Book Review: The Elements of Style, by Strunk, White, and Kalman
As a part of the Quinnipiac social media writing class, we had to purchase and reference The Elements of Style (illustrated) by William Strunk, E. B. White, and Maira Kalman.
Rather than just reference this work, I read it from cover to cover. And it turned out to be an easy read, considerably more comprehensive and better than I had remembered.
If you ever want to easily know what to do, and how to do it, when it comes to grammar and punctuation, read this book.
Simple Rules
Simple rules emerge in clear and concise prose which never talks down to the reader. It contains all of the rules that so many people should have known, and should have learned years ago. Yet these days it seems that so many people just plain don’t know.
Case in point: forming possessives. Therefore, on Page 1 the guide just says, “Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding ‘s.”
That’s it, no more.
It seems a pity to so much as comment on this.
Seriously, apostrophes are never for pluralization unless the sense would suffer. For example, The Oakland A’s is obvious. But The Oakland As makes it appear as if you’re missing a word or two.
Punctuation
Information about punctuation remains equally succinct. Hence on Page 15, the guide says,
“A colon tells the reader that what follows is closely related to the preceding clause. The colon has more effect than the comma, less power to separate than the semicolon, and more formality than the dash.”
Easy to follow and remember, the above two sentences tell more about colons, semicolons, and dashes than I think I learned in most of my formal education.
Do YOU Know the Elements of Language?
Furthermore, language comes across as something knowable, with rules and formal logic. This is instead of what English can sometimes seem like, e. g. a messy stew of words from all over the world.
The work gives the English language structure and predictability. Both of these things make it a lot easier to know the rules.
Rules, of course, can be broken. They were probably made to be broken. But at first you need to know what you’re throwing out. Keep the baby, not the bath water.
There is but one thing left to say, and the Elements of Style certainly says it.
Write better.
This classic, timeless work will help you to do just that.
Review: 5/5 stars.
Want More Book Reviews?
If my experiences with book reviews for writing resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other book review blog posts.
Check Out Book Reviews on Writing
† On Writing Well, by William Zinsser – a terrific, comprehensive book.
• Stephen King On Writing – I bet this guy is going places.
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