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Literature Text
There is a very important book I’d like to introduce you to. In fact, this book is the most important book anyone who writes in English can read: William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White’s The Elements of Style is the book on English composition.
Despite being the textbook for English style and grammar, Elements of Style seems mostly unknown. Actually, it’s not that surprising when you look at the quality of most of the writing that gets out there. I mean it goes deep. Very deep. In fact, the most atrocious violators of the rules of good style are also some of the most famous writers today. Let’s take on the big one, J.K. Rowling. The New York Times Book Review has never forgotten the truth: her first three books were written at about the level of a fifth grader. Now, I know what you are thinking; if a personage as well-known and (let’s pick the important things) rich as Rowling can screw up that badly, does my short story really need to meet a higher expectation?
YES!
Rowling may have gotten away with it, but that was because she was writing for fifth graders. Now, for the rest of us, if you expect your prose to be read by someone outside of pre-school, it needs to be edited, it needs to have quality and it needs to be proper English.
Capitalization is essential. I don’t care if it is ‘just an e-mail,’ you are not e.e. cummings. Informality does not excuse you from the rules of grammar. It is even worse when it happens in essays, articles or short stories. Get it right! Names are capitalized! So is the letter ‘I’ when it comes at the start of a sentence or is standing on its own (I blame Steve Jobs for this one… iPod? Really?).
I’d like to highlight my favorite rule in the Elements of Style, number 17: “Omit needless words.” I wish I had this particular phrase engraved on a bat that I could walk around and hit errant writers with. In my position as a copy editor around campus I have had the misfortune to meet with prose that needed more editing than the last Pirates movie. There is no excuse for some of the strange words I see haphazardly inserted into sentences: frequelarity, inchoate, lugubrious, unhappiest, burnished, etc. An unending stream of descriptive adjectives haunts my nightmares, so stop it. Stop the literary diarrhea.
Commas are used, with only a few exceptions, to enclose parenthetic expressions. They are part of a hierarchy of parenthetic punctuation. Commas are relaxed, the equivalent of taking a breath during your sentence. Above them are dashes. If this were the SATs, commas would be to dashes as periods are to exclamation points. Quieter than the rest of the parenthetical family are the parentheses themselves. The equivalent of a written aside, they are the whisperers of punctuation.
Despite being the textbook for English style and grammar, Elements of Style seems mostly unknown. Actually, it’s not that surprising when you look at the quality of most of the writing that gets out there. I mean it goes deep. Very deep. In fact, the most atrocious violators of the rules of good style are also some of the most famous writers today. Let’s take on the big one, J.K. Rowling. The New York Times Book Review has never forgotten the truth: her first three books were written at about the level of a fifth grader. Now, I know what you are thinking; if a personage as well-known and (let’s pick the important things) rich as Rowling can screw up that badly, does my short story really need to meet a higher expectation?
YES!
Rowling may have gotten away with it, but that was because she was writing for fifth graders. Now, for the rest of us, if you expect your prose to be read by someone outside of pre-school, it needs to be edited, it needs to have quality and it needs to be proper English.
Capitalization is essential. I don’t care if it is ‘just an e-mail,’ you are not e.e. cummings. Informality does not excuse you from the rules of grammar. It is even worse when it happens in essays, articles or short stories. Get it right! Names are capitalized! So is the letter ‘I’ when it comes at the start of a sentence or is standing on its own (I blame Steve Jobs for this one… iPod? Really?).
I’d like to highlight my favorite rule in the Elements of Style, number 17: “Omit needless words.” I wish I had this particular phrase engraved on a bat that I could walk around and hit errant writers with. In my position as a copy editor around campus I have had the misfortune to meet with prose that needed more editing than the last Pirates movie. There is no excuse for some of the strange words I see haphazardly inserted into sentences: frequelarity, inchoate, lugubrious, unhappiest, burnished, etc. An unending stream of descriptive adjectives haunts my nightmares, so stop it. Stop the literary diarrhea.
Commas are used, with only a few exceptions, to enclose parenthetic expressions. They are part of a hierarchy of parenthetic punctuation. Commas are relaxed, the equivalent of taking a breath during your sentence. Above them are dashes. If this were the SATs, commas would be to dashes as periods are to exclamation points. Quieter than the rest of the parenthetical family are the parentheses themselves. The equivalent of a written aside, they are the whisperers of punctuation.
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I think most people who are serious about writing know about Strunk and White.
I also know that most people don't like to read above a 10th grade level, see The Book On Writing by LaRocque. You don't have to write like a scientist to be a good writer. (Not that you are saying, just commenting on the topic.)
I agree people need to have their mechanics down.
I also know that most people don't like to read above a 10th grade level, see The Book On Writing by LaRocque. You don't have to write like a scientist to be a good writer. (Not that you are saying, just commenting on the topic.)
I agree people need to have their mechanics down.