Writers on Writing: William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White
11 Elementary Principles of Composition
Choose a suitable design and stick 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.
FromĀ "The Elements of Style"Ā by William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White
E. B. White holds the rare distinction of being admired both by adults, for such breathtaking essays as āHere is New York" and āOnce More to the Lake," and by children, for such wondrous stories as āCharlotte's Web" and āTrumpet of the Swan." White is also revered by writers for bringing usĀ The Elements of Style,Ā a classic on the art of writing good prose, in any form. White actually just tweaked and arranged publication of the book, which was originally a privately printed text by one of his professors, William Strunk Jr.
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What is a research paper? A research paper is a piece of academic writing based on its authorās original research on a particular topic and analysis together with interpretation of research findings. Writing a research paper can be a little intimidating at times. Students, especially those new to the rigors of academia, often feel anxious about the process especially that the paper often getsā¦
"When a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor."Ā
~ William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White.Ā
But they could never bench-press this mighty sentence with which Virginia Woolf opened her essay "On Being Ill."
* * * * *
Or these gems from Orlando:Ā
āNature, who has played so many queer tricks upon us, making us so unequally of clay and diamonds, of rainbow and granite, and stuffed them into a case, often of the most incongruous, for the poet has a butcherās face and the butcher a poetās; nature, who delights in muddle and mystery, so that even now (the first of November, 1927) we know not why we go upstairs, or why we come down again, our most daily movements are like the passage of a ship on an unknown sea, and the sailors at the mast-head ask, pointing their glasses to the horizon: Is there land or is there none? to which, if we are prophets, we make answer āYesā; if we are truthful we say āNoā; nature, who has so much to answer for besides the perhaps unwieldy length of this sentence, has further complicated her task and added to our confusion by providing not only a perfect ragbag of odds and ends within usāa piece of a policemanās trousers lying cheek by jowl with Queen Alexandraās wedding veilābut has contrived that the whole assortment shall be lightly stitched together by a single thread. Memory is the seamstress, and a capricious one at that. Memory runs her needle in and out, up and down, hither and thither. We know not what comes next, or what follows after. Thus, the most ordinary movement in the world, such as sitting down at a table and pulling the inkstand towards one, may agitate a thousand odd, disconnected fragments, now bright, now dim, hanging and bobbing and dipping and flaunting, like the underlinen of a family of fourteen on a line in a gale of wind. Instead of being a single, downright, bluff piece of work of which no man need feel ashamed, our commonest deeds are set about with a fluttering and flickering of wings, a rising and falling of lights.ā
--Virginia Woolf, OrlandoĀ
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain noĀ 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. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that he make every word tell.
William Strunk, in the first edition of The Elements of Style
In The Elements of Style, a popular guide for writers, William Strunk declares, āThe subject of the sentence and the principal verb should not, as a rule, be separated by a phrase or clause that can be transferred to the beginning.ā
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The classic writerās manual that tons of people hate for some reason. (Synopsis)
To all of you who involuntarily sighed in exasperation when you saw that title, I cordially invite you to Deal With It. Also, admit that itās a slick title. Say it out loud and tell me you donāt feel 10% classier.
(Note: Iāll only be talking about the introduction and sections I-IV of this book. An Approach to Style, E.B. Whiteās section, is a totally different animal.)
Rundown for the uninitiated: William Strunk made a short book of writing etiquette for his students at Cornell in 1918. One of his students was E. B. White, who remembered the book 40 years later and said, āhey, that was a helpful book,ā added some more stuff, and then published it. The Elements of Style covers some language basics, such as when to use a period vs. a comma, what constitutes a paragraph, how to make your sentences sound like a sane person wrote them, etc. You know how youāve been told not to use passive voice? Yeah, itās because of these guys. Itās not really a grammar book, though there are those who use it that way, but I feel like thatās on them for not checking.
Some people find The Elements outdated, hypocritical, and imperious. Those judgments arenāt necessarily wrong, but they sometimes take on a tone of furious indignation, as if the book personally attacked them somehow. This Pullum guy is especially pissed off. (Pullum, my dude, chill out. Itās only a book. Did something happen? Do you need a hug?) It just makes me wonder if these critics totally missed E. B. Whiteās introduction. If so, then they ignored key insights by the man who wrote the Greatest Book Ever Written, so I have nothing to say to them, except:
Youāve got some attitude, mister.
