Want to learn the ideas in The Elements Of Style better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of The Elements Of Style by William Jr. Strunk here.
Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.
Video Summaries of The Elements Of Style
We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on The Elements Of Style, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by William Jr. Strunk.
1-Page Summary of The Elements Of Style
Overview
There are no specific steps or recipes for writing stylish prose. However, writers should learn certain elements of style in order to develop their talent and become eloquent and authoritative. These elements include clarity, conciseness, coherence, unity, correctness (grammar), precision (word choice), and taste (style).
The elements of style are not all the same. Some are inflexible rules, while others may be broken at a writer’s discretion. Once they’re understood and mastered, writers can express themselves fully, clearly and in a way that readers can understand.
Many aspects of style are related, and the most important is to use simple, clear language. The best writing is lean and muscular: it’s filled with nouns and verbs but lighter on adjectives or adverbs. Wordy prose is annoying; it confuses readers and doesn’t serve writers’ goals of being understood. Rather than trying to impress readers with fancy words or flowery descriptions, effective writers favor common words and cut any unnecessary details.
The way something is written can make it more appealing and easier to read. It’s the writer who does this for the reader, but in return, they have a better understanding of their own ideas as they revise and improve on them.
The Elements of Style has been in print for more than 100 years and is used as a reference by many professional writers. This report is based on the fourth edition, released 2000.
Key Point 1: Normative grammar and punctuation is the foundation of clear writing.
To write in a style that’s appealing to readers, you must master the basics of grammar and punctuation. Eleven rules can help you avoid common mistakes.
To form the possessive of a singular noun, use an apostrophe and the letter s. The only exception is when you’re forming the possessive of names in Latin or Ancient Greek. In that case, just add an ‘s’ to make it plural (i.e., Jesus’s disciples). Do not use an apostrophe to create a plural; otherwise, you’ll end up saying “Jesus’ disciple.”
Use the serial comma
The serial comma is the comma that appears before the word “and” in a series of three items or more. For example, if you have carrots, onions and parsley in your soup, then you put commas after all but the last item. If there are any parenthetical interruptions in a sentence such as an appositive phrase or examples or descriptive clauses, use commas to offset them from other parts of the sentence. Academic degrees and abbreviations like etcetera are considered parenthetical expressions and should be offset with commas as well. Finally, use a comma before a conjunction that introduces an independent clause which contains both a subject and verb.
- Commas should not be used to connect independent clauses.
This is a corollary of rule #4. Two independent clauses can be joined with a comma and a conjunction, or they can be separated by a semicolon or colon. They may also be recast as two separate sentences. Sometimes writers will use sentence fragments for emphasis, but this colloquial use of sentence fragments invites confusion and should be avoided. Another way to think of this rule is to avoid replacing commas with periods when writing lists, appositives (a way to re-identify something already named), quotations that illustrate the point being made in the first clause, or amplifications (which are additional information).
- Use the dash to offset a parenthetical phrase. A dash is strong punctuation that should be used sparingly. It indicates an interruption in the writer’s line of thought or a long parenthetical phrase. The subject determines the number of verbs, so it’s important to ensure that all verbs correspond with their subjects during revisions.
