Strunk and White’s

by Stephen Blake Mettee

About the time Henry Ford was streamlining his assembly-line, William Strunk Jr., a professor at Cornell University, felt a need to simplify the convoluted rules and principles of English writing. He wrote and self-published—they euphemistically termed self-published books "private printings" in those days—a guide which he called The Elements of Style and made it required reading for his English classes.

Direct and delightful, this book is perhaps, the most prose-enhancing tool available to writers. When I speak at writer’s conferences, I suggest that it be read—cover to cover—at least once a year. (For you cynics out there, yes, my publishing company, Quill Driver Books, does publish books on writing—excellent books, I might add—but, unfortunately, this tiny gem is not among them.)

The first edition was affectionately known about the Cornell campus as "the little book." Strunk himself was responsible for this. He would sardonically emphasize the word "little" when speaking of it, as if to contrast its length with its significance.

The book consisted of seven rules of usage, eleven principles of composition, a chapter he titled "A Few Matters of Form," and a list of commonly misused words and expressions. It was forty-three pages long.

In 1957, E. B. White, who took Strunk’s English 8 class in 1919 and is himself author of much that is to be admired, including Charlotte’s Web, was commissioned by the publishing company Macmillan to revise it. White wrote of this undertaking: "Somewhat audaciously, and in an attempt to give my publisher his money’s worth, I added a chapter called ‘An Approach to Style’ setting forth my own prejudices, my notions of error, my articles of faith."

White’s audacity paid off. The Elements of Style, although still less than 100 pages in length, has a depth and usefulness that it would not without White’s endeavors. Today, the book is often simply referred to as "Strunk and White’s."

While following all of the book’s sage advice will likely prove worthwhile, employing one of Strunk’s original eleven principles of composition, "Use the active voice," might be the most important step novice writers can take to elevate their own prose. The use of the active voice adds boldness and vigor to one’s writing.

Basically, using the active voice—as opposed to the passive voice—means replacing the "to be" verb in all it’s guises (is, were, has been, could be, etc.) with a more descriptive, dynamic verb. For instance,

is considerably less vigorous than:

Strunk and White, proponents of brevity in writing, point out that strengthening a sentence by switching to the active voice usually achieves the added benefit of making the sentence shorter, as it did in the example above.

Another way to increase brevity and to strengthen a sentence is to use precise, explicit language. Strunk and White put it this way: "Prefer the specific to the general, the definite to the vague, the concrete to the abstract."

An example the book gives is to replace "He showed satisfaction as he took possession of his well-earned reward." with "He grinned as he pocketed the coin." Half the words and a more vivid image.

Strunk and White cover an astounding amount of ground in these few pages—often with a bit of humor. White in his "An approach to style," writes: "Avoid the use of qualifiers. Rather, very, little, pretty—these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. The constant use of the adjective little (except to indicate size) is particularly debilitating; we should all try to do a little better, we should all be very watchful of this rule, for it is a rather important one and we are pretty sure to violate it now and then."

Did you notice Strunk’s spirited use of metaphor? His use metaphor and humor help to make this passage engaging as well as informative. As Strunk knew, good writing makes good reading.

The decades-old guidance in Strunk and White’s, from "avoid fancy words" to "do not explain too much" is as timely today as it was when Henry Ford offered any color the customer wanted, "as long as it’s black." Read The Elements of Style on Tuesday and watch your writing soar on Wednesday.