The Elements of Style: Difference between revisions
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📘 '''''The Elements of Style''''' is a concise American style guide compiled by Cornell English professor William Strunk Jr., first circulated in 1918 as a 43-page, privately printed handbook. <ref name="Hathi1918" /> It presents compact rules of usage and principles of composition and famously urges writers to “omit needless words,” reflecting a brisk, prescriptive voice. <ref name="PG2011">{{cite web |title=The Elements of Style (1918/1920 text) |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37134/37134-h/37134-h.htm |website=Project Gutenberg |access-date=8 November 2025}}</ref> Harcourt, Brace republished the manual for general readers in 1920, fixing the chapter structure that many reprints follow. <ref name="IA1920" /> The book’s wider influence grew after E. B. White revised and expanded it for Macmillan, published in late April 1959. <ref name="CAM2010">{{cite web |title=Word Perfect |url=https://cornellalumnimagazine.com/word-perfect/ |website=Cornell Alumni Magazine |access-date=8 November 2025}}</ref> By its 50th anniversary in 2009, ''The New Yorker'' noted ten million copies sold. <ref name="TNY2009">{{cite web |title=Elements and Elegance: Fifty Years |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/elements-and-elegance-fifty-years |website=The New Yorker |date=15 April 2009 |access-date=8 November 2025}}</ref> In higher education, the Open Syllabus database ranks it the most frequently assigned text, appearing on more than 15,000 syllabi. <ref name="OpenCulture2021">{{cite web |title=The Open Syllabus Project Visualizes the 1,000,000+ Books Most Frequently Assigned in College Courses |url=https://www.openculture.com/2021/02/the-open-syllabus-project-visualizes-the-1000000-books-frequently-assigned-in-college-courses.html |website=Open Culture |date=18 February 2021 |access-date=8 November 2025}}</ref> |
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== Chapter summary == |
== Chapter summary == |
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📝 '''7 – Exercises on Chapters II and III.''' |
📝 '''7 – Exercises on Chapters II and III.''' |
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== Background & reception == |
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🖋️ '''Author & writing'''. Strunk, a professor of English at Cornell, assembled the handbook to state “in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style,” concentrating on a few essentials rather than exhaustive rules. <ref name="PG2011" /> The original was privately printed in 1918 at 43 pages; Harcourt, Brace republished it in 1920 with the familiar sequence of usage rules, composition principles, matters of form, and lists of misused and misspelled words. <ref name="Hathi1918" /><ref name="IA1920" /> In March 1957, a copy reached E. B. White at ''The New Yorker'', prompting his “Letter from the East” about Strunk and, soon after, Macmillan’s invitation to create a revised edition; White added a new chapter on style and lightly modernized the text. <ref name="CAM2010" /> The result retained Strunk’s crisp prescriptions—“omit needless words” chief among them—while broadening the guidance for mid-century readers. <ref name="PG2011" /> |
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📈 '''Commercial reception'''. The Strunk–White edition appeared in late April 1959; it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection in May, had 60,000 copies in print by August, and sold about 200,000 copies in its first year while charting across major bestseller lists. <ref name="CAM2010" /> By 2009, ''The New Yorker'' marked ten million copies sold. <ref name="TNY2009" /> |
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👍 '''Praise'''. Contemporary notices were enthusiastic: ''The New York Times'' urged, “Buy it, study it, enjoy it,” and ''The New Yorker'' praised its “brevity, clarity, and prickly good sense.” <ref name="CAM2010" /> Later accolades include TIME’s 2011 list of the 100 best and most influential nonfiction books in English. <ref name="Time2011">{{cite web |title=Elements of Style |url=https://entertainment.time.com/2011/08/30/all-time-100-best-nonfiction-books/slide/elements-of-style-by-strunk-and-white/ |website=Time |publisher=Time USA, LLC |date=16 August 2011 |access-date=8 November 2025}}</ref> In 2016, ''The Guardian'' placed the 1959 edition at No. 23 in its “100 best nonfiction books” series. <ref name="Guardian2016">{{cite news |title=The 100 best nonfiction books: No 23 – The Elements of Style by William Strunk and EB White (1959) |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/04/100-best-nonfiction-books-all-time-elements-style-william-strunk-eb-white |work=The Guardian |date=4 July 2016 |access-date=8 November 2025 |last=McCrum |first=Robert}}</ref> |
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👎 '''Criticism'''. Some linguists argue that the book’s prescriptions oversimplify grammar or misdescribe constructions. Geoffrey K. Pullum’s widely cited Chronicle essay contends that much standard advice in ''Strunk & White'' is inconsistent and mistaken, especially on the passive voice. <ref name="Pullum2009">{{cite web |title=50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice |url=https://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/50years.pdf |website=University of Edinburgh |date=17 April 2009 |access-date=8 November 2025 |author=Geoffrey K. Pullum}}</ref> ''The New Yorker'' has framed these disputes within the larger prescriptivist–descriptivist debate in English usage. <ref name="NYer2012">{{cite news |title=The English Wars |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/05/14/the-english-wars |work=The New Yorker |date=14 May 2012 |access-date=8 November 2025 |last=Acocella |first=Joan}}</ref> Detailed discussions from academic linguists likewise explain why blanket bans on the passive are misguided and how passives actually work in English. <ref name="LL2011">{{cite web |title=The passive in English |url=https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2922 |website=Language Log (University of Pennsylvania) |date=24 January 2011 |access-date=8 November 2025 |author=Geoffrey K. Pullum}}</ref> |
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🌍 '''Impact & adoption'''. In teaching, the Open Syllabus database consistently ranks ''The Elements of Style'' as the most-assigned text, with more than 15,000 appearances across college syllabi. <ref name="OpenCulture2021" /> The book has also inspired adaptations and new formats: Penguin published an illustrated edition by Maira Kalman (paperback, 2007), and the New York Public Library hosted a sold-out 2005 song-cycle by Kalman and composer Nico Muhly based on the text. <ref name="PRH2007">{{cite web |title=The Elements of Style Illustrated |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/294830/the-elements-of-style-illustrated-by-strunk-white-kalman/ |website=Penguin Random House |date=28 August 2007 |access-date=8 November 2025}}</ref><ref name="NYPL2005">{{cite web |title=LIVE from NYPL: The Elements of Style: A Short Happy Evening of Song with Maira Kalman and Nico Muhly |url=https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2005/10/20/elements-style-short-happy-evening-song-maira-kalman-and-nico-muhly |website=New York Public Library |date=20 October 2005 |access-date=8 November 2025}}</ref> |
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== Related content & more == |
== Related content & more == |
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Revision as of 04:44, 8 November 2025
{{#invoke:random|list
| sep=newline | limit=1|
"This book aims to give in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style."
