Saturday, August 31, 2019

The Writer's Most Important Book



Jeff--Saturday

I’ve had the great joy in recent years of twice teaching an intense college level course on mystery writing.  On the third day of class I gave my students the only objective test in my course, one based on The Elements of Style, the classic, very brief manual also known as Strunk & White, after its original author William Strunk Jr. (who composed it in 1918) and its 1959 reviser E.B. White (a former student of Strunk at Cornell and author of Charlotte’s Web).

Strunk & White
I don’t think there is a more important book for writers to read and re-read regularly, and not just because Time magazine a few years back named it one of the most influential books written in the English language since 1923.



 But don’t just take my word (or Time’s), listen to Stephen Colbert using it to dress down Vampire Weekend for attacking the Oxford comma in its lyrics (2:45-4:15).

Even for avant garde writers—and what college class lacks that breed—until they know the basics of clear, direct writing, they really can’t properly mess around with the forms. Grammar and word usage are the basic building blocks of all writing. They are the writer’s toolbox, and practitioners must know and not fear their tools.

The most experienced writers, too, should re-read it at least every couple of years, and keep it close at hand.  After all, we do forget things as we travel farther down this writing road, and need a tune-up every once in a while if for no other reason than to recall how we still confuse lie and lay.

And for those of you who are not—nor never intend on being—a “writer,” I have news for you: You are a writer, even if it’s only composing an email, letter, or memo to your boss.  As much as you may not want to hear it, the substance of your thoughts will in some measure be judged by your command of grammar, style, and spelling.  It’s just human nature.

So, read and re-read everything you write, especially those emails, and put your composition out there as clearly as you can…helped along I suggest by at least some familiarity with “Srunknwhite,” as its affectionately known to English teachers. Trust me, you’ll thank me.

Okay, today’s lecture is over—except for this brief excerpt from the introduction to Part V of The Elements of Style.  It is a selection I always find challenging, humbling, yet ever inspiring: 

There is no satisfactory explanation of style, no infallible guide to good writing, no assurance that a person who thinks clearly will be able to write clearly, no key that unlocks the door, no inflexible rule by which writers may shape their course. Writers will often find themselves steering by stars that are disturbingly in motion.

May the Force be with you on the journey…or at least Strunk & White.

—Jeff

16 comments:

  1. Thank you, Jeff. I ashamedly confess that I have never read it. I grabbed my Kindle at once and discovered that this wisdom is available for just one dollar. I shall start reading it immediately!

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    1. Michael, I now feel that my mission on this planet is completed!

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  2. I couldn't agree more. This little volume is the best research tool anyone (and particularly anyone who writes fiction) can ever possess. I haven't read it as recently as I should, but only because I wore out my last copy and haven't yet replaced it. :)

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    1. In its own simplistic way, S&W makes grammar glamorous. [I was tempted to use it's...but that would be wrong. :)]

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  3. I've read S&W several times and browsed it often. There is another book that I enjoy even more - Fowler's English Usage. Of course it deals with English rather than American, but it's a wonderful book to pick up and open to any page. And it's sensible and often has a sly sense of humour.

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    1. Forget about S&W, Stan. Your final sentence describes you to a "T"--as in Trollip.

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  4. Well, it’s been sixty years since its only revision (I used “its” and “it’s” in the same sentence. 😎). Might we soon see a Strunknwhitensiger edition soon?

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    1. When you read "Strunknwhitensiger," it's much more effective if you do so with a German accent...

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    2. EvKa took the words right out of mein Mund, Dave. As a matter of fact there have been several additional contributors to S&W. The version I use(d) (4th--which has been superseded), involved Roger Angell, who was E.B. White's step-son.

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    3. Ah! I feel like I’ve slept and awakened in an episode of Hogan’s Heroes.
      Mine is the third edition, 1970. Roger is not mentioned.

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  5. Bro, we are on the same page. I have three copies! My oldest because it was the only text book for the only courses in creative writing I have ever taken—with Sister Mary Catharine. (BTW, anytime any of us few she allowed to take the course got “its” or “it’s” wrong, she made the whole class chant, “I T apostrophe S means ‘it is’” three times. The miscreant got the badge of illiteracy—a shield drawn around her initials about two feet high on the blackboard.)
    I have bought and paid for hundreds and hundreds of copies, one for each of my corporate clients’ employees who took the business and technical writing courses my firm used to teach.
    I have seen not the Roger Angell version. He’s a really good writer, but I cannot imagine what he had to add. The version I know and LOVE is perfect.

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  6. Oh my copy was so beat up by the time I ended my newspaper writing days that I am not sure where it ended up. It, and the AP Style book were second/third only to the dictionary (which back in the dark ages were all bound and printed on paper). You've reminded me it is time to order a new copy -- and read it!

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    1. Dictionary? Paper? What strange concepts they are. :)

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  7. I never read The Elements of Style, but I have memorized the Associated Press Style book, as I proofread. I actually like consulting it and can quibble with copy editor friends over style issues. It takes a lot of tweaking to write something with the right style, but it's worth it.

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  8. I still learn new style points every week.

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