KEY TERM!
STYLE
Style refers to the various choices writers make when they create a text in ways they hope will suit a particular kind of audience and achieve a certain purpose. Language choices include such things as words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, layout and structure.

Important kinds of style are 'formal', 'informal', 'conversational' (i.e. 'colloquial')... but there are many more. An example is from the poet Simon Armitage who uses a rather 'conversational style' in his poems but uses this in traditional forms, such as the sonnet.

A major aspect of English GCSE is for you to show how a style is made effective and why it was done. This requires you to analyse a writer's use of language and language features such as layout and to consider how these have been chosen to appeal to a certain kind of audience in order to achieve a particular purpose.

In your own writing for GCSE, the teacher or examiner looks for a style that it is lively, clear and direct. Remember always to write as yourself - never take on the persona of an imagined adult.

If you have time, click on this link to read George Orwell's essay on style in English. It is a classic piece of writing and an example of superb style.