This book, geared particularly toward beginning college and university students, treats style within the framework of general language variation, the discussion focusing chiefly on linguistic differences (both written and spoken) observed in everyday life, rather than on those found in poetry and belles lettres. The discussion is divided between theoretical and practical aspects of stylistics. Part One, "Theoretical Preliminaries" gives a general idea of what stylistics involves, presents a set of techniques applicable to the description of any piece of language, and discusses various theoretical concepts necessary for classifying the varieties of language into types. English is the focus of the discussion, but it is felt that the techniques could be generalized to other languages. In Part Two the approach is illustrated through detailed descriptions of various English extracts. Analyzed are the language of conversation, unscripted commentary, religion, newspaper reporting, and legal documents. Each chapter is followed by exercises designed to raise points not dealt with in the body of the chapter. The final chapter presents suggestions for further analysis. (FWB)