"Style" refers to the set of techniques and types of language utilized by a writer to exhibit the unique personality and voice of their writing. Writers can use dialects in dialogue, alternate sentence lengths, or prioritize active or passive voice in the creation of their writing style. Style is important in analyzing literature as it can further convey the meaning of a text by emphasizing or subverting certain details, or show whether the text is expository, descriptive, persuasive, or narrative.

Stylistics is the study of texts according to their tone and style in the field of applied linguistics. It can be described as a combination of linguistics and literary criticism, because it scientifically studies language in the context of its function in literature. Stylistics examines the form and tone of texts to understand more about how people in a society utilize language.