American Literature / Unit 4 AML 0304 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Plain Style
Captions available
The idea
The plain style was a deliberate choice: clear, unornamented prose that would not distract a congregation from doctrine. Its instruments are the concrete example, the numbered division and the scriptural quotation. Ornament was suspected as vanity, so the writing is spare by conviction rather than by inability.
In practice
Plain by conviction, not by limitation.
Where people slip
Plainness here is a theology, not a taste.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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