“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”
― Dorothy Parker
In 1978, Clint Swift, a staff writer on the Stars and
Stripes newspaper in Darmstadt, West Germany, acted on Dorothy Parker’s advice
and gave me a copy of The Elements of Style. Click on Clint's name for a longer version of that story.
In the four decades between then and now, I have re-read
Strunk and White at times when I start to learn a new language and when the
self doubt common to all writers starts to attack my mind. The Elements of Style, like a good coach,
reminds the player that practicing fundamentals is the way to stay at the top
of one’s game.
I also start to use “one” as a pronoun after re-reading
Strunk and White because it is the original and best gender-neutral singular
pronoun and is a lovely, if stuffy, way around saying “he or she.”
If you are not a writer, or don’t aspire to be a writer,
reading this book is like reading about the specific rules for a sport you don’t
actually play. It can be interesting, but
will be not captivate.
For a writer who has wrestled the alligator of grammar, the wit and brevity of Elements of Style will help you navigate the choppy waters of fluency.
No comments:
Post a Comment