Style is elementary and this is the book you need to develop it

January 30, 2024

Today is bit shorter but I am passionate about this one.

I seldom read a book more than one time. For one, I have a good memory and, two, most books are not interesting enough to read a second time.

There is however one book that I return to every couple of years to freshen up on my writing skills.

It is called “Strunk and White, The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition”.?

The book was initially self-published in 1919 by Professor Strunk for his English class. One of his students, E.B. White, was commissioned to revise the book in 1957 and it has sold over ten million copies and even spawned an industry of anti-Strunk and White books which says a lot about the book.

First, the book is “little”, the fourth edition numbers just 85 pages without the glossary and index. Do not just skip over the glossary, it is a gold mine of knowledge. You can read the book in a day in a pinch, but I would take a little time, because the authors raise a lot of issues that beg for reflection.

Second, it is concise. No fluff, just rules and examples, thoughts on composition and, my favorite, a section of commonly misused words and expressions.

I work with a lot of non-English speakers and to them I say: No book or course or lessons can compare to this content of this book. It is the fastest and easiest way to improve your writing skills.

Finally, I highly recommend buying a paperback version. It is available from Amazon for Kindle, but it is one of those books that should have a lot of notes in the margins and a number or dog-eared pages. Amazon.com and Amazon.de have the book (only EUR 5.82 at Amazon.de and no, I do not earn any commissions on the sale.

P.S. Next week I start my series on machine translations so stay tuned

P.P.S. For my smart-ass linguist buddies (said with the greatest admiration): I no doubt violated several rules in this book for this article, but I promise to re-read it this week.

Eric H. Leake