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Stone & Bell, Prose Style: A Handbook for Writers
Chapter headings include Logic and Evidence, Tone, Paragraphs, sentences, words, Imagery, Mere Writing and Good Prose, Grammar, Syntax, Orthography, Punctuation, Research and Note-taking, and Writing the Research Paper.
316 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1972
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 17, 2024
Well well well, another book that breaks down a subject with wit and charm and genius. I just love it. It’s like what C.S. Lewis does for faith and Jane Austen for social interactions — Stone and Bell logically and wittily break down the subject of writing. Not only do they write in such a way that’s fun to read, with confident logic and dry humor, but the actual content of their book is interesting and useful, making it all the more worth reading. A win for both style and subject.
Main takeaway — know what you want to say, say it clearly, and be consistent. One step deeper — know the aim of writing, know the rules of writing, follow the rules as far as they serve the aim, and break them when they do not, while being as consistent as possible.
The authors are quite sensible, balanced between resolute conviction and practical deference. While they are confident in pinpointing the writing rules that are worth following and discrediting the ones that are nonsense, they also concede that some things simply cannot be outlined in rules, and sometimes rules must be broken, for no rule can adequately contain the ever-changing vehicle of language. Rules should always help the writer communicate clearly and engage their readers; once they inhibit that purpose, they should be broken. Their tone is no-nonsense and cheeky, without being arrogant or verbose.
Case in point that made me smile: “[Some syntax principles] were nonsense from the start, having nothing but their simplemindedness to recommend them. … It was never incorrect to begin a sentence with ‘But’ or ‘And’; it was never incorrect to write sentences without verbs; and if it was ever incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition, that stuffy day is long past” (173).
And now I cannot burden this review further by listing out any more specific takeaways and quotes, so I will leave it there. I learned a lot about sentences, words, imagery, syntax, and punctuation. Hopefully I will remember it all.
But to sum up what I’ve written in the authors’ own words, I must leave a few banger quotes on the table:
“The best writers tend to be people with something on their minds that they want to get off…. There seems to be no correlation between the various standard forms of academic excellence and the instinct for expressing oneself in writing. The heart of writing is not rules but this instinct or motivation. If the writer is not motivated, what he writes will not be worth reading; if he is, he will find out where to put his commas and how to write good paragraphs almost as a by-product of his motivation” (16).
“The aim of writing may be defined as follows: to spare your reader the error of misunderstanding your message, and the pain of translating it, by making it as clear as possible from the outset. Rules and conventions are useful only to the extent that they serve this end” (18).
Main takeaway — know what you want to say, say it clearly, and be consistent. One step deeper — know the aim of writing, know the rules of writing, follow the rules as far as they serve the aim, and break them when they do not, while being as consistent as possible.
The authors are quite sensible, balanced between resolute conviction and practical deference. While they are confident in pinpointing the writing rules that are worth following and discrediting the ones that are nonsense, they also concede that some things simply cannot be outlined in rules, and sometimes rules must be broken, for no rule can adequately contain the ever-changing vehicle of language. Rules should always help the writer communicate clearly and engage their readers; once they inhibit that purpose, they should be broken. Their tone is no-nonsense and cheeky, without being arrogant or verbose.
Case in point that made me smile: “[Some syntax principles] were nonsense from the start, having nothing but their simplemindedness to recommend them. … It was never incorrect to begin a sentence with ‘But’ or ‘And’; it was never incorrect to write sentences without verbs; and if it was ever incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition, that stuffy day is long past” (173).
And now I cannot burden this review further by listing out any more specific takeaways and quotes, so I will leave it there. I learned a lot about sentences, words, imagery, syntax, and punctuation. Hopefully I will remember it all.
But to sum up what I’ve written in the authors’ own words, I must leave a few banger quotes on the table:
“The best writers tend to be people with something on their minds that they want to get off…. There seems to be no correlation between the various standard forms of academic excellence and the instinct for expressing oneself in writing. The heart of writing is not rules but this instinct or motivation. If the writer is not motivated, what he writes will not be worth reading; if he is, he will find out where to put his commas and how to write good paragraphs almost as a by-product of his motivation” (16).
“The aim of writing may be defined as follows: to spare your reader the error of misunderstanding your message, and the pain of translating it, by making it as clear as possible from the outset. Rules and conventions are useful only to the extent that they serve this end” (18).
Displaying 1 of 1 review