The Elements of Style E-Book

William Strunk Jr.

• Herausgeber: Passerino
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

The Elements of Style is an American English writing style guide in numerous editions. The original was composed by William Strunk Jr. in 1918, and published by Harcourt in 1920, comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of 49 "words and expressions commonly misused", and a list of 57 "words often misspelled".
E. B. White greatly enlarged and revised the book for publication by Macmillan in 1959. That was the first edition of the so-called Strunk & White, which Time named in 2011 as one of the 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923.

William Strunk Jr. (July 1, 1869 – September 26, 1946) was an American professor of English at Cornell University and author of The Elements of Style (1918). After revision and enlargement by his former student E. B. White, it became a highly influential guide to English usage during the late 20th century, commonly called Strunk & White.

Leseprobe

William Strunk Jr.

The sky is the limit

UUID: 1626eb68-520e-11ea-8c26-1166c27e52f1

This ebook was created with StreetLib Writehttp://write.streetlib.com

Table of contents

Introductory

Elementary Rules of Usage

Elementary Principles of Composition

A Few Matters of Form

Words and Expressions Commonly Misused

Words Commonly Misspelled

Introductory

This book is intended for use in English courses in which the practice of composition is combined with the study of literature. It aims to give in a brief space the principal requirements of plain English style. It aims to lighten the task of instructor and student by concentrating attention (in Chapters II and III) on a few essentials, the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated. The numbers of the sections may be used as references in correcting manuscript.

The book covers only a small portion of the field of English style, but the experience of its writer has been that once past the essentials, students profit most by individual instruction based on the problems of their own work, and that each instructor has his own body of theory, which he prefers to that offered by any textbook.

The writer's colleagues in the Department of English in Cornell University have greatly helped him in the preparation of his manuscript. Mr. George McLane Wood has kindly consented to the inclusion under Rule 11 of some material from his Suggestions to Authors.

The following books are recommended for reference or further study: in connection with Chapters II and IV:

F. Howard Collins, Author and Printer (Henry Frowde);

Chicago University Press, Manual of Style;

T. L. De Vinne Correct Composition (The Century Company);

Horace Hart, Rules for Compositors and Printers (Oxford University Press);

George McLane Wood, Extracts from the Style-Book of the Government Printing Office (United States Geological Survey);

In connection with Chapters III and V:

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, The Art of Writing (Putnams), especially the chapter, Interlude on Jargon;

George McLane Wood, Suggestions to Authors (United States Geological Survey);

John Leslie Hall, English Usage (Scott, Foresman and Co.);

James P. Kelly, Workmanship in Words (Little, Brown and Co.).

It is an old observation that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric. When they do so, however, the reader will usually find in the sentence some compensating merit, attained at the cost of the violation. Unless he is certain of doing as well, he will probably do best to follow the rules. After he has learned, by their guidance, to write plain English adequate for everyday uses, let him look, for the secrets of style, to the study of the masters of literature.