The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style ("Strunk & White") is an American
English writing style guide. It is one of the most
influential and best-known prescriptive treatments of English grammar and usage
in the United States. It originally detailed eight elementary rules of usage, ten
elementary principles of composition, "a few matters of form," and a list of commonly misused words and expressions. Updated
History
The book was originally written in 1918 and privately published by Cornell University professor William Strunk Jr., and was first revised with the help of Edward A. Tenny in 1935. In 1957, it came to the attention of E. B. White at The New Yorker. White had studied under Strunk in 1919 but had since forgotten the "little book," a "forty-three-page summation of the case for cleanliness, accuracy, and brevity in the use of English." A few weeks later, White wrote a piece for The New Yorker lauding Professor Strunk and his devotion to "lucid" English prose. The book's author having died in 1946, Macmillan and Company commissioned White to recast a new edition of Elements of Style, published in 1959. In this revision, White independently expanded and modernized the 1918 work, creating the handbook now known to millions of writers and students as, simply, "Strunk & White". White's first edition sold some two million copies, with total sales of three editions (over a span of four decades) surpassing ten million copies.
Strunk's original version concentrates on specific questions of usage, cultivation of what he considered good writing, and avoidance of prolixities. "Make every word tell," he writes. One chapter is the simple admonition: "Omit needless words!" White
updated and extended these sections, and prefixed an introductory
The year 2005 saw the release of The Elements of Style Illustrated, with design and illustrations by Maira Kalman. The text follows the 1999 edition. ISBN 1-59420-069-6
Content
The rules themselves can be listed quite easily, though much of the value of the text is not only in the rules themselves but in Strunk and White's explanations and their copious (and humorous) examples.
I. Elementary rules of usage
- Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's.
- In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last. (See serial comma.)
- Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.
- Place a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause.
- Do not join independent clauses with a comma. (See comma splice.)
- Do not break sentences in two.
- Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce a list of particulars, an appositive, an amplification, or an illustrative quotation.
- Use a dash to set off an abrupt break or interruption and to announce a long appositive or summary.
- The number of the subject determines the number of the verb.
- Use the proper case of pronoun.
- A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject.
II. Elementary principles of composition
- Choose a suitable design and hold to it.
- Make the paragraph the unit of composition.
- Use the active voice.
- Put statements in positive form.
- Use definite, specific, concrete language.
- Omit needless words.
- Avoid a succession of loose sentences.
- Express coordinate ideas in similar form.
- Keep related words together.
- In summaries, keep to one tense.
- Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.
III. A Few Matters of Form
Addresses colloquialisms, exclamations, headings, the hyphen, margins, numerals, parentheses, quotations, references, syllabication, and titles.
IV. Words and Expressions Commonly Misused
Includes aggravate, irritate; all right; allude; allusion; alternate, alternative; among, between; and/or; anticipate; anybody; anyone; as good or better than; as to whether; as yet; being; but; can; care less; case; certainly; character; claim (verb); clever; compare; comprise; consider; contact; cope; currently; data; different from; disinterested; divided into; due to; each and every one; effect; enormity; enthuse; etc.; fact; facility; factor; farther, further; feature; finalize; fix; flammable; folk; fortuitous; get; gratuitous; he is a man who; hopefully; however; illusion; imply, infer; importantly; in regard to; in the last analysis; inside of, inside; insightful; in terms of; interesting; irregardless; -ize; kind of; lay vs lie; leave; less; like; line, along these lines; literal, literally; loan vs lend; meaningful; memento; most; nature; nauseous, nauseated; nice; nor; noun used as a verb; offputting, ongoing; one; one of the most; -oriented; partially; participle for verbal noun; people; personalize; personally; possess; presently; prestigious; refer; regretful; relate; respective, respectively; secondly, thirdly, etc.; shall, will; so; sort of; split infinitive; state; student body; than; thanking you in advance; that, which; the foreseeable future; the truth is, the fact is; they, he or she; this; thrust; tortuous, torturous; transpire; try; type; unique; utilize; verbal; very; while; -wise; worthwhile; and would.
V. An Approach to Style (With a List of Reminders)
This, the final chapter, is E.B. White's own addition, as he states in the introduction of the book: "Somewhat audaciously, and in an attempt to give my publisher his money's worth, I added a chapter called 'An Approach to Style,' setting forth my own prejudices, my notions of error, my articles of faith. This chapter (Chapter V) is addressed particularly to those who feel that English prose composition is not only a necessary skill but a sensible pursuit as well - a way to spend one's days." It is presented in the form of an introduction followed by a list of "reminders:"
- Place yourself in the background.
- Write in a way that comes naturally.
- Work from a suitable design.
- Write with nouns and verbs.
- Revise and rewrite.
- Do not overwrite.
- Do not overstate.
- Avoid the use of qualifiers.
- Do not affect a breezy manner.
- Use orthodox spelling.
- Do not explain too much.
- Do not construct awkward adverbs.
- Make sure the reader knows who is speaking.
- Avoid fancy words.
- Do not use dialect unless your ear is good.
- Be clear.
- Do not inject opinion.
- Use figures of speech sparingly.
- Do not take shortcuts at the cost of clarity.
- Avoid foreign languages.
- Prefer the standard to the offbeat.
See also
Editions in print
- Hardcover 4th edition, (1999), ISBN 0-205-31342-6
- Paperback 4th edition, (2000), ISBN 0-205-30902-X
- The Elements of Style: A Style Guide for Writers by William Strunk, (2005), ISBN 0-97522-980-X
- The Elements of Style Illustrated by William Strunk Jr., E.B. White and Maira Kalman (Illustrator), (2005), ISBN 1-59420-069-6
- The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. & How To Speak And Write Correctly by Joseph Devlin, (2006), BN Publishing, ISBN 956-291-263-9
External links
- The Elements of Style: Full text of Strunk's 1918 edition (visited January 11 2007)
- The Elements of Style: Full text of Strunk's 1918 edition (visited January 11 2007)
- The Elements of Style: Full text of Strunk's 1918 edition (visited September 29 2007)
- Full text of the updated E.B. White version: visual effects not as good as in web-editions of Strunk's 1918 edition
- Full text of the updated E.B. White version - zipped, ready for download: visual effects not as good as in web-editions of Strunk's 1918 edition
- The Elements of Style as an operatic play
NPR radio piece discussing illustrated Strunk & White book and musical adaptation.
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