Strunk and White Rules: "Elements of Style" Turns 50
by Claudine Zap
Wordsmiths and grammar mavens: a moment, please. “The Elements of Style” turns 50 today. The slim tome has directed students on the ways of writing for the past half-century. How else to explain the only grammar guide to be a bestseller?
In one early sign of its success, a Western Union cable (posted on NPR’s website) from a Berkeley bookstore in 1959 had an urgent request: “Send 300 more college edition. Whole campus gone wild.” In another sign of success, this style, as New Yorker editor David Remnick says, “Never seems to go out of date.”
Here, then, a sampling of some timeless —and timely — rules of style.
• Omit needless words. Done.
• Be specific. Grammar isn’t just for third-grade teachers.
• Clarity, clarity, clarity. Can’t get clearer than that.
• Don’t use four words when one will do. OK.
• Place emphatic words at the end. Zowie!
• Don’t emphasize statements with a mark of exclamation. Oops.
• Avoid overstatement. Folks, stop what you’re doing and pick up a copy of Strunk and White. It won’t change your life. It will change your writing.
-- drakaal