The Elements of Style
'The Elements of Style' Summary
Strunk concentrated on the cultivation of good writing and composition; the original 1918 edition exhorted writers to "omit needless words", use the active voice, and employ parallelism appropriately.
The 1959 edition features White's expansions of preliminary sections, the "Introduction" essay (derived from his magazine feature story about Prof. Strunk), and the concluding chapter, "An Approach to Style", a broader, prescriptive guide to writing in English. He also produced the second (1972) and third (1979) editions of The Elements of Style, by which time the book's length had extended to 85 pages.
The third edition of The Elements of Style (1979) features 54 points: a list of common word-usage errors; 11 rules of punctuation and grammar; 11 principles of writing; 11 matters of form; and, in Chapter V, 21 reminders for better style. The final reminder, the 21st, "Prefer the standard to the offbeat", is thematically integral to the subject of The Elements of Style, yet does stand as a discrete essay about writing lucid prose. To write well, White advises writers to have the proper mind-set, that they write to please themselves, and that they aim for "one moment of felicity", a phrase by Robert Louis Stevenson. Thus Strunk's 1918 recommendation:
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 he make every word tell.
— "Elementary Principles of Composition", The Elements of Style
Strunk Jr. no longer has a comma in his name in the 1979 and later editions, due to the modernized style recommendation about punctuating such names.
The fourth edition of The Elements of Style (2000), published 54 years after Strunk's death, omits his stylistic advice about masculine pronouns: "unless the antecedent is or must be feminine". In its place, the following sentence has been added: "many writers find the use of the generic he or his to rename indefinite antecedents limiting or offensive." Further, the re-titled entry "They. He or She", in Chapter IV: Misused Words and Expressions, advises the writer to avoid an "unintentional emphasis on the masculine".
Components new to the fourth edition include a foreword by Roger Angell, stepson of E. B. White, an afterword by the American cultural commentator Charles Osgood, a glossary, and an index. Five years later, the fourth edition text was re-published as The Elements of Style Illustrated (2005), with illustrations by the designer Maira Kalman. This edition excludes the afterword by Osgood and restores the first edition chapter on spelling.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1918Author
William Strunk
United States
William Strunk Jr. was an American professor of English at Cornell University and author of The Elements of Style (1918). After revision and enlargement by his former student E. B. White, it became a...
More on William StrunkDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
Piano and Song by Freidrich Wieck
This book talks about teaching, learning and performing on the piano in a delightful style, alternating between conversation and instruction. As he wa...
A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman from the South by Anna J. Cooper
Discover the powerful voice of Anna J. Cooper as she shares her perspective and insights in the thought-provoking book, "A Voice from the South: By a...
Dr. Esperanto’s International Language, Introduction and Complete Grammar by L.L. Zamenhof
In July 1887, Esperanto made its debut as a 40-page pamphlet from Warsaw, published in Russian, Polish, French and German: all written by a Polish eye...
Mary's Grammar by Jane Marcet
Mary's teacher has taxed her with the task of learning that most onerous of all parts of the English language: Grammar. Through stories and practical...
Plan and Preface to a Dictionary of English by Samuel Johnson
The published dictionary was a huge book: with pages nearly 1½ feet tall and 20 inches wide, it contained 42,773 words; it also sold for the huge pric...
Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey
An important, controversial, and often cited work on public education. Dewey discusses the role of public education in a democracy and the different m...
Essays on Paul Bourget by Mark Twain
Paul Bourget was born in Amiens in the Somme département of Picardy, France. His father, a professor of mathematics, was later appointed to a post in...
Home Education Series Vol. II: Parents and Children Charlotte Mason by Charlotte Mason
In "Home Education Series Vol. II: Parents and Children" by Charlotte Mason, a world of profound insight and empowerment awaits. Like a guiding light...
How to Speak and Write Correctly by Joseph Devlin
A book on improving eloquence, proficiency and grammar in everyday communication. ‘How to Speak and Write Correctly’ is not a manual of the styles to...
Creative Chemistry by Edwin E. Slosson
Slosson reviews the transformation of alchemistry from an obscure and imprecise practice to the science of chemistry. Along the way, he explains how t...
Reviews for The Elements of Style
No reviews posted or approved, yet...