Same machine, same hour. Text A tells you what to do. Text B makes you feel something about a machine you probably never think about. The difference is style.

The four elements of style

1. Voice. Who seems to be speaking, and with what attitude? The notice has a polite, impersonal voice (no I, no feelings). The poem's speaker sounds quietly admiring and a little protective: Nobody thanks the plough sounds like someone who thinks somebody should.

2. Word choice (diction). Notice connotation. Growl suggests a living animal; shouldering suggests strength, like a hockey player muscling past. Yellow-eyed turns the amber lights into eyes. All this personifies the plough.

3. Word patterns. Repetition (scraping, scraping) imitates the sound going on and on. Other patterns: alliteration (same starting sound: street ... scraping), assonance (repeated vowel sounds), rhyme, refrain (a repeated line), anaphora (repeating a word at the start of lines or sentences), parallelism (repeated grammar structure).

4. Sentence structure. The poem has only two sentences. The first is short and blunt. The second is long and runs across six lines, like the plough's slow, steady work. Line breaks control the pace: so the morning / can walk makes you pause before the last two words.

VoiceimpersonalpersonalWord choiceplainvividWord patternsfewmanySentence structureuniformvariedcity snow notice"Snowplough, 4 a.m."
A style mixing board. The city notice and the poem are about the same snowplough, but the writers set each element of style very differently, because each style suits its form and purpose.
Nobody thanks the plough.It comes at four, a yellow-eyed growlshouldering the street aside,scraping, scraping,pushing the night into banksso the morningcan walk.short, end-stopped: a blunt openingpersonification + metaphorverb shows strengthrepetition: the sound goes onimage: snowbanks hold the darklast two words alone: the payoffenjambment: the sentence runs on
An annotated reading of the poem. Each note names an element of style and hints at its effect. The curved mark shows enjambment: the sentence carries over the line break, so can walk lands on its own line.
Worked example

Let's analyze style in a public-domain poem

Read these lines from "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae (1915), a Canadian doctor who served in the First World War. How do voice, word patterns and sentence structure create meaning?

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, ... We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.

  1. Voice: the speakers are the Dead themselves, speaking as We. That unusual voice makes the loss personal: the soldiers address us directly.
  2. Word choice: blow (poppies moving gently in the wind) and row on row (orderly rows of crosses). The calm, natural images sit beside the reality of graves.
  3. Word patterns: the poem uses only two rhyme sounds (blow, row, ago, glow and sky, fly, lie, die) plus the refrain In Flanders fields. The returning sounds and refrain create a solemn, ceremonial rhythm, like a memorial.
  4. Sentence structure: We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, / Loved and were loved is a list of short verb phrases. It compresses a whole life into one line and a half. Then and now we lie stops it.
  5. Appropriate for form and genre: a memorial poem needs rhythm and repetition that can be read aloud at ceremonies, which is how many Canadians hear it every Remembrance Day.

The voice of the Dead, the refrain and limited rhymes, and the compressed list of life's moments work together to make readers feel the cost of war and the duty to remember. The style suits a poem meant to be recited.

Style must fit form and genre

Style isn't good or bad on its own. It's appropriate or inappropriate for the job.

  • A news report needs a neutral voice, precise words, and clear sentences. Vivid metaphors would seem biased.
  • A lab report uses technical words and often the passive voice (The water was heated), because the focus is the procedure.
  • A poem can use fragments, odd line breaks and invented words, because it aims for feeling and compression.
  • A short story varies sentence length to control pace: short sentences for action and shock, long ones for reflection.
  • A speech uses repetition and parallelism, because listeners can't reread.

When you analyze style, always finish with: ...and this is appropriate because the text is a ___ meant to ___.

Worked example

Let's analyze style in prose

Read this paragraph from a short story written for this website:

The puck hit the post. Ping. Silence. Then three hundred people at the Sault Ste. Marie arena breathed out at once, and Leila, kneeling in the crease, realized she had not breathed in nearly a minute.

  1. Sentence structure: three tiny pieces (The puck hit the post. Ping. Silence.) freeze time. Then a long sentence releases the tension, matching the crowd breathing out.
  2. Word choice: Ping is onomatopoeia (a word that imitates a sound). kneeling in the crease uses hockey diction that tells us Leila is the goalie, without saying so.
  3. Voice: third person, close to Leila; the last clause lets us feel her body (had not breathed).
  4. Fit for genre: in a sports story, varied sentence length creates suspense and release, exactly what a near-goal feels like.

