Style of writing in lines 1-15

Your exam question asks you to focus on the style of writing in lines 1-15 of the article “I’ve lost my conversational mojo – can I relearn the art of small talk?” by Rhik Samadder.

Samadder uses a mixture of formal and informal style. For example, he uses formal expressions such as: “to make socialisation less daunting” (l. 2), or “the available research on crown splitting” (l. 13). At the same time, there are also plenty of informal and conversational expressions, such as “Damned if I know” (l. 7), “I babbled” (l. 12), or “I’m slipping” (l. 8). Both styles of writing help to add humor and self-irony to the article.

The passage also contains two similes. The first one refers to his friend’s workplace, where people ...