FOREWORD by Roger Angell

[ TRODUCTION to the ;31"11edition by E. B. White

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I. ELEMENTARY RULES OF USAGE .

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. .. 18

... 21

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l.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

Form the possessive s ingular of nouns by adding 's .

In a se ries of three or more term s with a single

conjunc tion, use a comma after eac h term except

the last .

Enclose parenth eti c express ions between commas. ..

Place a co mma before a conjunction in trodu cin g an

inde pendent clause. . I I

Do not join inde pendent clauses with a comma II

Do not break se ntences in two ]2

Use a colon after an independ ent cla use to introdu ce

a list of part icul ars, an apposi tive, an ampli ficat ion ,

or an illustrative qu otat ion. . .

Use a das h to se t off an abru pt break or interruption

and to annou nce a long appositive or summary 16

The number of the subject determines the number

the verb .

Use the proper case of pronoun . ..

A partici pial ph rase at the beginning of a se ntenc e

must refer to the grammat ical subject. . 24

v I CONTE NTS

II. ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION .....31

12. Choose a suitable design and hold to it. 31

13. Make the paragraph the unit of compos ition 3 1

14. Use the activ e voice . . 33

15. Put sta tements in posit ive form. .34

16. Use defini te, specific, concrete language. . 37

17. Omit needless words. . 39

18 . Avoid a succession of loose sentences. . 40

19 . Express coord ina te ideas in similar form 43

20. Keep related words togeth er 44

21. In summaries , keep to one ten se. . 49

22. Place the emphatic words of a senten ce at the end 52

III. A FEW MATTERS OF FORM 55

IV. WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS COMMONLY MISUSED 63

V. AN APPROACH TO STYLE (with a List of Reminders) 97

1. Place yourse lf in the background 100

2. Write in a way that comes naturally 101

3. Work from a sui table design. . . 101

4. Write with nouns and verbs . . 105

5. Revise and rewrit e. ... 105

6 . Do not overwrite 105

7. Do not overstate 106

8. Avoid the use of qualifiers. . 106

9 . Do not affec t a breezy manner. . 106

10. Use orthodox spell ing. . 108

11. Do not explain too much. .. 109

C ON T I-:NTS I v i

12. Do not construc t awkward adverb s. . 109

13. Make sure the read er knows who is speaking. III

14. Avoid fancy words. ...111

15. Do not use dialect unl ess your ear is good. " 11:3

16. Be clear. . 11:3

17. Do not inject opinion 114

18. Use figures of speech sparingly 115

19. Do not tak e shortcuts at the cost of clarity 115

20. Avoid foreign languages. ' 115

21. Prefer the standa rd to the offbeat. li S

VI. SPELLING (from the first edition) 122

GLOSSAHY 125

INDEX 1 ~4

BACKWOHD 147

COPYRIGHT PAGE l S~

vii I CON TENTS

Forewordhy Roger Angell

The first writer 1 watched at work was my stepfa ther, E. B. White.Eac h Tuesday morni ng, he wonld close his study door and sit down towri te the "Notes and Comment" page for The New Yorker. The task wasfamilia r to him- he was requi red to file a few hundred words of edito­ria l or personal comme ntary on some top ic in or out of the news thatweek-hut the sounds of his typewrit er from his room came in hesit antbursts, with long s ilences in between. Hours went by. Summoned at lastfor lunch , he was s ile nt and preoccup ied , a nd soon exc us ed himself toge t back 10 the job. When the eopy went off at last, in the afternoon RFDpouch-e-we were in Maine, a day's mail awa y from New York-he rarel yseemed satisfied . " It isn't good enough," he sa id sometimes. " I wish itwere be tte r,'

Writing is hard, even for authors who do it all the time. Less frequentpracti tione rs- the job ap plicant; the business execu tive with an annualreport to ge l out ; the high school senior with a Fau lk ner assignment; thegraduate-sc hool stude nt with her thesis proposal ; the writer of a letter ofeo ndole nee-often get stuc k in an awkward pa ssage or find muddle ontheir screens, and then blam e themsel ves . Wha t should be easy andflowing looks tan gled or feeble or overb lown- not wha t was meant a tall. Wha t's wrong with me, ea ch one thinks. Why can't 1 get thi s right?

It was this recurri ng questi on, pu t to himself, that must hav einspired Whi te to revive and add to a textbook by an English professorof his, Will Stru nk Jr. , that he had first rea d in college, and to get it

I v i i i

published. The result, this quiet book, has been in print for forty years,and has offered more than ten million writers a helping hand, Whiteknew that a compendium of specific tips-about singular and pluralverbs, parentheses, the "that"-"which" scuffle, and many others­could clear up a recalcitrant sentence or subclause when quickly recon­sulted, and that the larger principles needed to be kept in plain sight,like a wall sampler.

