The Elements of Style, Third Edition

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Summary: Gentle Humor Makes the Lessons Go Down Easily
Review: The gentle humor that one finds in this book makes learning grammar painless, even enjoyable. It was the "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" of its day, but is broader in the elements of grammar and style that it covers. I recommend it to all my grant writing classes as an essential.

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Summary: A Concise Review
Review: There is no reason not to own this book. Small and inexpensive and easy to fit in your pocket, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE should accompany the Gideon Bible in every motel room in America. Never have so many owed so much to so few pages.

Jeremy W. Forstadt

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Summary: Essential Writer's Tool.
Review: When I write a book I use only a handful of reference tools: dictionary, thesaurus, Gregg's Reference Handbook, Writers Market, and the Elements of Style. Strunk and White is a wonderfully-written, extraordinarily concise tool that pays homage to classic high-end English. It takes language insight to make this prediction in 1979: "By the time this paragraph makes print, uptight... rap, dude, vibes, copout, and funky will be the words of yesteryear." The book begins with eleven "Elementary Rules of Usage," and then continues with eleven more "Elementary Rules of Composition," and eleven "Matters of Form." Each is presented as a brief statement followed by another sentence or two of explanation and a few clarifying examples. This amazing compilation fills only thirty-eight pages, yet covers ninety percent of good writing fundamentals. My favorite section is Chapter IV, a twenty-seven-page, alphabetical listing of commonly misused words and expressions. Here's a trade secret: when my manuscript is "done," I then turn to this chapter and use my word processor's Find function to study every instance of all these problematic words and phrases. I never fail to find errors this way. Many great writers are so only because they've learned to make use of the best available tools. The end of the book contains an essay on "An Approach to Style" with a list of twenty-one "Reminders." Those who fight the apparently-natural tendency to go against these recommendations succeed as writers. Those who don't, fail. It's that simple. The single drawback of The Elements of Style is that it's too concise; it does not stand alone as an all-encompassing tutorial or reference guide. Many readers will seek other sources for more in-depth explanation of style elements. Despite that, it easily replaces ten pounds of other reference material. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.