A Writer’s Quest

The Elements of Style
By William Strunk and E.B. White
Allyn and Bacon, Fourth Edition, 2000
ISBN 0-205-30902-X

Yes, Strunk and White is a must read. It is not the most exciting but the advice is solid, the writing excellent.

This fourth edition extensively changes the book, adding a chapter and making numerous lesser changes throughout the book. The chapters are:
Elementary Rules of Usage
Elementary Principles of Composition
A Few Matters of Form
Words and Expressions Commonly Misused
An Approach to Style

The book takes a workmanlike approach to the English language (in its American form). This is not a text of basic grammar; rather it gets into the more complex issues inherent in competent language use. The new chapter on style, for example, provides an interesting and worthwhile examination of the nature of style in writing and how not to achieve it. That in many ways sums up the book’s approach, to indicate what not to do.

The two great strengths of this book are its brevity and its structure into clear guideline points. This makes the book both a fast initial read and a ready reference. It is worth having it near your writing space, whether computer or desk, so that you can clarify sticky points of approach as you write.

This fourth edition is a useful update. Apart from the previously mentioned new chapter on style, the book has been brought up to date and now makes brief but valid points on things like writing sitting at the computer and the changed approach to writing that it encourages.

If you are serious about writing well, whether fiction or non-fiction, you need to not only read this book but occasionally re-examine its contents. Highly recommended.