How simple they look, set down here in White's last chapter: "Writein a way that comes naturally," "Revise and rewrite," "Do not explaintoo much," and the rest; above all, the cleansing, clarion "Be clear."How often I have turned to them, in the book or in my mind, while try­ing to start or unblock or revise some piece of my own writing! Th eyhelp-they really do. They work. They are the way.

E. B. White's prose is celebrated for its ease and clarity-just thinkof Charloue:s Web-but mainta ining this standard requ ired endlessattention. When the new issue of The New Yorker turned up in Maine, Isometimes saw him reading his "Comment" piece over to himself, withonly a sl ightly different expression than the one he'd worn on the day itwent off. Well, O.K., he seemed to be saying. At least I got the ele­ments right.

This edition has been modestly updated, with word processors andair conditioners making their firs t appearance among White's refer­ences, and with a light redistribution of genders to permit a femininepronoun or female fanner to take their places among the males whoonce innocently served him. Sylvia Plath has knocked Keats out of thebox, and I notice that "America" has become "this country" in a sampletext, to forestall a subsequent and possibly demeaning "she" in thesame paragraph. What is not here is anything about E-mail-the rules­free, lower ease flow that cheerfully keeps us in touch these days. E-mailis conversation, and it may be replacing the sweet and endless talkingwe once sustained (and tucked away) within the informul letter, But weare all writers and readers as well as communicators, with the need attimes to please and satisfy ourselves (as White put it) with the clear andalmost perfect thought.

ix I FOlt EWORD

I ntroduc tion *

At the close of the first World War, when I was a stude nt at Corn ell,I took a course calle d English 8 . My professor was William Strunk Jr. Atextbook required for the course was a slim volume called The Elementsof Style, whose author was the profes sor himself. The year was 1919.The book was known on campus in thos e days as "the little book," withthe stress on the word "liuIe." It had been privately printed by theauthor.

I passed the course, graduated from the uni versit y, and forgot thebook but not the professor. Some thirt y-eight years lat er, the bookbobbed up again in my life when Macmillan commiss ioned me to reviseit for the college market and the gen eral trade. Meantime, ProfessorStrunk had died.

The Elements qfStyle, when I reexamined it in 1957, seemed to meto contain rich deposits of gold. It was Will Strunk's parvum opus, hisattempt to cut the vast triangle of' En glish rhetoric down to size andwrite its rul es and principles on the head of a pin. Will himself hadhung the tag " little" on the book; he referred to it sardonically and withsec re t pride as " the littl e book ," alwa ys giving the word "little" a spe­cial twist , as though he wer e putting a spin on a ball. In its original form,it was a forty-three page summation of the case for cleanliness , accuracy,and brevity in the use of English. Today, fifty-two years later, its vigoris unimpaired , and for sheer pith I think it probably sets a record thatis not lik ely to be broken. Even after I got through tampering with it, it

"E. B. White wrote this introduction for the] 979 edition.

I N TH OlJ UCTI ON I x i i

was still a tiny thing, a barely tarnished gem. Seven rul es of usage,eleven principles of composition, a few matters of form, and a list ofwords and expressions commonly misused-that was the sum and sub­stance of Professor Strunk's work. Somewhat audacio usly, and in anatte mpt to give my publisher his money's worth, I added a cha pte rcalled "An Approa ch to Style," setting forth my own prejudices, mynotions of error, my articles of faith. Thi s chapter (Chapter V) isaddressed particularly to those who feel that English prose composi tionis not only a necessary skill but a sensible purs uit as well-a way tospend one's days. I th ink Professor Strunk would not object to that.

A sec ond edit ion of the book was published in 1972. I have nowcomple ted a third revision. Chap ter IV has been refurbis hed with wordsand expressions of a recent vintage; four rules of usage have been addedto Chapter 1. Fresh examples have been added to some of the rules andprinciples , amplifica tion has reared its head in a few places in the textwhere I felt an assault could successfully be made on the bastion s of itsbrevity, and in general the book has received a thorough overhaul-tocorrect errors , delete bewhiskered entries, and enlive n the argument.

Professor Stru nk was a positive man. His book contai ns rules ofgrammar phrased as direc t orders . In the main 1 have not tried to softenhis commands, or modify his pronouncements, or remove the specialobjects of his scorn. I have tried, instead , to preserve the flavor of hisdiscontent while slightly enlarging the scope of the disc uss ion. TheElements of Style does not pre ten d to survey the whole field. Rather itproposes to give in brief space the principal requiremen ts of plainEnglish style . It concentrates on fundamen tals : the rules of usage andprinciples of composition most commonly violated .

