Wednesday, May 6, 2009

In Defense of Strunk and White


I was going to let the fiftieth anniversary of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style slip by without comment, but then I stumbled on this article by Mark Garvey. As much as I enjoy Language Log's embrace of the complexity of English, I'm happy to see someone call Geoffrey Pullman on his disproportionate hatred of this slim writing handbook.

I have not used Elements of Style in a long time--my dip into the editing arena made me a Chicago Manual of Style girl (another book Language Log doesn't love)--but I still keep a copy on my shelf. I know there are better books on English grammar available. But for nervous writers just dipping a toe into the murky waters of English usage, there are very few volumes as concise, affordable, and (most importantly) non-scary as Elements of Style.

(Image from Better Know a Book.)

3 comments:

  1. Agreed! I still do occasionally look up something in my EoS ... as a non-English-major, I find it's a great resource for those little details I never learned, or else forgot in the twenty-some years since high-school English!

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  2. Your writing is so intelligent it scares me. Remember how Traie Ward used to make us feel inferior because of his math skills? Yeah that, only it's you, with words.

    <3

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  3. Both these comments made me all warm, tingly inside. :-)

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