noun style vs. verb style.

Noun Style.

LOS ANGELES – The Walt Disney Co. is punching its way into the universe of superheroes and their male fans with a deal announced Monday to acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion, bringing characters such as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and "Toy Story."

The surprise cash-and-stock deal sent Spidey senses tingling in the comic book world. It could lead to new rides, movies, action figures and other outlets for Marvel's 5,000 characters, although Marvel already was aggressively licensing its properties for such uses.

(Nakashima, Ryan, Associated Press. Yahoo! News. "Disney Catches Comics Giant, Marvel, in a $4B Web." 31 August 2009.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090831/ap_on_bi_ge/us_disney_marvel_entertainment)

This excerpt illustrates a more minor form of statis, the noun-based writing style. Instead of using the raw action verb, Nakashima makes his verbs passive and adds an "is" and an "ing" to his verbs. In the very first line of the article, he writes "The Walt Disney Co. is punching its way" rather than simply "The Walt Disney Co. punched its way."

Similarly, in the second paragraph he writes "Marvel was already aggressively licensing," when he could actively write "Marvel already aggressively licenses." The added "was" and "is" in these two verb phrases makes them passive.

Another thing I noticed about these two paragraphs is the sentence lengths. Nakashima's first paragraph consists of one sentence! He periodically punctuates these longer sentences with one of short or medium length, giving his article noticeable rhythm.

Nakashima's voice is present, however, despite his passiveness. He writes in things like "the surprise cash-and-stock deal sent Spidey senses tingling" and its very cute. He takes advantage of the topic and shoots out clever word play where he can.

Verb Style.

The judge waves you into his chambers in the State Supreme Court building in Brooklyn, past the caveat taped to his wall — “Be sure brain in gear before engaging mouth” — and into his inner office, where foreclosure motions are piled high enough to form a minor Alpine chain.

Every week, the nation’s mightiest banks come to his court seeking to take the homes of New Yorkers who cannot pay their mortgages. And nearly as often, the judge says, they file foreclosure papers speckled with errors.

He plucks out one motion and leafs through: a Deutsche Bank representative signed an affidavit claiming to be the vice president of two different banks. His office was in Kansas City, Mo., but the signature was notarized in Texas. And the bank did not even own the mortgage when it began to foreclose on the homeowner.(Powell, Michael, The New York Times. N.Y./Region. "A Little Judge Who Rejects Foreclosures, Brooklyn Style." 30 August 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/nyregion/31judge.html?ref=nyregion)

This excerpt better demonstrates the action oriented verb writing style. Powell writes entirely in present tense, keeping his verbs active and his sentences more palatable than the usual news story. In fact, this article writes more as a story than anything, which, I think, is what makes it easier to read. Powell skips over the unnecessary helping verbs and cuts straight to the action.

Moreover, Powell's sentences are a nice, kosher length--not too long, not too short, but just right. He doesn't make his reader sit there and wonder where and when the sentence will end, he doesn't make one's brain gasp for breath between commas and semi-colons. The rhythm is pretty paced and even--like a leisurely jog through Battery Park.