The reader will soon discover that these rul es and principles are inthe form of sharp commands , Sergeant Strunk snapping orders to hisplatoon. "Do not join independent cla uses with a comma." (Rule 5.)"Do not break sentences in two." (Rule 6.) "Use the active voice ." (Rule14.) "Avoid a succession ofloose sen tences." (Rule 18.) "In summa ries ,keep to one tense." (Rule 21. ) Each rule of prin ciple is followed by ashort hortatory essay, and usually the exhortation is followed by, orinterlarde d with , examples in parallel columns- the tru e vs. the false,the right vs. the wrong, the timid vs. the bold, the ragge d vs. the trim.From every line there peers out at me the pu ckish face of my professor,

x iii I I NT R ODUCTIO N

his short hair parted neatly in the middle and combed down over hisforehead, his eyes blinking incessantly behind steel-rimmed spectaclesas though he had ju st emerged into strong light , hi s lip s nibbling eachother like nervous horses, his smile shuttling to and fro und er a carefullyedged mustach e.

" Omit needl ess words!" cri es the author on page 39, and into thatimp er ati ve Will Strunk really put hi s heart and soul. In the days whenI was sitting in his class, he omitted so many needless words, and omit­ted them so forcibly and with suc h eagern ess and obvious relish, that heoften seemed in the position of having shortchanged him self-a manleft with nothing more to say yet with time to fill , a radio prophet whohad out-distanced the clock . Will Strunk got out of thi s predicament bya simple trick : he utt ered every se ntence thr ee times. Whe n he deli v­ered his oration on brevity to the class, he leaned forward over his desk ,grasped his coat lapels in his hands, and, in a husk y, conspira toria lvoice, said, " Rule Seve ntee n. Omit needl ess words! Omit needl esswords! Omit nee dless words!"

He was a memorable man , friendl y and funn y. Unde r the remem­bered sting of his kindly lash , I have been trying to omit needl ess wordssince 191 9, and although there are still man y words that cry for omissionand the huge task will never be accompli shed , it is exc iting to me toreread the masterl y Strunkian elaboration of this noble theme. It goes:

Vigorous writin g is conc ise. A se ntence should contain nounn ecessar y words, a paragra ph no unn ecessa ry se ntences, for thesame reason tha t a drawing should have no unnec essary lines anda ma chine no unn ecess ary parts . Thi s requires not that the writermak e all se nte nces short or avoid all detail and treat subjects onlyin outline, but that eve ry word tell.

There you have a short, valua ble essay on the nature and beauty ofbrevity- fifty-nine words that could cha nge the world. Ha ving recov­ere d from his adventure in proli xity (fifty-nine words were a lot of wordsin the tight world of Will iam Strunk jr.), the professor proceed s to givea few quick lessons in pruning. Student s learn to cut the deadwood from"t his is a subject that," reducing it to " this subject, " a saving of threewords. They learn to tr im "use d for fuel purposes" down to "used forfuel. " Th ey learn that they are be ing cha tterboxes whe n the y say "the

I NTH OIl UCTI ON I xiv

qu estion as to whether" and that they should just say "whe ther"- a sav­ing of four words out of a possible five.

The professor devotes a spec ial paragraph to the vile expression thefact that , a phrase that ca uses him to qui ver with revulsion. The expres ­sion, he says, should be "rev ise d out of every se ntence in which itocc urs." But a shadow of gloom see ms to hang over the page, and youfeel that he knows how hopeless his ca use is. I suppose I have writtenthe fact that a thousand times in the heat of composition, revised it outmaybe five hundred times in the cool aftermath. To be balling onl y .500this late in the season, to fail half the time to connec t with this fat pitch ,sa dde ns me, for it seems a bet rayal of the man who showed me how toswing at it and mad e the swinging see m worthwhile.

I treasure The Elements of Style for its sharp advice, but I treasu re iteven more for the audac ity and sel f-confide nce of its author. Will knewwhere he stood. He was so sure of where he stood, and made his posi­tion so clear and so plau sible, that his peculiar stance has continued toinvigorate me-and, I am sure, thousands of other ex-stude nts-duringthe years that have inter ven ed since our first encounter. He had a num­ber of likes and dislikes that were alm ost as whimsical as the choice ofa necktie, yet he mad e them seem utterl y convincing. He disliked theword f orceful and advised us to use fo rcible instead. He felt that theword clever was grea tly overused: " It is best restri cted to ingenuity dis­played in sma ll matt ers." He despi sed the expression student body ,which he term ed gruesome, and made a spec ial trip downtown to theAlumni News office one day to pro test the express ion and sugges t thatsuulerury be subs titu ted-a coina ge of his own, which he felt was sim­ilar to citizenry. [ am told that the News editor was so cha rmed by thevisit, if not by the word, that he ordered the stude nt body buried , neverto rise again. Studentry has tak en its place. It's not much of an improve­ment, but it does sound less cadaverous, and it mad e Will Strunk qu itehappy.

