E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web, was introduced to The Elements of Style when he was a student at Cornell. It was the required text for English 8, a course taught by the author and printer of the book, William Strunk Jr. Strunk called it “the little book,” an apt label for a book of forty-three pages.[i]
Thirty-eight years later, around 1957, Macmillan asked White to revise the little book for publication. This was a good move. Now, after fifty-four more years, Strunk & White’s book is still one of the best-selling writing guides on the market. There’s a fourth edition, a fiftieth anniversary edition, even an illustrated edition. I suspect that as long as there are writers and publishers, there will be more editions. The New York Times says that, “It’s as timeless as a book can be in our age of volubility.”
I bought my first copy of The Elements of Style in 1995. It was required reading for my college art history course. Though I skimmed through it and recognized some merit, I wasn’t interested in writing and sold it back at the end of the semester. Years later, I bought another copy—still the Third Edition—which I read at least once a year. If there is anything good about my writing, I owe it to this book and one other.
My copy is marked all over. Some highlights have so faded that I’ve had to highlight them again. As I completed my annual reading last week, I realized how much difference there is between highlighting a passage and learning it. If I could just remember the advice in those marked passages half the time, I would be on my way to clear writing. Anyway, here are some of my favorite excerpts:
Vigorous writing is concise. 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 no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, noncommittal language.
The surest way to arouse and hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definite, and concrete.
If you use a colloquialism or a slang word or phrase, simply use it; do not draw attention to it by enclosing it in quotation marks. To do so is to put on airs, as though you were inviting the reader to join you in a select society of those who know better.
The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is himself he is approaching, no other; and he should begin by turning resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style—all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.
Muddiness is not merely a disturber of prose, it is also a destroyer of life, of hope: death on the highway caused by a badly worded road sign, heartbreak among lovers caused by a misplaced phrase in a well-intentioned letter, anguish of a traveler expecting to be met at a railroad station and not being met because of a slipshod telegram….When you says something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair.
Writing good standard English is no cinch, and before you have managed it you will have encountered enough rough country to satisfy even the most adventurous spirit.
[i] The book, though still little, is now twice as long. Counting the index, my copy of the Third Edition has 92 pages.