Learn Hardcore Russian: Безличный стиль текста кажется скучным. - The impersonal style of the text seems boring.

avoids mentioning the doer (the “I/we/they”),
uses passive or impersonal constructions (e.g. считается, что…, было принято решение…),
sounds more neutral, official, or detached.

So it’s not “personally cold” in a psychological sense, but “impersonal” in the grammatical/stylistic sense.

Why is it стиль текста and not стиль текст?

Russian shows possession/“of” relations with the genitive case, not with a separate word like of.

стиль is nominative (dictionary form) – the subject: (the) style
текста is genitive singular – “of the text”

So стиль текста literally = style of (the) text.

Using two nouns both in nominative (стиль текст) is ungrammatical in standard Russian.

Which word is the subject of the sentence?

The subject is the whole noun phrase безличный стиль текста:

стиль – the head noun (masculine, singular, nominative)
безличный – adjective agreeing with стиль (masc, sg, nom)
текста – genitive, attached to стиль (“of the text”)

The verb кажется (3rd person singular) agrees with стиль (a singular masculine noun), so the “agent” that is doing the “seeming” is стиль.

What is the role of кажется, and why does it have -ся?

Кажется is the 3rd person singular of the verb казаться “to seem, to appear (to be)”.

The base verb is каза́ться (imperfective, reflexive).
The -ся (or -сь) ending is historically reflexive, but in казаться it’s just part of the verb; you normally must keep it.

So:

Он кажется скучным. – He seems boring.
Этот фильм кажется интересным. – This film seems interesting.

There is a related non‑reflexive verb казать “to show” (mostly in set phrases / older style), but to seem in modern Russian is казаться, always with -ся.

Why is it скучным and not скучный or скучно?

Скучным is instrumental case, masculine singular of the adjective скучный (boring).

After the verb казаться (“to seem”), Russian normally uses the instrumental case for the “predicative” adjective:

Он кажется уставшим. – He seems tired.
Фильм кажется долгим. – The film seems long.
Безличный стиль текста кажется скучным. – The impersonal style of the text seems boring.

So:

скучный – nominative (dictionary form)
скучным – instrumental (masc. sg.), required here after кажется

Скучно is an adverb or short-form predicative (“it’s boring”), and it would change the structure:

Безличный стиль текста скучен. – The impersonal style of the text is boring. (adjective, short form)
Безличный стиль текста кажется скучным. – …seems boring. (adjective in instrumental)

So in this exact sentence with кажется, скучным is the normal, grammatical choice.

What are the gender, number, and case of each word?

Безличный – adjective, masculine, singular, nominative; agrees with стиль
стиль – noun, masculine, singular, nominative; subject
текста – noun, masculine, singular, genitive; “of the text”
кажется – verb, 3rd person singular, present tense (казаться)
скучным – adjective, masculine, singular, instrumental; predicative adjective after кажется, describing стиль

Can I change the word order? For example: Текст в безличном стиле кажется скучным.

Yes. Russian word order is relatively flexible, especially when you don’t change the grammatical endings.

Your version:

Текст в безличном стиле кажется скучным. – A text in an impersonal style seems boring.

This is completely natural and actually more common in real usage, because it puts the concrete thing (текст) first and then describes its style.

The original:

Безличный стиль текста кажется скучным.

focuses more on the style as an abstract subject.

Both are correct; the difference is mostly in emphasis, not in grammar.

Why is there no word for “is”? Why not something like есть?

In Russian, the present‑tense “to be” (быть) is usually omitted:

Стиль скучный. – literally “Style boring.” = The style is boring.

However, here we don’t just say “is boring”; we say “seems boring” using казаться:

стиль кажется скучным – the style seems boring

So кажется already covers the “is/seems” function. Adding есть (есть скучным) would be ungrammatical here.

Is the sentence itself an example of “impersonal style” (безличный стиль)?

No. The topic of the sentence is an impersonal style, but the sentence itself is personal in the grammatical sense:

It has a clear subject: безличный стиль текста
The verb кажется agrees with that subject (3rd person singular)

Имперсональные (безличные) предложения in Russian are structures without a grammatical subject, e.g.:

Мне скучно. – literally “To me (it is) boring.”
Темнеет. – “It’s getting dark.” (no explicit subject)

Your sentence is about impersonal style, but it’s not written in an impersonal construction.

Could I say Безличный стиль текста скучен instead? What’s the difference in meaning?

Yes:

Безличный стиль текста скучен. – The impersonal style of the text is boring.

Differences:

кажется скучным – seems boring: expresses a subjective impression, leaves open the possibility that others might disagree.
скучен – is boring (short-form adjective): sounds more categorical, like a statement of fact or a firm judgment.

Both are grammatical; choose according to how strong or subjective you want the statement to be.

Why is текста singular when English often treats “text” as uncountable?

In Russian, текст is a countable noun by default:

один текст, два текста, много текстов – one text, two texts, many texts

Here we are talking about one specific text, so:

стиль текста – the style of the (one) text

If you wanted to speak about texts in general, you could say:

Безличный стиль текстов кажется скучным. – The impersonal style of texts (in general) seems boring.

How is the sentence pronounced? Where are the stresses?

Stresses:

безли́чный – bez‑LÍCH‑nyy
сти́ль – STÍL’
те́кста – TÉK‑sta
ка́жется – KÁ‑zhe‑tsya
ску́чным – SKÚCH‑nym

Full sentence (stressed syllables in caps):

bezLÍchnyĭ STÍL’ TÉKsta KÁzhetsya SKÚchnym.