The Elements of Style (Classic Edition) E-Book

William Strunk Jr.

• Herausgeber: Spectrum Ink Publishing
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Seitenzahl: 98

Beschreibung

This Classic Edition contains the original version of "The Elements of Style" written by Cornell University English professor William Strunk Jr. Generations of college students and writers have learned the basics of grammar from this short primer over the years. It was rated "one of the 100 most influential books written in English" by Time in 2011, and iconic author Stephen King recommended it as a grammar handbook that all aspiring writers should read.

Written one hundred years ago, "The Elements of Style" is a nostalgic link to a momentous time in American history that ushered in the Art Deco era and the Roaring Twenties. Many of the English grammar rules it cites are as relevant today as they were at the turn of the 20th century; but, one by one, these rules are becoming out-of-date This Classic Edition, updated as we head into 2017, is intended as a tribute to Prof. Strunk's enduring book. It follows the original version but includes these enhancements for today's readers:

1. Editorial notes have been inserted to indicate grammar rules now considered obsolete, and to provide brief insights on updated rules for present-day writers.

2. Easily recognizable symbols have been added to the grammar examples throughout the book so that readers can discern correctly written sentences from errors at a glance.

3. A Study Guide has been added at the conclusion of the book.

4. The paperback version includes blank, lined pages at the end for convenient note taking. 5. The digital version has been restyled for improved display on all modern e-book readers.

Leseprobe

THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

By William Strunk Jr.

CLASSIC EDITION

UPDATED & EDITED

The Elements of Style: Classic Edition

Copyright © 2017 by Spectrum Ink Publishing

Published simultaneously in Canada & the United States

Release Date: January 2017

This volume is an updated, annotated, and restyled version of a public domain work. Revisions, editorial notations, and all passages containing original content, including the Foreword, are copyrighted and protected under Canadian, United States, and international copyright law. Design elements, layout, and typography are original and protected by copyright. Such copyrighted material may not be reproduced or transmitted by any means, uploaded, or otherwise posted on any website without the publisher’s consent, except for brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN numbers:

978-1-988236-51-3......Paperback

978-1-988236-50-6......Mobi

978-1-988236-49-0......Epub

978-1-988236-48-3......Paperback (large print)

Spectrum Ink Canada

Vancouver, British Columbia

Spectrum Ink USA

San Luis Obispo, California

Online:

http://vu.org/books

Table of Contents

THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

Foreword

GRAMMAR AND STYLE FOR THE 21st CENTURY

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTORY

Chapter 2

ELEMENTARY RULES OF USAGE

Rule 1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's.

Rule 2. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last.

Rule 3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.

Rule 4. Place a comma before a conjunction introducing a co-ordinate clause.

Rule 5. Do not join independent clauses by a comma.

Rule 6. Do not break sentences in two.

Rule 7. A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject.

Chapter 3

ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION

Rule 8. Make the paragraph the unit of composition.

Rule 9. Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence.

Rule 10. Use the active voice.

Rule 11. Put statements in positive form.

Rule 12. Use definite, specific, concrete language.

Rule 13. Omit needless words.

Rule 14. Avoid a succession of loose sentences.

Rule 15. Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form.

Rule 16. Keep related words together.

Rule 17. In summaries, keep to one tense.

Rule 18. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.

Chapter 4

A FEW MATTERS OF FORM

Headings

Numerals

Parentheses

Quotations

References

Hyphenation

Titles

Chapter 5

WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS OFTEN MISUSED

Chapter 6

SPELLING

Chapter 7

EXERCISES ON CHAPTERS II AND III

Study Guide

Foreword

GRAMMAR AND STYLE FOR THE 21st CENTURY

Excerpted from “Elements of Style 2017,” by Richard De A’Morelli

Years ago, when my first magazine article was published shortly after my fourteenth birthday and I set my heart on writing as my life’s ambition, there weren't many resources available for aspiring writers. Amazon.com was decades off in the future. We purchased paperbacks from the local bookstore, subscribed to Writer’s Digest magazine, and borrowed a handful of books from the public library. I owned several dictionaries, a thesaurus, some paperbacks on writing and vocabulary, a high school grammar textbook, and a thin book with a cloth cover and faded pages: The Elements of Style. It was an indispensable reference that I reached for often when writing and editing my early books and articles.

The Elements of Style was written one hundred years ago by William Strunk Jr., an English professor at Cornell University. Over the years, generations of college students and writers have learned the basics of grammar from this short handbook. It was rated “one of the 100 most influential books written in English” by Time in 2011, and iconic author Stephen King recommends it as a grammar handbook that all aspiring writers should read.

This Classic Edition is meant as a tribute to Prof. Strunk's book that has endured down through the years. Many of the grammar rules it mentions are as valid today as they were a century ago; but, one by one, these rules have grown out-of-date. Another shortcoming of the book is that it does not include essential grammar and style rules today’s writers should know in this era of technology and self-publishing.

Last summer, I set out to update Prof. Strunk's book. I had intended to delete obsolete rules and add new rules which are widely followed today. As I worked through the project, I kept thinking: “Wait, maybe I should add this...and this...and this.” As the weeks passed, my “quick update” grew into 250 pages packed with updated grammar and style rules. I drew from a variety of sources besides Strunk’s book, and I eventually finished the project, which is now available on Amazon. Com as Elements of Style 2017.

But I had not accomplished my original goal: to produce a tribute edition of Strunk’s original book, with footnotes calling attention to grammar rules that no longer apply in the present day. So I circled back for another try, and this book is the end result.