The introduction alone is a great read; it paints a vivid picture of the man whose āsharp commandsā have benefited many great writers, but seriously chafed others. Why though? White says in the intro that even he canāt totally adhere to Strunkās standards, that style rules are āa matter of individual preferenceā and that even established grammar rules are āopen to challenge.ā I know that White didnāt write the whole book, but he was close friends with the man who wrote the original, and Strunk knew what he was about, son.
āProfessor Strunk, although one of the most inflexible and choosy of men, was quick to acknowledge the fallacy of inflexibility and the danger of doctrine.āāāāE.B. White (Strunk & White, 1959, p. xvii)
As if to prove a point, that above quote brazenly walks all over this decree from the Principles of Composition chapter: āThe subject of a sentence and the principle verb should not, as a rule, be separated by a phrase or clause that can be transferred to the beginning.ā (p. 29) This isnāt the only time the two authors break their own rules either, they do it a lot. So WTF, Strunk and White?
Iāll tell you WTF. Inflexibility and doctrine are serious problems to an unconventional and versatile writer, if that writer is already skilled. We have to know the rules before we can be good at breaking them. Maybe you think thatās B.S., but for those of us whoāve written something we know is terrible, without knowing why, the cure to our frustration is probably not to change all the periods to semi-colons and put all the sentences in the passive voice.
Strunk created this book for his students, probably so he could get through their papers with ink still left in his red pen. New writers should learn something about how to write effectively, which is different from just knowing the rules of grammar. Iām firmly on Strunkās side on that point, and not just because he is an advocate of semicolons. (Although that is a big part of it. I freaking love semicolons and itās sad that theyāre not more appreciated. I have removed more than a few of them from my writing in shame, but NEVER AGAIN, SUCKERS!)
I think the problem is that Strunkās voice reminds people of that one teacher most of us had in high school. The teacher who wouldnāt accept any work they deemed ānot our bestā and ignored or even mocked us when we disagreed with their methods. Hopefully at some point we realized that that teacher actually wanted us to succeed. They knew that, as teenagers, we had yet to grasp what the world was going to demand from us. Maybe the teacherās standards were flawed, or different from ours, but the principle of the lesson holds up: The world is challenging, so know exactly what youāre capable of and stand by that. Find your real āAā game and then bring it.
The core principle in The Elements of Style can be summed up in this quote from E. B. White.
ā[Strunk] felt it was worse to be irresolute than to be wrong.ā āSam Roberts (NY Times, April 21, 2009)
Strunk and White donāt hate the passive voice or elaborate prose; they hate periphrastic writing.* The bookās value is not in its individual parts, but the overall message of its advice: Say what you mean and say it clearly. Write with conviction. Write with sincerity. Avoid words that interfere with the most coherent and truest expression of your idea. Know when to shut up and let your story speak for itself.
I would not recommend going over every bit of oneās writing and making it adhere to every single rule in the book. If E.B. White couldnāt do it, then I wouldnāt even bother. (I didnāt when I wrote this.) Instead, use the book to learn consistency and self-assurance. Strunkās advice to āomit needless wordsā isnāt about brevity for the sake of brevity. Itās about confidence. Great writing doesnāt hesitate.
If you use the book for nothing else, at least read the āMost Commonly Misused Wordsā chapter; itās a magical joy ride of English major heaven. Plus, Strunk lays down some harsh burns. I leave you with one of my favorites.
Concerning a paragraph where all the sentences are made of two conjoined clauses that an actual person actually wrote:
āApart from its triteness and emptiness, the paragraph above is bad because of its sentences, with their mechanical symmetry and singsong.ā
Ouch, dude. OUCH.
ā
*Ok, White might actually hate elaborate prose, but Iāll get to that in Part 2.
(Disclaimer: I know the synopsis article I chose already mentions two of my main points, but Iād written most of this before I found it and I wasnāt about to rewrite it. They get credit for the quote, though.)
The Elements of Style - William Strunk Jr and E. B. White
The Elements of Style ā William Strunk Jr and E. B.Ā White
The Elements of SytleĀ is a classic writing style guide, referenced by The Sense of Style, and then again mentioned in an edition of Slightly Foxed. Not a book for a single reading, this is full of advice on how to write ā from how to structure writings through to specific grammar rules and full of examples. The advice is good, however after reading Strunkās guidelines to omit needless words, itā¦
