Reading unearths classic writing guide

QCS Managing Editor

One of the benefits of our recent dismal weather is more time to read, and I have rediscovered a little book that used to be, and I hope still is, indispensable to writers of any kind.

It’s called “The Elements of Style,” and it fits in your pocket.

I promised myself at one time to reread it every five years or so. I regret that I didn’t keep that promise, and now that I have visited this gem of a “how-to” manual again, I regret that I didn’t reread it more often.

It is usually called “Strunk and White,” the last names of its authors, or rather the author and his champion.

The original author was William Strunk, Jr., who wrote the earliest version in 1918 for his composition classes at Cornell University. One of his students, E.B. White, the author of “Charlotte’s Web” and other books and articles for adults and children, became an adoring follower of Strunk’s methods years after enduring Strunk’s stern tutelage.

He embellished Strunk’s original work without compromising its terse, direct style, and it became “The Elements of Style,” attributed to both writers.

The book’s most concise advice is perhaps its best: “Omit needless words.” In the book’s forward, White recalls Strunk standing before his composition class and repeating that advice three times.

Ernest Hemingway’s writing reflects this philosophy—brief sentences with simple words that conveyed exactly what Hemingway meant.

Strunk also advised writers to prefer the traditional, to prefer simple, punchy Anglo-Saxon words to flowery Latin derivatives, and to avoid an excess of adjectives and adverbs.

His review of the basics is also one of the best, and I remembered Elements of Style was where I discovered advice such as:

• How to use the word “comprise.” The zoo comprises the animals. The animals don’t comprise the zoo.

• The difference between “affect” and “effect.” To affect is to cause a change, as in, “the law affects people living in Tucumcari.” “Effect” means result, as in, “This medicine has a strong effect.” When used as a verb, “effect” means to “bring about,” as in “The new committee was effected by the law’s requirement of an oversight panel.”

• Prefer the active voice. Active voice: “He carried the ball.” Passive voice: “The ball was carried by him.” Active voice tells you who or what was responsible. In the age of accountability, that’s important.

• Make sure an introductory clause and the subject it refers to are close together. That avoids embarrassments like this: “Educated at Princeton, the army drafted Smith in 2004.” The army was educated at Princeton? Better: “Educated at Princeton, Smith was drafted into the army in 2004.”

I would advise anyone who wants to write seriously in any way—whether it’s business memos or the Great American Novel—to read and re-read “The Elements of Style.” It’s hard to find any book that makes the frustrating complexities of our language seem simpler, even after 97 years.

Steve Hansen is the managing editor at the Quay County Sun. He can be reached at [email protected]