Short description
This manual offers advice on improving writing skills. The emphasis is on promoting a plain English style.
Long description
Some acclaim for previous editions: "Buy it, study it, enjoy it. Its as timeless as a book can be in our age of volubility." - The New York Times "No book in shorter space, with fewer words, will help any writer more than this persistent little volume." - The Boston Globe "White is one of the best stylists and most lucid minds in this country. What he says and his way of saying it are equally rewarding." - The Wall Street Journal "The book remains a nonpareil: direct, correct, and delightful." - The New Yorker ". . . Should be the daily companion of anyone who writes for a living, and for that matter, anyone who writes at all." - Greensboro (N.C.) Daily News "This excellent book, which should go off to college with every freshman, is recognized as the best book of its kind we have." - St. Paul Dispatch - Pioneer Press "Its hard to imagine an engineer or a manager who doesnt need to express himself in English prose as part of his job. Its also hard to imagine a writer who will not be improved by a liberal application of The Elements of Style." - Telephone Engineer & Management
Review
...a marvellous and timeless little book... Here, succinctly, elegantly and without fuss are the essentials of writing clear, correct English. John Clare, The Telegraph
Table of contents
- Foreword IntroductionI
- Elementary Rules of Usage
- Form the Possessive Singular of Nouns by Adding s
- In a Series of Three or More Terms with a Single Conjunction, Use a Comma after Each Term except the Last
- Enclose Parenthetic Expressions between Commas
- Place a Comma before a Conjunction Introducing an Independent Clause
- Do Not Join Independent Clauses with a Comma
- Do Not Break Sentences in Two
- Use a Colon after an Independent Clause to Introduce a List of Particulars, an Appositive, an Amplification, or an Illustrative Question
- Use a Dash to Set Off an Abrupt Break or Interruption and to Announce a Long Appositive or Summary
- The Number of the Subject Determines the Number of the Verb
- Use the Proper Case of Pronoun
- A Participial Phrase at the Beginning of the Sentence Must Refer to the Grammatical Subject
- II
- Elementary Principles of Composition
- Choose a Suitable Sesign and Hold to It
- Make the Paragraph the unit of Composition
- Use the Active Voice
- Put Statements in Positive Form
- Use Definite, Specific, Concrete Language
- Omit Needless Words
- Avoid a Succession of Loose Sentences
- Express Coordinate Ideas in Similar Form
- Keep Related Words Together
- In Summaries, Keep to One Tense
- Place the Emphatic Words of a Sentence at the End
- III
- A Few Matters of Form
- IV
- Words and Expressions Commonly Misused
- V
- An Approach to Style (with a list of reminders)
- Place Yourself in the Background
- Write in a Way That Comes Naturally
- Work From a Suitable Style
- Write with Nouns and Verbs
- Revise and Rewrite
- Do Not Overwrite
- Do Not Overstate
- Avoid the Use of Qualifiers
- Do Not Affect a Breezy Manner
- Use Orthodox Spelling
- Do Not Explain Too Much
- Do Not Construct Awkward Adverbs
- Make Sure the Reader Knows Who is Speaking
- Avoid Fancy Words
- Do Not Use Dialect Unless Your Ear Is Good
- Be Clear
- Do Not Inject Opinion
- Use Figures of Speech Sparingly
- Do Not Take Shortcuts at the Cost of Clarity
- Avoid Foreign Languages
- Prefer the Standard to the Offbeat
- Afterword
- Glossary