The Elements of Style Archives - Collection at Bartleby.com

The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr.

• Overview: A classic reference guide for students and writers focusing on the requirements of plain English style and common violations in composition.
• Core Philosophy: Writers must understand the rules of composition before they can effectively break them.
• Elementary Rules of Usage:
  • Possessive singular nouns require an 's.
  • Use commas in a series of three or more terms.
  • Enclose parenthetic expressions in commas.
  • Use commas before coordinating conjunctions (and, but) joining independent clauses.
  • Avoid comma splices and sentence fragments.
  • Ensure participial phrases at the start of sentences refer to the grammatical subject.
  • Follow proper conventions for line-end word division.
• Elementary Principles of Composition:
  • Structure: Use one paragraph per topic, starting with a topic sentence.
  • Voice/Tone: Use the active voice and positive assertions.
  • Conciseness: Omit needless words.
  • Syntax: Keep related words together, express co-ordinate ideas in similar form, and avoid loose sentence successions.
  • Emphasis: Place emphatic words at the end of sentences.
  • Consistency: Maintain a single tense in summaries.
• Additional Sections: Includes guidance on matters of form, commonly misused words, and commonly misspelled words.
• Publication History: Originally published in Ithaca, N.Y. (1918); digitized by Bartleby.com (1999).