The Elements of Style BY Oliver Strunk
Elementary Rules of Usage
1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's.
Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write, Charles's friend
2. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last.
Thus write, red, white, and blue, gold, silver, or copper
3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.
The best way to see a country, unless you are pressed for time, is to travel on foot.
4. Place a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause.
The early records of the city have disappeared, and the story of its first years can no longer be reconstructed. The situation is perilous, but there is still one chance of escape
5. Do not join independent clauses with a comma
Mary Shelley's works are entertaining; they are full of engaging ideas.
6. Do not break sentences in two. In other words, do not use periods for commas.
I met them on a Cunard liner many years ago. Coming home from Liverpool to New York.
She was an interesting talker. A woman who had traveled all over the world and lived in half a dozen countries.
In both these examples, the first period should be replaced by a comma and the following word begun with a small letter.
7. Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce a list of particulars, an appositive, an amplification, or an illustrative quotation
Your dedicated whittler requires: a knife, a piece of wood, and a back porch.
8. Use a dash to set off an abrupt break or interruption and to announce a long appositive or summary.
A dash is a mark of separation stronger than a comma, less formal than a colon, and more relaxed than parentheses.
- His first thought on getting out of bed — if he had any thought at all — was to get back in again.
- The rear axle began to make a noise — a grinding, chattering, teeth-gritting rasp.
9. The number of the subject determines the number of the verb.
Use a singular verb form after each, either, everyone, everybody, neither, nobody, someone.
- Everybody thinks he has a unique sense of humor.
- Although both clocks strike cheerfully, neither keeps good time.
- With none, use the singular verb when the word means "no one" or "not one."
- None of us is perfect.
A plural verb is commonly used when none suggests more than one thing or person.
None of us are perfect.
But certain compounds, often cliches, are so inseparable they are considered a unit and so take a singular verb, as do compound subjects qualified by each or every.
The long and the short of it is ...
Bread and butter was all she served.
Give and take is essential to a happy household.
Every window, picture, and mirror was smashed.
10. Use the proper case of pronoun.
The personal pronouns, as well as the pronoun who, change form as they function as subjects or objects.
11. A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject.
Walking slowly down the road, he saw a woman accompanied by two children.
The word walking refers to the subject of the sentence, not to the woman. To make it refer to the woman, the writer must recast the sentence.
He saw a woman, accompanied by two children, walking slowly down the road.
Elementary Principles of Composition
12. Choose a suitable design and hold to it.
13. Make the paragraph the unit of composition.
14. Use the active voice
15. Put statements in positive form.
Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, noncommittal language. Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion.
Hence, as a rule, it is better to express even a negative in a positive form.
Placing negative and positive in opposition makes for a stronger structure.
Not charity, but simple justice.
Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more
Negative words other than not are usually strong.
Her loveliness I never knew / Until she smiled on me.
Statements qualified with unnecessary auxiliaries or conditionals sound irresolute. If your every sentence admits a doubt, your writing will lack authority. Save the auxiliaries would, should, could, may, might, and can for situations involving real uncertainty.
16. Use definite, specific, concrete language.
17. Omit needless words
Vigorous writing is concise. Many expressions in common use violate this principle.
18. Avoid a succession of loose sentences.
19. Express coordinate ideas in similar form
This principle, that of parallel construction, requires that expressions similar in content and function be outwardly similar. The likeness of form enables the reader to recognize more readily the likeness of content and function.
20. Keep related words together.
The position of the words in a sentence is the principal means of showing their relationship. Confusion and ambiguity result when words are badly placed.
21. In summaries, keep to one tense.
22. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end
An Approach to Style
1. Place yourself in the background.
Write in a way that draws the reader's attention to the sense and substance of the writing, rather than to the mood and temper of the author.
2. Write in a way that comes naturally.
Write in a way that comes easily and naturally to you, using words and phrases that come readily to hand.
3. Work from a suitable design.
Before beginning to compose something, gauge the nature and extent of the enterprise and work from a suitable design.
4. Write with nouns and verbs.
Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs.
5. Revise and rewrite.
Revising is part of writing
6. Do not overwrite.
Rich, ornate prose is hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and sometimes nauseating
7. Do not overstate.
When you overstate, readers will be instantly on guard, and everything that has preceded your overstatement as well as everything that follows it will be suspect in their minds because they have lost confidence in your judgment or your poise.
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.
9. Do not affect a breezy manner
This, although conventional, is compact, informative, unpretentious. The writer has dug up an item of news and presented it in a straightforward manner.
10. Use orthodox spelling.
In ordinary composition, use orthodox spelling. Do not write nite for night, thru for through, pleez for please, unless you plan to introduce a complete system of simplified spelling and are prepared to take the consequences.
11. Do not explain too much.
It is seldom advisable to tell all. Be sparing
12. Do not construct awkward adverbs.
Adverbs are easy to build. Take an adjective or a participle, add -ly, and behold! you have an adverb. But you'd probably be better off without it.
13. Make sure the reader knows who is speaking.
Dialogue is a total loss unless you indicate who the speaker is.
14. Avoid fancy words.
Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able
15. Do not use dialect unless your ear is good.
Do not attempt to use dialect unless you are a devoted student of the tongue you hope to reproduce. If you use dialect, be consistent.
16. Be clear.
Clarity is not the prize in writing, nor is it always the principal mark of a good style.
17. Do not inject opinion.
Unless there is a good reason for its being there, do not inject opinion into a piece of writing.
18. Use figures of speech sparingly.
The simile is a common device and a useful one, but similes coming in rapid-fire, one right on top of another, are more distracting than illuminating.
19. Do not take shortcuts at the cost of clarity.
Do not use initials for the names of organizations or movements unless you are certain the initials will be readily understood.
20. Avoid foreign languages.
The writer will occasionally find it convenient or necessary to borrow from other languages
21. Prefer the standard to the offbeat.
Young writers will be drawn at every turn toward eccentricities in language
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