It’s on everyone’s 10 best list. Why? Because it makes writing sound like a doable task. Only a few rules. Sensible, clear examples. And it’s such a thin little volume.
That, in my opinion, is what tipped it over. The Elements of Style has been the go-to grammar, style, and usage manual for American writers and teachers for nearly all of its 50 years, yet it’s so unassuming a book, physically, that it wouldn’t scare anyone. “Hey, I could take that skinny little runt with one hand tied behind me!”
In its impact, however, the little book is a Godzilla, on a par with The Prince, The Art of War, Poe’s The Philosophy of Composition, Writing Without Teachers, and other deceptively modest pamphlets.
Strunk, channeled through his acolyte, New Yorker writer E. B. White (Charlotte’s Web) is quite a forcible arbiter of right or wrong. I would be cringing, for example, had I written “forceful” in the previous sentence.
Normally this approach irritates culturally younger readers, beginning with the aging (but still obstreperous) boomers – of which I am one.
But somehow old Strunk gets away with it. We put up with his directiveness because he doesn’t belabor it (perhaps smoothed by the cool hand of White, an author as lacking in assertive ego as any I can think of).
If Strunk is dictatorial, it’s dictatorship-lite: the dude is right and you just know it. We should be grateful: in an era of eroding language skills, The Elements is one of the few pillars holding up the marvelous edifice of written English. The little book has permanently stamped our culture for the better.
So happy anniversary, guys. Congratulations, and may you live another 50. And another, and another…
And by the way, if anybody just got here from Mars and never read it, The Elements can now be had in its entirety on line and free.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I recently picked up a new, hard-bound, copy of The Elements Of Style. A stylish red volume with illustrations by Maira Kalman to replace my torn-up paperback (the silver one pictured on the far right, above). Also, there’s a fair amount of italics used in the quote below, but I don’t believe this comment section is HTML enabled. Oh well!
Favorite quote from the “Words And Expressions Commonly Misused”:
“-ize. Do not coin verbs by adding this tempting suffix. Many good and useful verbs do end in -ize: summarize, fraternize, harmonize, fertilize. But there is a growing list of abominations: containerize, prioritize, finalize, to name three. Be suspicious of -ize; let your sear and your eye guide you. Never tack -ize onto a noun to create a verb. Usually you will discover that a useful verb already exists. Why say “utilize” when there is the simple, unpretentious word use?”
Expanding on that, there is a general view (I agree with it) that the more suffixes you pile on, the weaker each succeeding word becomes. Money… monetize… monetization… monetizational… monetizationally… And so on. If someone said, “Monetizationally speaking,” I’d want cork that person. On the other hand, if the phrase was, “speaking of money…” I’d be on the edge of my seat.