Some yea rs ago, whe n the heir to the thron e of England was a child,I noticed a headline in the Times about Bonnie Prince Charlie: "C HARLES'

TONSILS om:" Immediately Rule I leapt to mind.

1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding s. Follow thisrule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,

xv I I NTR OD UCT I ON

Charles's friend

Burns's poem

the witch's malice

Clearly, Will Strunk had foreseen, as far back as 1918, the dangeroustonsillectomy of a prince, in which the surgeon removes the tonsils andthe Times copy desk removes the final s. He started hi s book with it. Icomm end Rule 1 to the Times, and I tru st that Charles's throat, notCharles' throat, is in fine shape today.

Style rules of this sort are, of course, somewhat a matter of individ­ual preference, and even the established rules of grammar ar e open tochalle nge. Professor Strunk, although one of the most infl exible andchoo sy of men , was qui ck to acknowledge the fallacy of infl exibility andthe danger of doctrine. "It is an old observation," he wrote, " that thebest writ ers sometimes disregard the rul es of rhetoric. When they do so,however, the reader will usually find in the sentence some compensat­ing merit, attained at the cost of the violation. Unl ess he is ce rtain ofdoing as well , he will probably do best to follow the rul es ."

It is encouraging to see how perfectl y a book , even a du sty rul e book ,perpetuates and extends the spirit of a man. Will Strunk loved the clear,the bri ef, the bold, and his book is clear, bri ef, bold. Boldness is per­haps its chief distinguishing mark. On page 43, explaining one of hisparallels, he says, "The lefthand version gives the impression that thewriter is undecided or timid, apparently unable or afraid to choose oneform of expression and hold to it." And his original Rule 11 was "Makedefin ite assertions." That was Will all over. He sc orned the vague, thetam e, the colorless, the irresolute. He felt it was worse to be irresolutethan to be wrong. I rem ember a day in class when he leaned far forward ,in his charac teris tic pose-the pose of a man about to impart a secret­and croaked, " If you don 't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud!If you don 't know how to pronounce a word , say it loud! " Thi s comicalpiece of ad vice struck me as sound at the time , and I still respect it.Wh y compound ignorance with inaudibility? Why run and hid e?

All through The Elements ofStyle one finds evidences of the author'sde ep sympathy for the reader. Will felt that the reader was in serioustrouble most of the tim e, floundering in a swamp, and that it was theduty of an yone att empting to write English to drain thi s swamp quickly

I NTROD UCTI ON I x v i

and ge t the reader up on dry grou nd, or a t leas t to th row a rope. In revis­ing the text, I hav e tried to hold stead ily in mind this beli ef" of" his, thiscon cern for the bewildered reade r.

In the Englis h classes of" today, " the litt le book" is sur rounde d bylonger, lower textbooks-books with permiss ive steering and automa tictransit ions. Perhap s the book has becom e somet hing of" a curios ity. Tome, it still see ms to maintai n its origina l poise, s tand ing, in a draft ytime, erec t, resolute, and assured . I still find the Strunkian wisdom acomfort, the Strunkian hum or a deli ght , and the Strunkian all itudetoward right -and-wrong a blessing undi sgui sed .

E. B. W I IITE

v vi i I I N T R O D UCT I ON

THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

I

Elementary Rules of Usage

1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding :~.

Follow th is ruIe what ever the final co nso nant . Th us writeo

Charles's [ricnd

Burns's poems

tile witch 's mal ice

Except ions are the poss essi ves of an cien t pro per names e nd ing -es

and -is, I he possessi ve [esus '; and s uc h form s as.fiJr conscience' sake.[or

righreousness tsake . But such [orm s as Moses ' ' Jaws, Isis ' tell/file arc C O Ill ­

monly re placed by

the laws or Moses

the temple of Is is

The pronominal possessives hers, its , theirs , YO/l l"S, an d ours hav e noapostrophe . Indefin ite pronouns, however, use the apostrophe to show

posseSSlOn.

one's r igh ts

som ebody else's umbrell a

A common error is to write it ~~ for its , or vice versa . Th e first is a con­

traction, meaning " it is." The second is a poss es sive .

It 's a wise dog that scra tch es its own fleas .

I I

2 . In a series of three or more terms with a single con­junction, use a com m a after each term except the last.

Thus write,

red , whit e, and blu e

gold, si lver, or copper

He open ed the le lter, read it, and mad e a note of its contents.

This comma is often referred to as the "serial" comma .

In the names of bu siness [irm s the last comma is usuall y omitted.Follow the usage of the individual firm .

Little, Brown an d Company

Donaldson, Lufkin & Jen rett e

3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.

The best way to see a country, unless you are pressed for time, isto travel on loot.

