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What it argues
The Elements of Style is a short book about writing English clearly and without waste. William Strunk Jr. originally wrote it as a class handout at Cornell in 1919. E.B. White, who had been Strunk's student, revised and expanded it for publication in 1959 at the request of Macmillan, adding a final chapter on style. The resulting 85-page book has never gone out of print and has sold more copies than almost any other book about writing in English.
The book is organized into five sections. The first covers basic rules of grammar and usage: form the possessive singular of nouns by adding apostrophe-s; use active voice; put statements in positive form; omit needless words. These rules are stated bluntly and without lengthy justification. Strunk's manner is imperious and occasionally amusing in its confidence. His most quoted line — "Omit needless words" — is followed by the elaboration: "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts."
What it gets right
- 1.
Omit needless words. Every word in a sentence should earn its place. The discipline of cutting reveals whether you actually understood what you were trying to say.
- 2.
Prefer the active voice. Active constructions are clearer, more direct, and more energetic than passive ones. Use passive only when the agent is unknown or unimportant.
- 3.
Put the emphatic word at the end of the sentence. English readers are conditioned to expect the main point last. A sentence that buries its emphasis in the middle loses force.
What it covers
Who wrote it
William Strunk Jr. (1869–1946) was a professor of English at Cornell University, where he taught for nearly forty years. He wrote the original version of The Elements of Style as a class handout in 1919 and self-published it shortly afterward. E.B. White (1899–1985) was an American author, essayist, and long-time contributor to The New Yorker. He is also known for the children's books Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. White had been Strunk's student at Cornell and was commissioned to revise and expand the original text for the 1959 Macmillan edition that made the book famous.
