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    The Elements of Style (Golden Deer Classics)
    The Elements of Style (Golden Deer Classics)
    The Elements of Style (Golden Deer Classics)
    Ebook70 pages53 minutes

    The Elements of Style (Golden Deer Classics)

    By William Strunk Jr. and Golden Deer Classics

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    About this ebook

    The Elements of Style is an American English writing style guide. It is one of the most influential and best-known prescriptive treatments of English grammar and usage in the United States. It originally detailed eight elementary rules of usage, ten elementary principles of composition, and "a few matters of form" as well as a list of commonly misused words and expressions. Updated editions of the paperback book are often required reading for American high school and college composition classes.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOregan Publishing
    Release dateAug 4, 2017
    ISBN9782377932740
    The Elements of Style (Golden Deer Classics)
    Author

    William Strunk Jr.

    William Strunk, Jr. (1869-1946) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the eldest of William and Ella Garretson Strunk's four children. Strunk excelled in school, eventually earning a bachelor's degree from the University of Cincinnati and a PhD at Cornell University. He then attended the Sorbonne and the Collège de France from 1898-99 where he studied morphology and philology. Strunk began his academic career teaching mathematics at Rose Polytechnical Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana from 1890-91, then returned to Cornell and taught English there for 46 years. In 1922 he published English Metres, a study of poetic metrical form, and began writing he critical editions of various classical works. Strunk joined a literary group called the Manuscript Club which held Saturday night meetings to discuss writing and literature. There, Strunk met and became friends with a young aspiring writer, Elwyn Brooks ("E.B.") White. In 1918, Strunk published The Elements of Style, but originally only intended it to be used by his Cornell students, who nicknamed it "the little book." In 1935, Strunk and Edward A. Tenney revised the manuscript and re-published the guide for wider distribution as The Elements and Practice of Composition. Years later, after Strunk had passed away, E.B. White - now working at the New Yorker - praised the "little book" in his column, calling it a "forty-three-page summation of the case for cleanliness, accuracy, and brevity in the use of English." As a result of the new attention White's praise generated for Strunk's manuscript, Macmillan and Company commissioned White to revise the 1935 edition for republication. The resulting book became an immediate hit. Since The Elements of Style (now credited to both Strunk and White) was originally republished in 1959, sales of the book - and subsequent editions - has exceeded ten million copies and the book is often referred to simply as "Strunk and White." William Strunk retired from Cornell in 1937 and in 1945 he suffered a mental breakdown, diagnosed as "senile psychosis." He died less than a year later at the Hudson River Psychiatric Institute in Poughkeepsie, New York.

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    Reviews for The Elements of Style (Golden Deer Classics)