Before we delve into Chapter 1, let’s review briefly what grammar is, and why it matters so much in today’s world. Simply put, grammar is concerned with how words are used and put together to form sentences and paragraphs. Style refers to an additional set of rules many writers, and all professional editors, follow to edit and proofread book manuscripts and other documents. A knowledge of grammar is important because it will help you to write sentences that make sense. Style rules are just as important because they will help you to turn a first draft into a publication-ready, final draft manuscript.

Style rules cover a wide range of issues, above and beyond the basic principles of grammar, from questions on word usage to capitalization, punctuation, how to abbreviate, and how to write numbers. Style rules fill in the gray areas that exist because some grammar rules tend to be broad. For example, Chicago Manual of Style, the world’s most widely referenced style guide, advises that numbers up to one hundred must be spelled out, and values over that should be written as digits. Thus we would write: The alphabet has twenty-six letters, and a year has 365 days.

Let’s take a look at what can happen when we stray from consistent adherence to basic style rules:

Nine men stood by the wall, and 4 women stood next to the 2 cars. When the police approached the 9 men, they scattered, and the four women jumped into the two cars and sped away.

This hodgepodge of digits and spelled-out numbers makes the paragraph seem badly written. Inconsistent style disrupts the flow of a manuscript, making it difficult for readers to follow. Diligently adhering to a set of style rules from start to finish will result in a cleanly edited manuscript that reads well, and one that the writer can hand in at work or school, submit to an agent or publisher, or self-publish with a reasonable expectation of positive reviews and sales.

In online writing groups and at social gatherings, some writers can be heard arguing that grammar and style don’t matter—it’s the story that counts! In fact, that’s not the case. Surveys have shown that book buyers expect published works to be cleanly edited and free of typos. Badly edited books—and unfortunately, many self-published books fall under that heading—typically see few or no sales and receive harsh reviews from readers who know good writing from bad and don’t mind saying so.

Numerous writing style guides are used today, of which Elements of Style is one. The most authoritative style guides are: Chicago Manual of Style, the bible of editors working in American English fiction genres, and some nonfiction editors; AP Stylebook, used by journalists and many others who write and edit for news organizations and websites; and APA Style, used mostly by college students for writing term papers and essays. In the United Kingdom, Oxford Style Guide is widely followed. Many other style guides are used in government, academia, and by niche publishers.

Modern style guides are packed with often complicated rules on grammar, punctuation, and other relevant issues. A working editor might have devoted months or years to learning these rules. This investment of time and the level of skill required to do a good job of editing presents a high bar for writers who want to self-edit and submit a manuscript to a publisher with the imprimatur of being cleanly edited and proofread, and for those who wish to self-publish but cannot afford to hire an experienced editor.

Style guides sometimes offer conflicting advice, creating confusion among writers and even editors. Elements of Style will tell you to write one way; Chicago Manual of Style, or CMoS, may tell you to do the opposite! As one example, CMoS mandates the use of serial commas, while AP Stylebook advises against them. So if you are editing to AP Style and use a serial comma, it’s an error; if you follow Chicago Style and don’t use a serial comma, that’s an error. Many novice writers don’t even know what a serial comma is! It’s not well defined in Elements of Style, so I inserted a brief notation to explain it in this updated version.

Strunk’s grammar book stresses the importance of writing concise, grammatically correct prose. It reminds us that the writer’s objective is to communicate with words, to inform or entertain readers by imparting information in an efficient and eloquent manner. The clearer one’s writing is, the more likely readers will understand the points being made.

Good writing is built on patterns of words and sentences, so whether you are writing a news story, a press release, a spicy love story, or a memoir, you must be consistent with your style. Don’t refer to an iPhone in one paragraph and then call it a cell phone in the next, and a mobile device on the following page. Switching back and forth from one style to another does not add interest to your prose—it confuses readers and muddles the points you’ve set out to make. Avoid using different numbering schemes, for example, in which you write 10 pens in one sentence and ten pens in the next. Readers will notice and be distracted by these variations. Be consistent with punctuation too. If you start out using serial commas in your manuscript, use them throughout so that every sentence is consistently punctuated rather than written in a haphazard fashion.

Prof. Strunk refers to “points of view” in his book, but the term is not well explained. No doubt he assumed that readers learned these grammar basics in early school years; and you probably did; but whether you remember them years later is another matter. So for the sake of clarity, let’s take a moment to revisit points of view in writing.

First person is when the person is speaking. Stories written from this point of view make use of first-person forms of personal pronouns (I, we, me, us, my, our, mine, and ours).

I spent the summer touring the mountains of Oregon and Washington. My brother and I shared the driving, and we camped out under the stars.

This voice is used in autobiographies and memoirs. It is occasionally used in fiction writing; but writing stories in first person is difficult and requires a decent measure of skill. Many writers don’t handle first-person point of view particularly well.

Second person represents a person or thing spoken to. This voice is sometimes used in nonfiction writing, especially in the self-help, how-to, and do-it-yourself genres. It is rarely used in fiction. Second-person pronouns include you, your, and yours.

For a summer adventure, you can tour the mountains of Oregon and Washington. If you travel with a companion, you can share the driving and save money by camping out under the stars.

Third person is when the character, event, or object is spoken about. This is the voice most often used for writing news and other nonfiction, and for most fiction. Third-person pronouns include: he, him, his, she, her, hers, they, them, their, theirs, it, and its.

Charles spent the summer touring the mountains of Oregon and Washington. He shared the driving with his brother