The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition

5 Responses to “The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition”

1. Sarah T. Adams says:

   March 29, 2010 at 1:53 am

   This is a very poor book on grammar. Even as it is probably written correctly, it is simply not accessible to the general broadcast. I threw out my copy of Strunk and White many years ago. It was hard to follow, complicated, and written in a “style” that was very Cornell Academic! Sure, we can look at it as a relic in the history of English writing, but just don’t try to use it as a desk reference book!

   (By the way, I replaced my copy with the St. Martin’s Handbook)
   Rating: 1 / 5
2. Anonymous says:

   March 29, 2010 at 3:45 am

   One word from _The New York Times_ quote on the cover of this book (my edition, anyway) speaks volumes.

   “volubility”

   Whazzat mean? Aptly away I’m place off. Aptly away I’m looking for something else to read. Maybe take Wordsworth’s advice and listen to the song of the wood linnet. Books like this _are_ a dull and endless strife.

   English major. Graduated cum laude. Read several hundred books.

   This book is full of pompous, didactic sentences such as, “Form the possessive of singular nouns by adding ’s.”

   I say, “Form the possessive of singular nouns by adding pineapples!”

   Sure, it’s a Dadaist sentiment. But I reckon a lot of fantastic writers, paradoxically, started making sense of their writing by abandoning sense and rules (the stuff of editors). And a excellent editor is in league with that grand purpose of bringing the author’s noblest intent to fruition.

   Use rules when you risk being misunderstood if you don’t use them.

   The best insight into excellent writing, in my attitude, comes not from a professional novelist but from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, speaking of the ancient Roman and Greek writers: “I’ve everlastingly been a lover of the small sentence and the pointed aphorism.” Read his _Twilight of the Idols_ for stunning writing and small sentences full of meaning and madness.

   And place this book to the pedants.
   Rating: 1 / 5
3. C. F Higgins says:

   March 29, 2010 at 3:52 am

   Serious composition teachers no longer use this book. Many of the prescriptive imperatives within its pages are vague, arbitrary, or flat-out incorrect.

   Students don’t learn to write by flipping through a style guide even as writing papers.
   Rating: 1 / 5
4. Mark Silcox says:

   March 29, 2010 at 5:23 am

   I suppose that this book might be of some use as an antidote for semi-literate Americans who’ve read one too many articles by William F. Buckley and resolute that they’d like to posess his “eloquence.” But for anyone who thinks that written English should aspire to beauty rather than mere functionality, it’s about 100 pages of the most terrible imaginable sanctimonius nonsense, pressed between two glossy small covers.
   Rating: 1 / 5
5. Anonymous says:

   March 29, 2010 at 6:59 am

   Right and concise, a real time saver!
   Rating: 2 / 5