The stylistic elements in everyday texts are affected by style in many different ways. Some styles may attract a different crowd than another, some may be directed at a certain audience, and some stylistic elements change the form or literary writing from "plain", to "middle", to "grand", depending on the element. In this day in age, the stylistic elements are very limited in some advertisements and excessive in others. The advertisement that was chosen in this assignment was out of PEOPLE magazine, Septeber 2001 issue. (The ad had limited elements of ancient style however, the advertisement does emphasize some of the ancient stylistic elements).

Sharon Crowley's Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students describes the ancient stylistic elements. These elements are style, correctness, clarity, appropriateness, ornament, sentence composition, paratactic style, periodic styles, figurative language, figures of repetition, figures of thought, setentia, and tropes. Many of these elements do not appear in advertisements of this era, but many of them are still included in much that we read each and every day.

The Tampax advertisement consists of fifteen lines of text, made up of fourteen sentences, and an abstract (watermark) sketch of a woman figure in the background. There is a reference number indicated in the text as well. This is not a form of Ancient style, but it is a part of most of the ad's of our time. The reading is relatively simple and the product is clearly visible on the advertisement in the lower right corner. Although this layout may seem simple at first, there are many examples of Ancient styles that at first would not seem evident.

One of the most important literary aspects evident in the Tampax advertisement is clarity. Clarity in literary speaking refers to the lucidity of the text. This can also be represented as the "shining" aspect of the text. "For most Ancient teachers, clarity simply meant that rhetors should use words in their ordinary or usual everyday sentences.."(Crowley 230). According to the Ancient stylistic elements, "...rhetors could avoid the obligation to be clear only if they were compelled to refer to obscenities, unseemly behavior, or trivial matters"(Crowley 230). Circumlocution easily defined as speaking around, a more round about means of reference. For example, using a slang word in place of another, still representing the same thing. The Tampax advertisement uses the word "mama", modern slang for 'mother'. This example could also be relevant of the element colloquial; words used in very specific locale or culture.

Another very significant literary aspect appearing in the ad is correctness. Ancient stylistic elements defines correctness to mean, "...that rhetors should use words that were current, and should adhere to the grammatical rules of whatever language they used...."(Crowley 230). In different languages such as Greek and Latin, "...meaning depended a great degree on word endings..."(Crowley 230). Acheiving corretness and other languages is considered to be "...a more complex and interesting task than it is in English, which depends primarily on word order for it's meanings"(Crowley 231). Written language such as spelling, punctuation, and rules of grammar are, in today's literary works, are troubling to people today. In the Tampx ad, punctuation and spelling are correct, yet simple. The text is made up of very simple sentences (later examined) and simple words.

"Once we move past correctness and clarity, we are working a more truly rhetorical reals of style-appropriateness and ornament"(Crowley 232). Appropriatness is described in Crowley's article as the "Greek rhetorical notion to prepon, meaning to say or do whatever is fitting in a given situation"(Crowley 232). The article also suggests that appropriateness may have descended from "Georgia's notion of kairos, seizing the right moment to speak, the moment when listeners are ready to hear"(Crowley 232).

Each community and groups of people feel differently about appropriateness. According to Crowley, "in our culture, for example, people do not generally pick their noses in public, because the community defines this as innapropriate behavior". The Tampax advertisement uses appropriateness within the text extensively. The text names several instances that occur during a woman's menstrual cycle that are appropriate to our culture, for example, mentioning that "you cannot loose your virginity if you wear a tampon"(People 2001). This statement is appropriate to the women growing up in today's society within the culture. To speak of a woman's 'period' and the issue of 'virginity' are considered appropriate terms to discuss openly, thusmaking the advertisement effective.

Ornament is described in Crowley's article as the "...most important..of the excellences of style..."(Crowley 235). Ornament, according to Ancient literary stylistic elements, is broken into three broad categories: figures of speech, figures of thought, and tropes. Within the Tampax article, there are several examples of figures of thought, fugures of language (speech). "Figures of thought involve artful changes of ideas, feelings or conceptions"(Crowley 236). "Figures of language involve unusual patterns of language, such as repetition..."(Crowley 236).

The Tampax ad uses figures of thought to represent the opinions "myths" made by others. For example; "don't wash your hair during your period. Or take a bath. That's what almost every woman tells us"(People 2001). The utilization of the simple statements involves changes in ideas and feelings (opinions). What some may have mistaken for a simple statement, is really a technique of Ancient Style used to make advertisement more effective.

Repetition is evident within the Tampax ad as well. The word "don't" is repeated over and over again to represent an idea that is being emphasized. This idea is that there are several myths about this product (tampons) that isn't true. By using the word "don't", readers are interested in finding the "do's" of this product. This technique for an attention gaining source as well as a learning tool.

Other forms of stylistic elements that are contained in the advertisement include rhetorical questions within the text. Example; "...isn't it time you found all this out for yourself"(People 2001)? This question is asked, without expecting an answer. Another element in the Tampax ad are colons. These can better be described as expressions complete but meaningless if detached from the rest of the sentence, for example; "or take a bath"(People 2001). This sentence is void without the one before it. The advertisement sentence structure in Ancient style as paratactic; a style made up of loose sentences. This is evident with the short fourteen sentences that make up the body.

Compared to Ancient style, I felt the Tampax advertisement was a good example of how much can be determined with few words. Like the Ancient writings, several terms and definitions can be found within the text of the article. I feel that although there are several ads that could have been used as a better example, this advertisement suited the purpose of this assignment. (AND WAS CHOSEN BY THE GROUP!)

The goal of this assignment was to analyze the use of stylistic elements in everyday texts and to explaine how style effects them. With this Tampax advertisement, it is very evident that stylistic elements effect each and every portion of the ad. Every sentence has a particular structure that can be defined by ancient style.

Sharon Crowley and Debrae Hawhee Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. Second Edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1999.

People Magazine. September 2001 issue.