The Element Of Style

by Wililam Strunk Jr.

The Elements of Style is a prescriptiveAmerican English writing style guide in numerous editions. The original was composed by William Strunk Jr., in 1918, and published by Harcourt, in 1920, comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of 49 "words and expressions commonly misused", and a list of 57 "words often misspelled". E. B. White greatly enlarged and revised the book for publication by Macmillan in 1959. That was the first edition of the so-called "Strunk & White", which Time named in 2011 as one of the 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference

111 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 27, 2017

Reviews

[Minh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple but worth to remember. Highly recommended to anyone, who use English in daily life.

[TMK · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

2. To list a long-list of nouns: use "and" in the middle & "or" for the last noun.
Ex: red, white, and blue gold, silver, or copper
3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.
Ex: The best way to see a country, unless you are pressed for time, is to travel on foot.
If, Sir, you refuse, I cannot predict what will happen.
- The audience, which had at first been indifferent, became more and more interested.
- In 1769, when Napoleon was born, Corsica had but recently been acquired by France.
- Nether Stowey, where Coleridge wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner , is a few miles from Bridgewater.

[Nguyễn Nguyệt Anh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love section V: An approach to style (with a list of reminders). This section includes a list of reminders of what to avoid. I just had a lot of fun reading it again. I had to laugh about Reminder 8. Avoid the use of qualifiers.

"Rather, very, little, pretty--these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. The constant use of the adjective little (except to indicate size) is particularly debilitating; we should all try to do a little better, we should all be very watchful of this rule, for it is a rather important one, and we are pretty sure to violate it now and then."


Pretty funny! I hope this little excerpt gives you an idea about the humor this book of style uses to explain some simple rules that can help us improve our writing.

[Vinka Maharani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew the book for the first time from 'On Writing' by Stephen King. I felt lucky to follow the recommendation and read 'The Element of Style' afterwards. It's simple, clear yet has a subtle humour that I still enjoyed despite a 100-year-old gap from the first edition written.

The rules mentioned in the book are accurate, especially everything in 'the young writer' criteria. It's a piece of bull-eye advice and a practical one. This Kindle edition layout is painful to read, though. If you could grab another version, please do it.

[Charles Ambler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me far too long to read cuz dumb physics degree takes all my time.
But it taught me good stuff and had some good jokes about grammar. Might revise the 5 star review if I go on to read other writing books and I find out there was a mistake in this one that I didn’t pick up on, but for now it’s 5 stars since I can’t rly think what it could’ve done better.

[TheCaruto · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would have been great to read if i read the physical, i would also high reccomd getting one. I was confused reading this because it only told you what and what not to do but don't teach you it.

[Alejandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed it a lot. So many things to apply to my writing skills.

[Chiehyun Ling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting insight and informative book.

[Tantannn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had read this book when I was younger. In sheer pith, you will not regret checking out this little book, which is little only in size but has so much in quality to offer to you.

[Chyavan M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a better book
It was not a bad one but had the potential to be better

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for writers.