The Philosophy of Style (Esprios Classics)

The Philosophy of Style is an essay written in 1852 by the English philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer (1820-1903). The essay explored a growing trend of formalist approaches to writing. Highly focused on the proper placement and ordering of the parts of an English sentence he created a guide for effective composition. Spencer aimed to free prose writing from as much friction and inertia as possible so that the reader would not be slowed by strenuous deliberations concerning the proper context and meaning of a sentence. Spencer argued that writers should aim To so present ideas that they may be apprehended with the least possible mental effort by the reader.