The Elements of Style by William Strunk

The Elements of Style

6.9/103 min read

9/22/20

  • Writing is hard, even for authors who do it all the time

  • Write in a way that comes naturally. Revise and rewrite. Do not explain too much. Be clear

  • 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 sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell

  • Cut “this is a subject that” to “this subject”

  • Trim “used for fuel purposes” down to “used for fuel”

  • Worse to be irresolute than to be wrong

  • If you don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud!

  • Why compound ignorance with inaudibility? Why run and hide?

  • The reader was in serious trouble most of the time, floundering in a swamp, and that it was the duty of anyone attempting to write English to drain this swamp quickly and get the reader up on dry ground, or at least to throw a rope

  • The pronominal possessives hers, its, theirs, yours, and ours have no apostrophe

  • 1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's. Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Charles’s

  • 2. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last

  • 3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.

  • A name or a title in direct address is parenthetic

  • No comma, however, should separate a noun from a restrictive term of identification

  • Nonrestrictive relative clauses are parenthetic, as are similar clauses introduced by conjunctions indicating time or place. Commas are therefore needed. A nonrestrictive clause is one that does not serve to identify or define the antecedent noun

  • 4. Place a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause

  • 5. Do not join independent clauses with a comma. The correct punctuation is a semi-colon

  • 6. Do not break sentences in two. Do not use periods for commas

  • 7. Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce a list of particulars, an appositive, an amplification, or an illustrative quotation

  • 9. The number of the subject determines the number of the verb

  • 11. A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject

  • 14. Use the active voice

  • 15. Put statements in a positive form

  • If your every sentence d admits a doubt, your writing will lack authority

  • Save the auxiliaries would, should, could, may, might, and can fit situations involving real uncertainty

  • The surest way to arouse and hold the readers attention is by being specific, definite, and concrete

  • 17. Omit needless words

  • An article or a preposition applying to all the members of a series must either be used only before the first term or else be repeated before each term

  • 20. Keep related words together

  • 21. In summaries, keep to one tense

  • 22. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end

  • Do not draw attention to a colloquialism or a slang word by enclosing it in quotation marks

  • Exclamation marks are to be reserved for use after true exclamations or commands

  • Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs

  • Revising is part of writing

  • Avoid the use of qualifiers