There are many different “Style Books” for writers-The Chicago Style Guide, The New York Times Style Guide, the APA Style Guide, the MLM Style guide, the MHRA style book, etc. All these style books present essential information that every writer will need at some point in their career but the first style book that every writer needs to commit to memory is the classic guide book to the English Language, Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. The Elements of Style is the one guide book that presents rules that every writer needs to know no matter what genre he or she specializes in.
Strunk and White’s Elements of Style is just as current today as it was when William Strunk Jr., an English Professor at Cornell University first published it privately in 1919. E.B. White studied English 8 under Strunk in 1919 using Elements as a textbook but had completely forgotten about the wonderful little book until a friend sent him a copy that he had stolen from the Cornell Library in 1957. White added an introductory chapter to the text and republished it in 1959 as Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. Strunk had died in 1949. Ninety years have passed since Professor Strunk published his first edition in 1919 and fifty-two years have passed since E.B. White published his first revision of the classic work. Elements have gone through four editions and have sold over 10 million copies. It has become a best seller that can be found on the reference book shelf of every serious writer.
Strunk’s Elements of Style took a reductive approach to English composition. It consisted of 8 rules of usage, 10 principles of composition and a list of frequently misused words. The first edition was a mere 43 pages in length but over the ensuing years has been expanded to 100+ pages. The Elements of Style is the one style book that is used by every college English Composition class to this very day. As Ann Patchett so aptly put it, “The Elements of Style remains an unwavering beacon of light in these grammatically troubled times. I would be lost without it.”
Strunk and White’s Elements of Style has a prominent place on my reference bookshelves, right along side of my dictionaries, thesauruses, atlases, almanacs, encyclopedias and other essential reference books that have become dog-eared from years of usage. My personal copy is really getting dog-eared because I purchased it thirty-five years ago after a number of editors had told me that my grammar and punctuation left everything to be desired and more than one of those many editors recommended Elements to me as a text book. One of my biggest problems with my writing was that it lacked clarity and Elements teaches one to write with clarity. As Dan Rather said, “In the quest for clarity, one can have no better guides than Strunk and White. For me, their book has been invaluable and remains essential.”
Strunk and White’s Elements of Style is available at most large bookstores as well as online from places like Amazon.Com. It’s also available as an online reference book at Bartleby.Com Great Books Online .
