Modest Celebration for Strunk and White

If you have anything to do with writing -in English, anyway- then you are familiar with Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. It is celebrating its 50th birthday. Or anniversary. Or whatever you celebrate for a book. Mark Garvey has written a tribute to it in The Wall Street Journal (Yes, occasionally I read the red-state rag). You should read it.

Strunk and White perennially remind writers to observe common rules of punctuation and syntax; to be mindful of structure and prefer succinctness to flabbiness; to aim for prose that is concrete, active and clear; and to be sensitive to current word usage. The last chapter of Elements, "An Approach to Style," caps the book's argument beautifully by offering a handful of sensible truths about how writers might achieve a style and voice all their own.

Garvey also points out how odd it is that The Elements of Style, invariably referred to as 'Strunk and White', gets up the nose of snooty academics. Not me, of course. I have it setting on my shelf.

I should read it someday.

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