This rul e is diffi cul t to apply; it is frequently hard to decide whe the ra sin gle word , su ch as however, or a bri ef phrase is or is not par enthet ic.If the in te rru ption to the flow of the se ntence is but slight, the writermay safely omit the commas. But whe ther the interrupt ion is slight orconsiderabl e, never omi t one comma an d leave the othe r. The re is nodefense for suc h punc tua tio n as

Marj orie's husband, Colonel Nelson pai d us a visit yesterday.

or

My broth er you will be pleased 10 hear, is now in perfect health.

Dates usually con tain parentheti c words or figures . Punc tuate asfollows:

February to July, 1992

April 6, 1986

Wed nesday, November 14, 1990

Note that it is cus tomary to omit the comma in

6 April 1988

3 I EL EM E NT AllY llULE S OF US A GE

The last form is an excellent way to write a date; the figures aresepara ted by a word and are, for that reason, quickly grasped.

A name or a title in direct address is parenthetic.

If, Sir, you refuse, I can not predict what will happen.

Well , Susan, this is a fine mess you ar e in.

The abbreviations etc., i.e., and e.g. , the abbreviations for academicdegrees, and titles that follow a name are parenthetic and should bepunctuated accordingly.

Letters, packages, etc. , should go here.

Horace Fulsome, Ph .D., presided .

Rac hel Simonds , Attorney

The Reverend Harry Lang, S.].

No comma, however, should separate a noun from a restrictive termof identification.

Billy the Kid

The noveli st Jan e Austen

William the Conque ror

The poet Sappho

Although Junior , with its abbrevia tion [r. , has commonly beenregarde d as parenthetic, logic suggests that it is, in fact, res trictive andtherefore not in need of a comma.

Ja mes Wright Jr.

Nonrestrictive relative clauses are parenthetic , as are similar clausesint roduced by conjunctions indi cating time or place. Commas are the re­fore needed. A nonrestrict ive clause is one that does not serve to identifyor define the antec edent noun.

The audience , which had at first been indifferent, became moreand more interested .

In 1769, when Napoleon was born , Corsic a had but recently beenacquired by France.

Th e Element s of S tyle / 6

Nethe r Slowey, where Coleridge wrote The Rime of the AncientMa riner, is a few miles from Brid gewater.

In these se ntences, the clauses introduced by which, when, andwhere are nonrestrictiv e; they do not limit or define, they merely addsome thing. In the first example, the clause introduced by which does notserve to tell which of several possibl e audiences is meant ; the read erpresuma bly knows that alrea dy. The clause adds, parentheti call y, asta tement supplementing that in the main clause. Each of the threese nte nces is a combination of two sta tements that might have beenmad e indep endentl y.

Th e audie nce was at first indifferen t. Later it became more andmore interested.

Napoleon was born in ] 769. At that time Corsica had but recentlybeen acquired by Fran ce.

Coler idge wrote The Rime rd" the Ancient Mariner at Nether Slowey.Net he r Slowey is a few miles [rom Bridgewater.

Hest ricti ve clauses, by contras t, are not parentheti c and are not se toff by commas . Th us,

Peopl e who live in glass houses shouldn' t throw stones .

Here the c lause introduced by who does se rve to tell which peopl e a remeant ; the se ntence, unlike the se ntences abo ve, ca nnot be split intotwo indep endent s ta teme nts. The sa me principle of comma use appli esto parti ci pial phrases and to appositives.

People s ilt ing in the rear couldn' t hear. (restrictive)

Uncle Bert , be ing slightly deaf, moved forward. (nonrestrictive)

My cousin Bob is a talent ed harpis!. (restrictive)

Our oldest daughter, Mary, s ings. (nonrestrictive)

Whe n the main clau se of a se ntence is preceded by a phrase or asubo rdi na te clause, use a comma to se t off these elements .

Partly by hard fighting, partly by diplom ati c skill , they enlargedthei r domini ons to the eas t and rose to royal ran k with the possessionof Sic ily.

1J I E LE MEN TA HY ItOL ES OF USAGE

4. Place a comma before a conjunction introducing anindependent clause.

Th e early rec ords of the city have disa pp eared , and the story of itsfirst years can no lon ger be recon structed.

Th e s ituation is peril ous, but there is sti ll one cha nce of escape .

Two-part sen tences of which the second member is introduced by as(in the sense of "because' tj. jor, or, nor, or while (in the sense of "and atthe same time") likewi se require a comma before the conjunction.

If a dep endent clause, or an in trodu ctory phrase requiring to be se toff by a co mma, preced es the se cond ind ep endent clause, no comma isneed ed afte r the conjunct ion.

Th e s itua tion is perilou s, hut if we are prepared to act promptly,there is s till one chance of esc ape .

When the subjec t is the same for both clauses and is expressed onl yonce, a comma is useful if the connective is lnu, When the connectiv eis and, the comma should be omitted if the relation between the twosta tements is close or immediat e.

I have heard the argumen ts, but am still unconvinced .

