🖋️ Greatest Writing Wisdom: The Elements of Style Edition
Few books about writing are as enduring or as divisive as "The Elements of Style." First self-published by Cornell professor William Strunk Jr. in 1918, the original pamphlet was a concise, no-nonsense guide to clear English. Strunk believed in tight sentences, plain words, and rules that were meant to be followed.
Four decades later, one of Strunk's former students — E.B. White, now famous for Charlotte's Web and his essays for The New Yorker — revised and expanded the original. It exploded into the mainstream becoming a cultural phenomenon. For decades, The Elements of Style was treated as gospel. Generations of students were taught that clarity was moral, style was restraint, and "omit needless words" was a sacred commandment.
Over time, its status shifted. Today, the book is a cult classic. Beloved by many, dismissed by others as rigid or out of touch. Some critics argue that its grammar rules are inconsistent or overly prescriptive. Others see it not as a rulebook at all but as a manifesto for clean prose and clean thinking.
If you were in an honors English or journalism class anytime from the 1960s through the early 2000s, chances are The Elements of Style was required reading. And if you studied literature, writing, or communications in college, you almost certainly ran into it again.
I first encountered it at 14, and it blew my mind, not because it was perfect, but because it was decisive. Strunk and White (or, as 14-year-old me insisted on calling them, "Strunk and Funk") didn't hedge. They told you what good writing was, and what it wasn't. That level of certainty felt like truth to me and so I took their words as gospel.
I've strayed from the book's exacting, prescriptive wisdom plenty over the years (who hasn't?), but their influence still lingers. It's there in the background quietly shaping my sentences, helping me trim fat, demand clarity, and write with conviction.
Love it or loathe it, The Elements of Style remains one of the most influential books ever written on writing. A style guide, a provocation, a cultural relic. And still, for many, a damn good place to start.
The book is organized into seven succinct sections. Below, I focus on the foundational principles that shaped generations of writers, highlight its sharpest (and strangest) observations on style, and share a curated list of reminders that still echo through classrooms, margins, and manuscripts today.
11 Principles of Clear Composition
- Use the active voice.
- Omit needless words.
- Keep related words together.
- Put statements in positive form.
- In summaries, keep to one tense.
- Avoid a succession of loose sentences.
- Choose a suitable design and stick to it.
- Express coordinate ideas in similar form.
- Use definite, specific, concrete language.
- Make the paragraph the unit of composition.
- Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.
10 Observations on Style
- The writer is ready for exposure… "when you are full of belief, armed with the rules of grammar, and sustained and elevated by the power of purpose."
- A careful and honest writer need not worry about style… "The writer is the style, and the style is the writer; who you are, not what you know, will determine your style."
- There’s no one key that unlocks the door of writing… "There is no infallible guide to good writing; no satisfactory explanation of style; no inflexible rule by which writers may shape their course."
- What most of us know and at times forget… "Style is an expression of self; turn away from mannerisms, tricks, and adornments; move toward plainness, simplicity, orderliness, and sincerity."
- Experiment with language… "It’s never been the intent of these cautionary remarks to suggest otherwise. You may ask, “What if it comes natural to me to experiment? What if I am a pioneer, or even a genius?" Answer: THEN BE ONE."
- ...but know that pioneering may merely be evasion, or laziness… "Writing good standard English is not a cinch. Before you’ve managed it, you will have encountered enough rough country to satisfy even the most adventurous spirit."
- Four unpardonable sins will always reveal when you haven’t done your work… "1. Adopting a patronizing air; 2. Being humorless, dull, and empty; 3. Directing the attention of the reader to yourself; and 4. Saying something when you have nothing to say."
- There's nowhere for writers to hide… "A writer's style reveals a writer’s identity, as surely as fingerprints; writers cannot help but to reveal their spirits, habits, capacities, and biases. Writing is communication, and creative writing is the self escaping into the open."
- Beginner writers should err on the side of conservatism… "No idiom is taboo, and no accent is forbidden, but there is a better chance of doing well if you hold a steady course, show concern for your readers and sympathize with their plight; don’t paralyze their senses, instead, engage them."
- Writing's primary purpose and principal reward is to break through barriers separating you from other minds and other hearts… "As you get better at writing your style will emerge because you yourself will emerge. When this happens, you’ll find it easy to reach other minds and other hearts."
19 Timeless Writing Reminders
- Choose standard over offbeat.
- Avoid qualifiers. "Don't use words like Rather, Very, Little, or Pretty."
- Don't overwrite. "Guard against wordiness. Ruthlessly delete excess."
- Be clear. "Clarity is not always the principal mark of a good style, but since writing is communication, clarity can only be a virtue."
- Avoid unorthodox spelling. "Unorthodox spellings defeat its own purpose, distract the reader's attention and exhausts their patience."
- Avoid a breezy manner. "Be compact, informative, unpretentious; present your writing in a straightforward manner; stay out of the act."
- Avoid over-explaining. "Be sparing; do not overwork adverbs. Let the conversation itself disclose the speaker's manner or condition."
- Do not take shortcuts at the cost of clarity. "Do not take shortcuts. Write things out. The longest way round is usually the shortest way home."
- Write with a plan in mind. "Great writing will on examination be found to have a secret plan. Anticipate what you are getting into and build a scheme."
- Use similes and other figures of speech sparingly. "Readers can't be expected to compare everything with something else, with no relief in sight."
- Revise and rewrite. "Revising is part of writing. When your work needs major surgery, it's not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of coming strength."
- Avoid injecting your opinion. "Inject opinion only if there is a good reason for its being there; opinions scattered indiscriminately leave a mark of egotism."
- 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."
- Avoid constructing awkward adverbs (-LY). "DO NOT dress words up by adding -ly to them. Words rarely or never spoken are seldom the ones to put on paper."
- Don't overstate. "A single overstatement diminishes the whole. Do not overstate. A single carefree superlative has the power to destroy the reader's confidence in your judgment and poise."
- Write naturally. "The use of language begins with imitation. Never imitate consciously, but do not worry about being an imitator. Admire what is good, use words and phrases that come to mind naturally."
- Make certain the reader knows who is speaking. "Indicate who the speaker is. Make sure attributives don’t awkwardly interrupt a spoken sentence; place them where the break would come naturally in speech."
- Avoid dialect unless your ear is good. "If you use dialect, be consistent; use the minimum, not the maximum, of deviation from the norm; spell phonetically, or at least ingeniously, to capture unusual inflections."
- To achieve style, begin by affecting none. "Place yourself in the background. Draw the reader's attention to the sense and substance of the writing, not you. Solid writing reveals the temper of the writer, and not at the expense of the work."
- Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. "Nouns and verbs give good writing its toughness and color. No adjective can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place. This is not to disparage adjectives and adverbs; they are indispensable and occasionally surprise us with their power."
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