The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition

Rating:
Summary: On my permanent reference shelf
Review: Apart from THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE and STET AGAIN!, the must-have writer's guide. It's on the syllabi for every creative writing MFA program.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely useful and, yes-- enjoyable
Review: Nothing has helped my writing more than this little guide. I was introduced to it by a poetry professor my first year of college, and now it's nearly falling apart. The book is well organized, addressing common confusions over English usage (rules for punctuation, frequently confused words like which/that, etc.) and helpful hints for effective writing. Digesting this material will make your writing more coherent, more concise, and more powerful. It's also a cheap and useful gift to give to high school grads who are planning on going to college.

Rating:
Summary: Indispensable
Review: I was going to title this review "Simply Indispensable," but - following Strunk & White's advice - I omitted the adverb as it doesn't strengthen or clarify the verb like you'd think it would.

The Elements of Style (Third Edition) is a tremendous help in understanding what makes words flow on a page. I understand that the Fourth Edition takes steps for greater gender equity in its examples, in addition to making other minor tweaks to the 1979 edition. I don't think you can go wrong with either.

The first dozen or so pages tackle the thorniest grammar problems (possessives, subject/verb agreement, pronouns, etc.) and the remainder of the book focuses on how to make your writing clearer and more accessible by the reader. It's here we get the indispensable advice of "Omit needless words" and "Place emphatic words of a sentence at the end." Tips like these turn poorly constructed writing into literary gold - just look what it did for my review title: pure gold.

There is also a subtle wry sense of humor running through the book. In section 4 (Words & Expressions Commonly Misused), Strunk & White make this observation regarding nauseous/nauseated: "The first means `sickening to contemplate'; the second means `sick at the stomach.' Do not, therefore, say `I feel nauseous,' unless you are sure you have that effect on others." From the section 5.17: Do not inject opinion, "To air one's views gratuitously, however, is to imply that the demand for them is brisk, which may not be the case...." Granted, Strunk & White are no Martin & Lewis, but this little text is far from dull and dry.

There are other style manuals available in print and online, but at about 100 pages (the Third Edition was a mere 85), Strunk & White's Elements of Style will likely deliver the advice you need before you've thumbed halfway through the index of the others.

Buy it. Read it. Live it. You'll be glad you did.

Rating:
Summary: Short and concise
Review: I somehow make a living as a professional writer despite my poor spelling. Because of this book, however, my grammar is not as bad. This is the classic text upon which many writers honed their skills. It contains pearls of wisdom for tightening and fine tuning one's writing style. What's truly amazing is how the authors compress everything into so few words, yet remain accessible and clear to the average reader. Everyone who writes in the English language should own a copy of this work.