He has had se vera l years' experience and is thoro ughly com pe ten t,

5 . Do not join independent clauses with a com nut,

If two or more cla uses grammatically comple te and not join ed by aconj unc tion are to form a single compound se ntence, the prop er mar kof punctuati on is a se micolon.

Mary Shelley's works are enterta ining; they are full of engagingideas.

It is nea rly half past five; we cannot reach town before dar k.

It is, of course, equa lly, correc t to write eac h of these as two sentences,replacing the se micolons with periods.

Mary She lley's works are entert aining, They are full of engaging ideas.

It is nearl y half past five . We ca nno t rea ch town before dark.

I I I E I.E ~lE j TAHY R UL E S O F USAGE

If a conjunction is insert ed , the proper mark is a comma. (Rule 4 .)

Mary Shelley's works are entertaining, for they are full of engag ingideas.

It is nearly half past five, and we cannot reach town before dark .

A comparison of the three forms give n abov e will show clearly theadvantage of the first. It is, a t least in the examples given, beLler thanthe sec ond form because it suggests the close relationship between thetwo stateme nts in a way that the second does not attempt, and beLlerthan the third because it is briefer and therefore more forcible. Ind eed ,this simple meth od of indicating relationship between sta tements is oneof the most useful devices of composition. The rel ati onshi p, as above, iscommonly one of cause and conse que nce.

Note that if the second clause is preced ed by an ad verb, suc h asaccordingly besides, then, there/ore, or thus , and not by a conjunct ion,the sem icolon is still required.

I had never been in the place before; besides, it was dark as atomb .

An exception to the se micolon rule is worth notin g here. A commais preferabl e whe n the c lauses are very shor t and alike in form, or whe nthe tone of the se ntence is easy and conve rsa tional.

Man propo ses, Cod d isposes .

Th e gales swung apa rt, the bridge fell , the portcullis was drawn lip.

1 hard ly knew him, he was so cha nged.

Here today, gone tomorro w.

6. Do 1I0t break sentences in two.

In othe r words, do not lise periods for commas.

I met them on a Cuna rd liner man y years ago. Coming home fromLiverpool to New York.

She was an int eresting ta lker. A woman who had tra veled all overthe world and lived in ha lf a doze n countries .

In both these examples, the first peri od should be replaced by acomma and the following word begun with a small lett er.

Th e El eme nts oj S l y le I 12

It is permissible to make an e mpha tic word or expression se rve thepurpose of a se nte nce and to punctuate it ac cordingly:

Again and again he called out. No reply.

Th e writer mu s t, however, be certain that the emphasis is warranted,lest a clipped se ntence seem merely a blunder in syntax or in punctuation.Generally speaking, th e place for broken se nte nces is in di al ogue , whena charac te r happens to speak in a cl ipped or fragmentary way.

Rules 3, 4 , 5 , and 6 co ver the most important principles that governpunctuation. Th ey should be so thoroughl y mastered that their applica tio nbecomes second nature .

7. Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce alist of particulars , an appositive , lUL amplification, or an illus­tratioe quotation.

A colon tells the re ade r that what follow s is close ly rel at ed to the pre ­ced ing c la us e. Th e co lon has more effect tha n the comma, less powe r tose parate than the se micolon, a nd more forma lity than the dash. II usu allyfollows an ind ependent c la use and sho uld not se parate a verb from itscomple me nt or a preposition from its object. Th e exa mples in the left handco lum n, below, are wro ng; the y s hould be rewritt en as in the righthandco lumn.

Yuur dedicat ed whinierrequires: a knife, a piece ofwood, and a hack porch.

Unders tanding is that pen­etrating quali ty of knuwledgethat grows from: theory, prac­tice, conviction, asse rtion,error, and humili ation.

Your dedicated whittierrequires three props: a knife.a piece of wood, and a hackporch.

Understanding is that pen­etrating quality of knowledgethat grows from theory, prac­tice, convict ion, asse rtion,error, and humiliation.

Joi n two independen t clauses with a colon if the second int erpret s oramplifies the firs t.

But even so, there was a directness and dispatch about animal burial:there was no stopover in the undertaker's foul parlor, no wreath or spray.

A colon may introduce a quotation that supports or contri bu tes to the pre­ced ing cla use .

15 I I::LE ME T AHY H UL ES UF USACE

9. The number of the subject determines the number ofthe verb .

Words th at inte rve ne between subject and verb do not a ffec t the

number of the verb.

The bittersweet flavor ofyouth-i ts trials, its joys, itsadventures, its challe nges­are not soon forgotten.

The bittersweet Ilavor ofyouth-its trial s, its joys, itsadventures, its challenges-s-isnot soon forgotten.

A common blunder is the use of a singular verb form in a relativeclause foll owin g "one of . .. " or a s imilar expression when the relative

is the s ubject.