Fragments stop time, a long sentence releases it, and precise hockey diction and onomatopoeia put us in the moment. The style suits a suspenseful sports scene.

Just for fun

I tried to write a poem about a broken pencil.

It was pointless.

Hands-on activity

Rewrite the style

You need: a recipe card, a cereal box or a sign from around your home (or an instruction sheet), paper, a pencil.

  1. Copy three sentences of plain instructions (for example, Pour the milk. Stir for two minutes. Serve warm.).
  2. Rewrite them as a short poem of 5 to 8 lines. Change the voice (give it a speaker with an attitude), choose vivid words, add one word pattern (repetition, alliteration or rhyme), and use at least one line break for effect.
  3. Read both versions aloud to someone at home. Ask which is clearer and which is more memorable.
  4. Write two sentences explaining which style is appropriate for which purpose.

What to look for: all four elements changed on purpose, and an explanation that links style to form and purpose (for example, the instructions need plain words so people don't make mistakes; the poem uses repetition so the morning routine feels like a ritual).

Your turn

1

Describe the voice in Snowplough, 4 a.m. in two or three words, and quote the line that shows it best.

2

What does the word shouldering suggest about the plough?

3

Find a word pattern in the poem and explain its effect.

4

Why might the poet have put can walk alone on the last line?

5

In "In Flanders Fields," who is the speaker, and why is that choice powerful?

6

Find a list in the Flanders lines and explain its effect.

7

Why is the city notice's style appropriate for its purpose?

More practice: warm-up

1

What is enjambment?

2

Name the four elements of style in this lesson.

3

Give an example of alliteration.

4

What is a refrain?

5

Which word has a stronger connotation of danger: walked or stalked?

More practice: on your own

1

Compare the connotations of growl and hum to describe a snowplough.

2

Rewrite The puck hit the post. Ping. Silence. as one smooth sentence. What's lost?

3

Why might a lab report use the passive voice, while a poem rarely does?

4

Find anaphora in this speech line and say its effect: We will clear the trails. We will plant the trees. We will build the rink.

5

Explain why "In Flanders Fields" suits being read aloud at Remembrance Day ceremonies.

Challenge

1

Write a 4 to 6 line poem about a Canadian winter sound with a clear voice, one word pattern and one deliberate line break. Then explain your choices.

2

Evaluate: Is the style of the hockey paragraph appropriate for a news report of the game? Explain.

3

A friend says, Poems are just prose chopped into short lines. Use the plough poem to argue against this.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which element of style is about the speaker's attitude and personality?

2.

Scraping, scraping is an example of...

3.

In "In Flanders Fields," the speakers are...

4.

A sentence that runs over a line break in a poem without a pause shows...

5.

Which style best fits a city notice?

6.

Why does Ping. Silence. work in the hockey story?

For parents and teachers

What this lesson teaches: Grade 9 students identify elements of style, voice, word choice, word patterns and sentence structure, analyze how each helps create meaning, and judge whether it is appropriate for the text's form and genre (C1.5), with a focus on poetry.

How to help at home:

  • Read a poem aloud together twice. Ask: "Which word would you never change? Why?"
  • Compare two song lyrics or two ads: "What's the voice? What words make it feel that way?"
  • Point out style in everyday texts: road signs, cereal boxes, team cheers.

Common difficulties:

  • Labelling without explaining. "There's alliteration" earns little; "the alliteration of s sounds imitates the scrape of the blade" shows analysis.
  • Confusing the poet with the speaker. McCrae is the poet; the Dead are the speakers.
  • Thinking one style is "better." Always connect style to form and purpose.

Sensitive topic: "In Flanders Fields" is about soldiers who died in the First World War. It's widely read in Canadian schools for Remembrance Day; talk about it gently.

Facts used: John McCrae, a Canadian doctor and soldier, wrote "In Flanders Fields" in 1915 during the First World War; it was published in 1915 and is in the public domain. The poem uses two rhyme sounds and the refrain In Flanders fields. "Snowplough, 4 a.m.," the hockey paragraph and the city notice were written for this website.