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    2,450 ratings83 reviews

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    • 5/5
      The Bible of writing. In fact, more Library Thing members have this Bible than the King James Bible. I checked.
    • 4/5
      This is a good reference book on the elements of academic writing. The book provides several examples to follow and many rules. It is an easy read and should be kept as reference material.
    • 4/5
      A virtual necessity yet considering its age, a wonder that it’s still relevant. A legend for a reason and an essential foundational work.
    • 4/5
      I like the concise points and don't understand what the controversy is about the book; his points make sense to me and seem valid, especially for student writers.
    • 3/5
      This is the original 1918 version, not the expansion with E.B. White's wit. Evidently, Strunk AND White is not available in a digital edition; only Strunk, because he's out of copyright. The one with Maira Kalman's illustrations is also not available in digital form.
    • 5/5
      Goes right to the basics with excellent ideas and examples.
    • 5/5
      A must have for anyone serious about writing.
    • 5/5
      The gold standard in American language composition.
    • 1/5
      Sadly, a must have for writers of thesis' and disertations.
    • 5/5
      If you write ANYTHING...you need this book!
    • 5/5
      The classic among style manuals--simple, practical, urbane.
    • 5/5
      One of the best books on writing fiction.
    • 5/5
      Everyone thinks of this as a book for writers, but today, most of us are. We write to communicate through email, memos & letters. Everyone can benefit by reading this book. It looks quite short & slim, but that is deceiving, like Kern & Ritchie's book on C. They fit a LOT into a small package & it takes practice & referral to get the basics down.
    • 3/5
       From a writer as an ode to his late teacher, it's a great pocket book reference/words of wisdom for writing in any medium. Does what it sets out to do—clearly—and that's about it.
    • 5/5
      I am surprised that anyone would give this book a one-star rating, and yet some people have done that. I have no arguments with them, as we each have our own view of the books we read.For me, this is a brilliant book. I did not think that it would take me ten days to read 97 pages, but it did. The writing style is simple, and not a word is wasted. It was well worth the time I took to read the book carefully. The rules have been laid out in a simple manner, and the examples are clear. I like this book so much, that I ordered two paperback copies, one for my son and one for me. It is good to have this book as a handy reference. Prof Strunk seems to have been a man of exceptional clarity of thought, and this is reflected in the manner in which he has laid out the book, and given the examples. Mr White's section is a very useful addition. It adds to the value of the book. It is an essential guide to any aspiring writer.
    • 2/5
      I'm one of those English majors who threw around "Strunk and White" knowingly, but had never read the book. So I decided to remedy that just a few years after graduation. As an English major, I think most of the knowledge in this book is things we learned in class, and therefore seems common sense to us. There is some interesting advice, but the rules I was the most unclear about were actually the ones that didn't have detailed explanations accompanying them, so that turned me off.
    • 2/5
      This book is famous and well-loved by people who tend to be good writers anyway. Alas, the book's advice is somewhat dubious.
    • 2/5
      While not really the sacred text of written style that some American high school English teachers still try to make it, Elements of Style nevertheless remains a high watermark for literary style guides. It's slipping into irrelevancy as people cease to read and write books, alas.
    • 3/5
      This is a great pocket style guide almost. It covers all of the basics and is good for looking up quick writing references. It is not nearly complete so it is only good for general information.
    • 4/5
      I've written in LiberaryThing that I read this book from July 3th to July 6th 2008, but it's not really a book you read. It's a book you study over and over again. And use as a reference.And for that it's excellent. It's filled with solid advice and "rules", or directions, on how to write a better text.
    • 5/5
      The Elements of Style is an invaluable reference to anyone who writes (everyone). Revisit it often and you will see its secrets permeate your writing. At 100 pages it fits in anyone's reading schedule and bookshelf.
    • 5/5
      Classic. I remember seeing my first copy in seventh grade English class and thinking what a clever, handy little book. I think I've probably gone through a few copies of my own since then. Other style books may be bigger and cover more complex usage situations, but really, if you have Strunk and White the chances are good you can find an answer to your question.
    • 5/5
      If everybody in the world read this book before afflicting us with their writing, the world would be a better place. THE book on improving one's writing style.
    • 3/5
      Great book, however I disagree with their opposition to the use of singular "they".
    • 5/5
      I got this book over a year ago, and refer to it again and again. And again. While not a thick book, this book is essential in being able to write properly, even if you just want to write an email. And one of the best things about it (to me), is its explantions on commas and apostrophes, and all those nebulous areas of grammar.
    • 4/5
      I first read this before starting a creative writing & English course at university in 2009 and read it again at the end of my degree when I decided to become a proofreader (& later a copy-editor too).Some criticize this for being dated. In some respects it is. For example, one instruction is to write "some one" not "someone". This confused me at first, but further study of English style from more modern sources helped me define what rules were out of date in this book.Thus, my final verdict is that this is a good investment - even Stephen King has used it and recommends that all aspiring authors invest in a copy. A good story written with bad style is not really a good story after all.Amongst other things, this book guides you with writing well-structured sentences, advises how and when to use punctuation, and lists certain words that should be avoided for the sake of good form.The first time I read this I found it hard going, but it appeared much more straightforward upon a second reading. Bearing this in mind, a more modern book on style may be a better first choice for someone wanting to improve their form, but once they learn the basics then reading this should be worth their while.
    • 4/5
      The classic reference for writing style. Often useful.
    • 2/5
      The most important thing that I learnt from this book is that whatever I write, I could do so in half the words, with double the impact.So, here's the rub. I'm verbose. I love long words and even longer sentences (back when word processors started to include things like readability indexes and grammar checkers, the one thing they always said was 'your sentences are too long'!). And, thanks to this book, now I know why!This book is probably most useful to those who take a journalistic bent to their writing, but it can also help people like me who need to knock the corners off their writing.
    • 5/5
      It is beyond me why schools insist on using anything else to teach grammar and style. My current copy is the 12th copy of it that I have had since I had the good fortune to run into it when I was a sophomore in high school.
    • 5/5
      I find this a great resource for both teaching and reference. It is laid out in a practical and clear way, the examples and lessons are easy to understand and pithy. Someday, I will actually remember everything in it and then I will sound very educated and eloquent.

    Book preview

    The Elements of Style (Golden Deer Classics) - William Strunk Jr.

    Jr.

    Chapter 1

    Introductory

    This book is intended for use in English courses in which the practice of composition is combined with the study of literature. It aims to give in a brief space the principal requirements of plain English style. It aims to lighten the task of instructor and student by concentrating attention (in Chapters II and III) on a few essentials, the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated. The numbers of the sections may be used as references in correcting manuscript.

    The book covers only a small portion of the field of English style, but the experience of its writer has been that once past the essentials, students profit most by individual instruction based on the problems of their own work, and that each instructor has his own body of theory, which he prefers to that offered by any textbook.

    The writer's colleagues in the Department of English in Cornell University have greatly helped him in the preparation of his manuscript. Mr. George McLane Wood has kindly consented to the inclusion under Rule 11 of some material from his Suggestions to Authors.

    The following books are recommended for reference or further study: in connection with Chapters II and IV:

    F. Howard Collins, Author and Printer (Henry Frowde);

    Chicago University Press, Manual of Style;

    T. L. De Vinne Correct Composition (The Century Company);

    Horace Hart, Rules for Compositors and Printers (Oxford University Press);

    George McLane Wood, Extracts from the Style-Book of the Government Printing Office (United States Geological Survey);

    In connection with Chapters III and V:

    Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, The Art of Writing (Putnams), especially the chapter, Interlude on Jargon;

    George McLane Wood, Suggestions to Authors (United States Geological Survey);

    John Leslie Hall, English Usage (Scott, Foresman and Co.);

    James P. Kelly, Workmanship in Words (Little, Brown and Co.).

    It is an old observation that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric. When they do so, however, the reader will usually find in the sentence some compensating merit, attained at the cost of the violation. Unless he is certain of doing as well, he will probably do best to follow the rules. After he has learned, by their guidance, to write plain English adequate for everyday uses, let him look, for the secrets of style, to the study of the masters of literature.

    Chapter 2

    Elementary Rules of Usage

    1. Form the possessive singular of nouns with 's.

    Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,

    Charles's friend

    Burns's poems

    the witch's malice

    This is the usage of the United States Government Printing Office and of the Oxford University Press.

    Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names in -es and -is, the possessive Jesus' , and such forms as for conscience' sake, for righteousness' sake. But such forms as Achilles' heel, Moses' laws, Isis' temple are commonly replaced by

    the heel of Achilles

    the laws of Moses

    the temple of Isis

    The pronominal possessives hers, its, theirs, yours, and oneself have no apostrophe.

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

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