One of the ablest scien­tists who has altacked thisproblem

One of those people who isnever ready on time

One of the ablest sc ien­tists who have atta cked thisproblem

One of those people whoare never read y on l ime

Use a singula r verh form after each, either, everyone, everybody, neither,nobody, someone.

Everybody thin ks he has a uniqu e sense of humor.

Although both docks strike chee rfully, neither keeps good time.

\Vilh 1I01lC, use the singular verb when the word means " no one" or"not one."

lone of us are perfect. one of us is perfect.

A plural verb is co mmonly used when non e sugges ts more than one

th ing or person.

None are so fallible as those who are sure they're right.

A co mpound subject form ed of two or mor e nouns joined by andalmos t always requires a plural verb.

The walru s and the carpe nter were walk ing close at hand.

Bu t certa in co mpounds, often cli ch es, are so inseparable they are con­sidered a unit and so take a si ngular verb, as do compound sub jects

qualified by each or every.

T h e Element s oj St ),le I 1 8

Th e squalor of the stree ts remi nded her of a line from Oscar Wilde:" \Ve are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the s tars."

Th e colon also has certain fun ctions of form : to follow th e saluta tion ofa formal lett er, to se para te hour from min ute in a notation of tim e, andto se pa ra te the ti tle of a work from its subtitle or a Bible chapter from averse.

Dear Mr. Montagu e:

dep ar ts at I 0:48 1'.~1.

Practical Calligraphy: An Introduction to Italic Script

Nehemiah 11:7

8. Use (I dash to se t oI! an abrupt. break or interruptionatu] to antuntnce a long appositive o r sumnuiry,

A dash is a mark of separation stro nge r than a comma, less formalthan a colon, and more relax ed than paren theses .

His firs t Ihought on gelling out of hed- if he had an y thought at

all-was to get back in again.

The rear axle bega n to mak e a noise-a g rind ing, chattering,teeth-g ritti ug rasp.

Th e incre asin g reluctance of the sun 10 ri se, the extra nip in thebreeze, the pall er of she d leaves dropping-all the evide nces of falldrifting into winter were clearer each day.

Use a dash on ly whe n a more common mark of pu nc luation seemsj nadequat e.

Her father 's suspic ionsproved well-founded-it wasnot Edward she eared for- itwas San Francisco.

Violence-the kind you seeon television-is not honestlyviolent- there lies its harm .

H er father 's su spi cion sprove d well-founded. It wasnot E dward she ca red for, itwas San Francisco.

V iolence, the kind you seeon te l evision, is not honest lyviolent. Th ere lies its harm.

His first thought on getting out ofbed-ifhe had any thought at all­

was to get back in agai n.

The long and the short of it is . ..

Dread and butter was all she se rved.

Give and take is essential to a happy household .

E ver y window, picture, and mirror was smashed.

A singular subject remains s ingu lar even if other nouns are connec t­ed to it by with, as well as, in addition to, except, together with, and noless than.

His speech as well as his manner is object ionable.

A linking verb agree s with the number of its subject.

Wh at is wanted is a few more pairs of hands.

Th e troubl e with truth is its many vari eti es .

Some nouns that appear 10 be plural are usually construe d as singularand given a singu lar verb.

Polit ics is an art, not a sc ience.

Th e Hcp uhl ican ll eudqu urtc rs is on th is s ide of the trac ks.

Bul

Th e gcn cral's qu arters are across the river.

In thes e eases the writer must s imply learn the idioms. Th e conte ntsof a book is si ngular. The conte nts of a jar may be e ither s ing ula r or piu­ra l, dep en d ing on wha t's in the jar-jam or ma rb les.

10. U..se the proper case of pronoun.

Th e person al pro nouns, as well as the pronoun who, change form asthey function as s ubject or obj ect .

Will Jane or he be hired, do you think'?

Th e culprit, it turned out , was he.

We heavy eat ers would rat her walk than ride.

Who knocks'?

Give this work to whoever looks idle.

2 1 I F.LF:MF.NTA RY RULF. S OF US AG F.

In the last example, whoever is the subject of looks idle; the obj ect of thepreposition to is the entire clause whoever looks idle. Wh en who in troducesa subordina te cl aus e, its case depends on its funct ion in that cl ause.

Virgil Soames is the can­didate whom we think willWin .

Virgil Soames is the ca n­did ate who we hope to elec t.

Virgil Soames is the can­didate who we think will win.[We think he will win.]

Virgil Soames is the can­didate whom we hope to elee t.[We hope to elect him.]

A pronoun in a compa rison is nom inati ve if it is the subject of a sla tedOf understood verb.

Sandy writes better than I. (Than I write.)

In ge ne ra l, a void " unders tood" verbs by s upplying them .

I think Horace admiresJess ica more than r.

Polly loves ca ke morethan me.

