The Elements of Style - Strunk & White

The Elements of Style

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White

William Strunk Jr & E.B. White

A must read for anyone writing anything in the English language. 

It is amazing that Shrunk wrote this in 1919 and it's still relevant today. Why? B/c he took pity on the reader. Reading is not an easy thing when thrown a jumble of words – which is where his rules and principles come into play. He stresses clarity, so readers can just read and not have to work at it. This kind of goal is timeless.

This book will give you a run down of the rules of writing – punctuation, tense, and the frequently debated possessive apostrophe when the subject ends with an S! Don’t get me started on that!

These rules are also something you can get from other how-to-write books, basic grammar books, that kind of thing. You will also pick up these rules while reading. Which is why you must read a lot, and read a variety of writing styles and authors.

If you can get past this first section of The Elements of Style (which is a must-know, but dry and academic), you will be rewarded with tips on how to write better, more clear, and with timeless style (as the title implies).

Punctuation works!

It is the second section, the principles of composition, that are more up the creative writer’s alley.

I'll highlight a few that I found particularly relevant:

Principle 12 – Plan ahead – choose a design and stick to it. 

Most forms of composition have structure. “The skeleton to which the writer brings the flesh and the blood. The more clearly the writer perceives the shape, the better are the chances of success.”

Principle 13 – Make the paragraph the unit of composition.

A single idea fits nicely into a paragraph. 

Breaking up the writing is used to help the reader. 

When you move on from that single idea, that is when you start a new paragraph. This is a sign to the reader: we are moving onto a new idea.

Optics come into play as well. Long blocks of writing can look formidable to a reader. This is where the art/craft of writing comes into play. You can break theses walls of prose into bricks that are not as intimidating looking and easier for the reader to work with.

Typically dialogue is broken up into new paragraphs each time a new character speaks. However, there are exceptions to this. Sometimes authors will keep a conversation of characters together in one paragraph. Eg. When there is a question and quick answer by another character.

Principle 14 – Use the Active voice.

This means putting the subject before the verb. You say who is doing what. The subject is actively doing some verb.

Spinning it around turns it passive. The verb is happening to the subject.

Read that again - the verb is happening to the subject...make sense?

Again, this is a general rule that works great 90% of the time. But, sometimes you want a different tone or feel to your writing, and a passive voice will sound more like what you are looking for. 

Principle 16 – Use definite, specific, concrete language.

In most cases be specific instead of general. This does not mean give every detail possible, but when details are given they are to be accurate and vivid, allowing the reader to imagine the scene (or better yet, themselves in the scene).

Principle 17 – Omit needless words.

“A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine have no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

You’ll run across all kinds of quotes from writer like Mark Twain, Stephen King, etc that bang this home. My opinion is again, 90% of the time this is true, but you have an ear to your writing. Trust that ear. If you want to add an extra word or two, maybe a redundant opening to a sentence…go right ahead. But, do it sparingly.

Omit needless words

The final section of the book is "Words and Expressions Commonly Misused."

20 pages full of words and phrases that must have come up so often to a College prof like Strunk that he felt he needed to write them all down. I can attest, there are few in there I could see myself using wrong. Sometimes you just don't know that phrases like To Make Ends Meat (are not actually about being so down and out that you need to use the cut off pieces of meat to survive), are actually To Make Ends Meet. You don't want to submit a piece of writing with a noob error like this. Which is why going through this short and sweet manual is something all writers must do, and do early, and maybe every few years as well.

To make ends meat