3-1-04 Robert Bianco's Rhythm

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="042d05a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Big Ring Media Team, Inc.</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Big Ring Media Team, Inc."><B>home</B></A></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="043d2123.jpg"> <div> Click on this link to return to <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Word Watch by Date">Word Watch by Date</A>.</div> <div> Click on this link to go to <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Word Watch by Subject">Word Watch by Subject</A>.</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>3-1-04 Robert Bianco's Rhythm</I></div> <div> Robert Bianco is a talented writer. While we could learn many things from studying his style, the thing we're discussing here is his sense of rhythm. Consider these two excerpts from his review of the TNT movie <I>The Goodbye Girl</I> that appeared in the Friday, January 16, 2004 edition of <I>USA Today</I>:</div> <div> Still, the bigger problem is that Simon's script, never his best to begin with, simply hasn't aged well. In the late `70s, precocious little girls with vulgar vocabularies may have been a novelty; now they're unavoidable.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> -and-</div> <div> They meet, they fight, they become unwilling roommates - all on the way to a romantic link that is no better established here than it was in the first <I>Girl</I>.</div> <div> Mr. Bianco's use of irregular rhythms plays on a simple human behavior. Regularity dulls our senses. Irregularity catches our attention. That's why the drone of insects puts us to sleep and the breaking of a dinner plate makes us jump. That's why camouflage makes hunters invisible, while a hat with a feather in the band stands out. Sentences of regular structure send our readers to dream land. Variation brings them back.</div> <div> There is a risk of too much variation, however. Another simple human behavior is that we're constantly seeking patterns. By recognizing patterns we obviate the need to re-learn everything all the time. We must provide patterns for our readers to help them learn the material we're presenting. But those patterns should be punctuated with occasional ripples if the material is to be retained.</div> <div> Mr. Bianco's writing illustrates this point well. Go back to the first example. He establishes a pattern with two fairly complex sentences. He breaks the pattern with, “now they're unavoidable.” (It's a also a wonderful insight into modern life, one that will resonate with most readers.) This final clause could have been ushered in with a comma and a coordinating conjunction: “...may have been a novelty, but now they're unavoidable.” Using a semicolon instead reinforces the abrupt shift in rhythm at the end of that sentence.</div> <div> The rhythm works in the opposite order in the second example. He starts with a couple of quick, two-syllable clauses, and then builds on that pattern with another “they” leading into a longer clause. Note once again the decision to omit a coordinating conjunction; this third “they” could have preceded by “and.” Without “and,” the parallelism of the first three clauses is preserved and the pattern is reinforced. Following this group of three independent clauses comes a longer, more complex dependent clause, set off by an em dash.</div> <div> It's unlikely that Mr. Bianco agonizes over the rhythm of his writing. Like all elements of style, rhythm should be intuitive. Still, we see a lot of business writing with rigid, stultifying construction. Our advice to clients is that they should indeed make a conscious effort to vary the rhythm of their writing until that trait becomes intuitive.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>