The Scientific Prose Style

The language of science is governed by the aim to create new concepts, to disclose the internal laws of existence, etc. The language means therefore tend to be objective, unemotional, devoid of individuality.

1. The most noticeable feature of this style is the logical sequence of sentences with clear interrelations. Such syntactical speech divisions are frequent: as, thus, on the one hand, on the other hand, therefore, firstly, second, etc. Final or partial completion of an idea is marked by so, the fact is, thus, etc.

2. From the lexical point of view scientific style is characterized by the excessive use of terms; complete absence of colloquial and dialect words, etc.

3. The next characteristic feature is what we may call sentence patterns. They are of three types: a) postulatory; b) argumentative; c) formulative.

4. The use of quotations and references is yet another characteristic feature. The references have the name of the writer referred to, the title of the work quoted, the publishing house, the place and year it was published and the page referred to.

The enumerated features do not cover all the peculiarities of scientific prose but they are the most essential ones.

Popular Science prose

In popular scientific works the author wants to be understood by people who might not be well acquainted with the subject of his article. So, besides adhering to all typical phenomena of the scientific style he avoids using too many complicated terms and makes the syntactical structure of the sentence simpler. He might use stylistic devices.

E.g. Some of the waste kill fish.

Newspaper Style

Newspaper English is one of the forms of the English literary language. It is characterized by a definite communicative aim and its own system of means. The modern newspaper carries material of diverse character. Not all the printed material comes under newspaper style. Stories and poems, crossword puzzles, chess problems, etc. can’t be considered specimens of newspaper style. News and comment on it, press reports and articles, advertisements and the like inform the reader and provide him with an evaluation of the information published.

To understand the language peculiarities of the newspaper style let’s name the basic features: a) brief news items;

b) advertisements and announcements;

c) the headlines;

d) the editorial.

The principal function of the brief news item is to inform the reader. News items are essentially matter of fact and stereotyped forms of the expression prevail. Newspaper style has its specific vocabulary features and is characterized by an extensive use of:

1. Special political and economic terms, such as socialism, constitution, etc.

2. Newspaper clichés, such as vital issue, danger of war, to escalate a war.

3. Abbreviations. News items and headlines abound in abbreviation of all kinds: NATO, UNO, etc.

4. Neologisms: glasnost, a splash-down, lunik.

But the basic peculiarities lie in their syntactical structure such as specific word order: “the 5 w – and – h – pattern” rule (who-what-why-where-when-and-how).

Headlines is to inform the reader but at the same time it often contains an element of evaluation, i.e. it shows the reporter’s or the newspaper’s attitude to the facts reported. English headlines are short and catching. Syntactically headlines are short sentences or phrases:

a) full declarative sentences e.g. The lesson of the last war should not be forgotten;

b) imperative sentences e.g. Stop before it’s too late.