Style, meaning, and message effects

Abstract

The way in which messages are styled can amplify, dampen, or entirely cancel the public reactions of respondents to communicated information. Certain options of phrasing and syntax have this impact by constraining what can follow in the unfolding text or transaction with minimal risk of misinterpretation, and without undesired inductions about the character and traits of the respondent. Such stylistic options are a resource for strategic communication when conventions and protocols for structuring discourse do not apply or are rejected.

Notes

Robert E. Sanders is Associate Professor of Communication, State University of New York, Albany.