Summary

Strunk and White's timeless guide to clear writing. Core principles: omit needless words, use the active voice, put statements in positive form, and make each paragraph a unit of composition. Use definite, specific, concrete language. Keep related words together; place emphatic words at sentence's end. The book covers grammar essentials (commas, semicolons, possessives) but its real power is the relentless push for clarity over ornamentation, brevity over bloat.

Key Takeaways

Notes

• Always “‘s”
• Use commas in lists of 3+
• Enclose parenthetic clause in commas
• Comma before conjunction separating independent clauses
• Semicolon separating independent clauses without conjunction
• Don’t break sentences in two (with period)
• Colon tells reader what comes next is closely related to the proceeding clause
• Use dashes only when a more common mark seems inadequate
• Plural vs singular
  • “None of us is perfect”
  • Must learn specific idioms
• Use the proper case of pronoun
• A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the subject
• Choose a suitable design and hold to it
  • Perceive the shape
• Make the paragraph the unit of composition
• Use the active voice
  • “Brevity is a byproduct of vigor”
• Put statements in positive form
  • Not honest → dishonest
  • Can → will
• Use definite, specific, concrete language
• Onit needless words
• Avoid a succession of loose sentences
• Express coordinate ideas in similar form
• Keep related words together
• In summaries, keep to one tense
• Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end
• Colloquialisms: don’t call attention with quotation marks
• Exclamations for true exclamations or commands
• Headers, hyphens, numbers, quotes etc.
• Can = is able, not in place of may
• Data plural → singular
• Farther vs further
• However vs nevertheless
• Like vs as
• Literally
• While → and, but, although
• Overused: certainly, character, each and every one, enthuse, factor, feature, finalize, in terms of, nice, one of the most, so (as intensifier), kind of, which
• Style and content are intertwined
• Place yourself in the background
• Write in a way that comes naturally
  • Don’t worry about imitating
• Work from a suitable design
• Write with nouns and verbs, not adjectives and adverbs
• Revise and rewrite
• Do not overwrite
• Do not overstate
  • Readers will not trust you
• Avoid the use of qualifiers
• Do not write lackadaisically
• Spell words properly
  • Costs reader’s attention
• Don’t explain too much
• Don’t overuse adverbs, eg. tiredly
• Make sure the reader knows who’s speaking
• Avoid fancy words
  • Have good taste
• Don’t spell phonetically
• Be clear
• Do not inject opinion
• Use figures of speech sparingly
  • Too much is distracting
• Prefer standard diction
  • Don’t use passing fad language