DURING THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, the development of stylistics has opened new possibilities for classroom teaching. While most stylisticians ally themselves with the science of linguistics, the subject of their study is the art of prose; and so style study encounters a kind of schizophrenia between data-processing and aesthetic criticism. This split may be bothersome for the analyst, but it offers several distinct advantages for the teacher, foremost of which is the provision of a tool by which he can demonstrate the nature of prose art for students of the essay, who are usually, of course, students of writing as well. The methods of stylistics permit the teacher to focus clearly and specifically on the particular elements of the essay which create effects: on structures, diction, imagery, even tone and persona. And because the focus is quantitative, students can readily apprehend the causes of these effects, can isolate striking or typical elements, and can, if they want, imitate or avoid the characteristic style of the prose under scrutiny. This is not to say that style analysis is the secret to good writing-talent, practice, and urgency probably comprise that secret, and none of these can be taughtbut it can help at two important levels. It can provide students with discernible models of the mechanics of successful

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