The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White
The Golden Guidelines for Writing
The Elements of Style has been upheld as golden guidelines for writing for nearly half a century. It still perches atop the recommendation lists for books on grammar, rhetoric, and writing. After reading it, I see why. But should you read it?
The Elements of Style is concerned with grammar, formatting, and composition. It teaches you how to shape an already existing essay, report, story, etc, into something clear, understandable, and readable*. I will explain the asterisk later.
The author of The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr., taught English at Cornell. In an article about him and his slim volume on composition, Cindy Starr writes, “He wrote his self-described “little book” of rules and principles, originally only 43 pages in length, to help his Cornell students rise above mismatched tenses, misplaced commas and mind-numbing wordiness.” He hoped his notes would help him grade student papers faster.
He self-published Elements at the university in 1919. Later editions would be expanded with the help of one of his students, E.B. White, of Charlotte’s Web fame. The first edition didn’t break 50 pages.
This brevity means that it leaves out information central to being a good writer. Remember that asterisk?
The catch of Elements is that it teaches you how to revise so that your work is readable on a sentence and paragraph level. Elements does not help you understand what is valuable to readers. It does not help you make ethical judgments about writing about this or that, and it does not tell you how to shape the content to compel your reader. For example, here are the titles of the seven sections:
Elementary Rules of Usage
Elementary Rules of Composition
A Few Matters of Form
Words and Expressions Commonly Misused
An Approach to Style
Spelling†
Exercises to Chapters 1 and 2†
†First edition only
The illustrated edition even has this advice at the end:
“It is now necessary to warn you that your concern for the reader must be pure: you must sympathize with the reader’s plight (most readers are in trouble half the time) but never seek to know the reader’s wants. Your whole duty as a writer is to please and satisfy yourself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one.” —pg 120, illustrated edition
I disagree completely. As a proposal coordinator, seeking to know the readers’ wants is critical to creating a successful proposal. Oh, but that’s corporate writing, one may think. What about fiction, or poetry? Learning what readers enjoy and how they understand the written word has helped me understand how something will be read. Seeking out what other people enjoy reading helps me understand what I enjoy reading, so I can more finely tune my writing towards something that pleases me first. I write to understand and to be understood, to uncover what compels me and to make it compelling to others, so that we can share the pleasure of knowing and being known. I can’t ignore my readers to accomplish my goals as a writer and storyteller. I can’t decide for a reader what is clear, interesting, and valuable to them. I can only strive to win their attention, line by line.
Besides, Mr. Strunk, you wrote 43 pages on how to write for you.
The Elements of Style also dictates what to do and what not to do. There is nothing in the pages like, “I may not know everything, but this has worked for me and might work for you.” Strunk is damn sure of his advice. Considering it’s been around a good century later, he was onto something. Yet, being told what to do without being told why to do it makes me bristle. Strunk does not say why in many, many places. Why use grammar this way and not that? How do we know what words are needless? What makes you certain this is the best way?
Advanced writers know that writing rules are really writing "rules", i.e., guidelines for writing clearly, expressively, and lyrically. Moreover, good writers know that sometimes they should bend for the benefit of the reader. If beginning writers don’t know why the rules of good writing exist, how can they know when they must break them to keep their spirit?
However, The Elements of Style was not written to answer these questions. In Strunk’s defense, in chapter 5, “An Approach to Style”, he says as much.
“The preceding chapters contain instructions drawn from established English usage; this one constraints advice from a writer’s experience of writing. Since the book is a rule book, these cautionary remarks, these subtly dangerous hints, are presented in the form of rules, but they are, in essence, mere gentle reminders: they state what most of us know and at times forget.”
Every edition keeps the heart of its original edition beating, each being a quick guide to composition for writing students. Writers beyond Composition 101 should seek out books that address the questions Strunk left unanswered.
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Works Cited
Starr, Cindy. “UC Notable Alumnus: William Strunk, Jr., A&S 1890.” UC News, University of Cincinnati, 6 August 2021, www.uc.edu/news/articles/2021/08/william-strunk.html. Accessed 6 12 2023.
Strunk, William. The Elements of Style: The Original Edition. Dover Publications, 2006.
Strunk, William, and Elwyn Brooks White. The Elements of Style. Penguin Press, 2005.