
The Elements of Style Writing Strategies with Grammar
Reviews

This book contains tips on writing concise literature; provides lots of examples.

This book requires occasional rereads.

A great guide for writers, beginners and adepts both, on best practices in writing habits.

Finally buckled down and read this book, and boy, it was well worth it. :)

Rarely does a book this short do what it sets out to in so few words. "Elements of Style" holds valuable guidelines for reader and writer, somehow exploring the breadth of the English language in just 87 pages. It is a beautiful book and I am left inspired by the insight and terseness of Strunk and White.

Succinct and clear. If you do any kind of writing, you must read it. A classic.

Necessary for any aspiring writer A concise and direct guide to grammar and style. Anybody with any literary or journalistic ambition will reap huge benefits from regular reference to this book. If you enjoy language, you'll have fun reading it as well.

What can I say? I read this book in two sittings; it is a grammar and rule book, and I devoured it. In a succinct 85 pages - in 11 Elementary Rules of Usage, in 11 Principles of Composition, in A Few Matters of Form (11 matters), and in a thorough list of Misused Words and Expressions (123 misuses) - Strunk and White give a writer every tool she needs to express herself clearly without pompousness or unnecessary words. (The authors are fond of the words pompous and pretentious.) I found myself chuckling at Strunk and White's instructions in the Misused Words and Expressions chapter: Prestigious. Often an adjective of last resort. It's in the dictionary, but that doesn't mean you have to use it. I found myself saying "Aha!" every other page as I came across rules I always wondered about (where the punctuation goes when you use parentheses, for example), and I was surprised by how much of a delight this book is. I did not appreciate its humor when I was a high school student. Now, though, I realize its worth. It sits by my knee on the sofa as I type this review, and I will always keep it in grabbing distance when I write.

Useful and even entertaining. Maybe a little outdated but still, it comes in handy if you want to improve your writing skills and learn to think like a writer. The final chapters, added by White, were deeply inspirational to me. So yes, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a book on how to develop their own prose.

This book was surprisingly entertaining. I listened to it as an audiobook and thought that the narrators voice and passion was fun to listen to. It also had a bunch of nice tips about better writing.

Dated in some rules/parts, but still useful and even entertaining













Highlights

Note, in the examples above, that when a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor.

The act of composition, or creation, disciplines the mind; writing is one way to go about thinking, and the practice and habit of writing not only drain the mind but supply it, too.