— {{safesubst:#invoke:Separated entries|comma}}
"Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic."
— {{safesubst:#invoke:Separated entries|comma}}
"Use the active voice."
— {{safesubst:#invoke:Separated entries|comma}}
"Make definite assertions."
— {{safesubst:#invoke:Separated entries|comma}}
"Use definite, specific, concrete language."
— {{safesubst:#invoke:Separated entries|comma}}
"Omit needless words."
— {{safesubst:#invoke:Separated entries|comma}}
"Keep related words together."
— {{safesubst:#invoke:Separated entries|comma}}
"In summaries, keep to one tense."
— {{safesubst:#invoke:Separated entries|comma}}
"Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end."
— {{safesubst:#invoke:Separated entries|comma}}
"Do not join independent clauses by a comma."
— {{safesubst:#invoke:Separated entries|comma}}
}}
Introduction
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📘 The Elements of Style is a concise American style guide compiled by Cornell English professor William Strunk Jr., first circulated in 1918 as a 43-page, privately printed handbook. [1] It presents compact rules of usage and principles of composition and famously urges writers to “omit needless words,” reflecting a brisk, prescriptive voice. [2] Harcourt, Brace republished the manual for general readers in 1920, fixing the chapter structure that many reprints follow. [3] The book’s wider influence grew after E. B. White revised and expanded it for Macmillan, published in late April 1959. [4] By its 50th anniversary in 2009, The New Yorker noted ten million copies sold. [5] In higher education, the Open Syllabus database ranks it the most frequently assigned text, appearing on more than 15,000 syllabi. [6]
Chapter summary
This outline follows the Harcourt, Brace and Company edition (1920).[3] First-edition bibliographic details (Ithaca: Privately Printed, 1918; 43 pp.) are confirmed by HathiTrust.[1]
📘 1 – Introductory.
🧭 2 – Elementary Rules of Usage.
🏗️ 3 – Elementary Principles of Composition.
🧾 4 – A Few Matters of Form.
🚫 5 – Words and Expressions Commonly Misused.
🔤 6 – Spelling.
📝 7 – Exercises on Chapters II and III.
Background & reception
🖋️ Author & writing. Strunk, a professor of English at Cornell, assembled the handbook to state “in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style,” concentrating on a few essentials rather than exhaustive rules. [2] The original was privately printed in 1918 at 43 pages; Harcourt, Brace republished it in 1920 with the familiar sequence of usage rules, composition principles, matters of form, and lists of misused and misspelled words. [1][3] In March 1957, a copy reached E. B. White at The New Yorker, prompting his “Letter from the East” about Strunk and, soon after, Macmillan’s invitation to create a revised edition; White added a new chapter on style and lightly modernized the text. [4] The result retained Strunk’s crisp prescriptions—“omit needless words” chief among them—while broadening the guidance for mid-century readers. [2]
📈 Commercial reception. The Strunk–White edition appeared in late April 1959; it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection in May, had 60,000 copies in print by August, and sold about 200,000 copies in its first year while charting across major bestseller lists. [4] By 2009, The New Yorker marked ten million copies sold. [5]
👍 Praise. Contemporary notices were enthusiastic: The New York Times urged, “Buy it, study it, enjoy it,” and The New Yorker praised its “brevity, clarity, and prickly good sense.” [4] Later accolades include TIME’s 2011 list of the 100 best and most influential nonfiction books in English. [7] In 2016, The Guardian placed the 1959 edition at No. 23 in its “100 best nonfiction books” series. [8]
👎 Criticism. Some linguists argue that the book’s prescriptions oversimplify grammar or misdescribe constructions. Geoffrey K. Pullum’s widely cited Chronicle essay contends that much standard advice in Strunk & White is inconsistent and mistaken, especially on the passive voice. [9] The New Yorker has framed these disputes within the larger prescriptivist–descriptivist debate in English usage. [10] Detailed discussions from academic linguists likewise explain why blanket bans on the passive are misguided and how passives actually work in English. [11]
🌍 Impact & adoption. In teaching, the Open Syllabus database consistently ranks The Elements of Style as the most-assigned text, with more than 15,000 appearances across college syllabi. [6] The book has also inspired adaptations and new formats: Penguin published an illustrated edition by Maira Kalman (paperback, 2007), and the New York Public Library hosted a sold-out 2005 song-cycle by Kalman and composer Nico Muhly based on the text. [12][13]
Related content & more
YouTube videos
CapSach articles
References
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