Happy birthday to "The Elements of Style"

One of the most influential books in our business turns 50 this year ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/books/22elem.html

 

Omit needless words.

 

beautiful, ain't it?

if there's one rule to follow in any kind of writing, that's it

S&W was my bible in college and i've tried to live by its elegant guidelines since

http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk.html

 

Today I guess it would be:

Omt ndlss wrds.

(sent via Twitter, Blackberry, Crackberry, Hackberry, Digg, Rugg, Redd, Lovin, Stuffin, Crammin, Log Jammin and 493 other "social network" connections)

 

An interesting counter-argument to the value of S&W.

http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i32/32b01501.htm

 

"Omit needless words" are the three best words in that book.

No style guide, however, warrants blind devotion. S&W, exalted as it is, has some advice that is questionable at best (the link above covers much of it), and still more that many excellent writers disdain.

Style is not a matter of absolute right or wrong. I wish more people in our business grasped that.

 

Got a book -- in middle school! -- called "How To Be Brief." Still use it, along with "Elements of Style." Even E.B. White's name was succinct.

 

Well, White could have dropped the E or the B and been more brief.

;D

 

This thread should have been started by sportschick.

 

Eh.

http://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Style-Trunkload-Contemporary-American/dp/0071422684