I thin k Horace admiresJess ica more than I do.

Polly loves ca ke more thanshe loves me.

Th e obj ecti ve case is correct in the following ex am ples .

The ranger offered Shirley and him some advice on campsites.

They carne to meet the Baldwins and us.

Let's lalk it over belween us, then , you and me.

Whom should I ask?

A group of us taxpayers prolesled.

Us in the last example is in apposition to taxpayers , the obj ect of theprepositi on of. The wording, a lt ho ug h gra mma tic ally defensible , israrel y apt. "A group of us protes ted as taxp ayers" is bet te r, if not exac tlyeq uiva le nt.

Use the s imple personal pronoun as a subject.

Blake and myself stayedhome.

Howard and yoursel fbrou ght the lunch, I thought.

Blake and I stayed home.

Howard and you broughtthe lunch , I thought.

Th e Elements of St yle / 22

Th e possessive case of pronouns is used to show owne rship. It hastwo forms: the adj ecti val modifi er, YO lir hat , and the noun form, a hatof YOlirs.

Th e dog has bu ri ed one of your gloves and one of min e in the

Hower bed .

Gerunds usually require the possessive case.

Mother obj eeled to our driving on the icy road s.

A present participle as a verbal, on the othe r hand, tak es the objec­tive case.

Th ey heard him singing in the showe r.

The difference between a verbal participle and a gerund is not alwaysobvious, but note what is really said in eac h of the following.

Do you mind me as king a qu estion "?

Do you mind my asking a qu estion'?

In the first se ntence, the queri ed objection is to me, as oppo sed toother memb ers of the group, asking a question. In the sec ond example,the issue is wheth er a qu estion may be asked at all.

11. A participial phrase at the beginning of (l sentencemust refer 10 the grumnuuicol subje ct .

Walking s lowly down the road , he saw a woman aecompanied by

two children.

Th e word walking refer s to the subject of the se ntence, not to thewoma n. To mak e it re fer to the woma n, the writer must recast thesente nce.

He saw a woma n, accompa nied by two childre n, walking slowlydown the road.

Participial phrases precede d by a conjunc tion or by a prepo sition,nouns in apposition, adj ect ives, and adj ective phrases come und er thesame rul e if they begin the se ntence .

Th e El ement s of S tyl e I 24

On arriving in Chicago, hisfriends met him at the station.

A soldier of proved valor,they entrus ted him with thedefen se of the city.

Young and inexperi en ced ,the lask see med easy to me.

Withoul a friend to counse lhim, the lemplation provedirresistihle,

On arriving in Chicago, hewas met at the sta tion by hisfriends.

A soldier of proved valor,he was entrus ted with thedefen se of the city.

Young and inexperi enced ,I thought the task easy.

Without a friend to counselhim , he found the temptationirresistible.

Se ntences viola ting Rul e II are often ludi crous:

Bein g in a dilapidated condition, I was able to buy the house verychea p.

Wondering irresolutely what lo do next, the cloc k s truc k twelve .

Wondering irresolutelywhat to do next ,

the clock struck twelve.

II

Elementary Principles of Composition

12. Choose a suitable design and hold 10 it.

A basic structural desi gn und erli es every kind of writing. Writerswill in part follow this design, in part deviat e from it, accord ing to theirsk ills , their needs, and the unexpected events that aeeompany the actof compos ition. Writing, to be effectiv e, must follow closely the thou ght sof the writer, but not necessarily in the ord er in which those thoughtsoccur, This calls for a sch em e of procedure. In some cases , the bestdesign is no desi gn , as with a love leit er, which is simply an outpourin g,or with a casual essay, which is a rambl e. But in most eases, plann ingmust be a deliberate prelude to writing. The first prin cipl o of compos i­tion , therefore , is to fores ee or determine the shape of what is to comeand pu rsu e that shape.

A sonnet is built on a fourt een-line fram e, eac h lin e conta ining fivefeet. Hence, sonneteers knows exac tly where they are headed, alt houghthey may not know how to ge t there. Most [orms of composition are lessdearly defined, more flexible, but all have skel etons to which the writ erwill bring the flesh and the blood. The more d early the writer perceiv esthe shape, the better are the chances of success.

13. Make the paragraph the unit of composition.

The paragraph is a conveni ent unit; it serves all forms of literarywork . As long as it holds together, a paragraph may be of any length­a single, short sentence or a passage of great duration.

31 I

If the subject on which you are writing is of slight extent, or if youint end to trea t it briefly, there may be no ne ed to divid e it into top ics.Thus, a brief description, a bri ef book review, a brief account of a singleincident, a narrative merely outlining an action, the setting forth of asingle idea-anyone of these is best writt en in a single paragraph .Afte r the paragraph has been written, examine it to see whether di visionwill improve it.

Ordinarily, however, a subject requires divi sion into top ics, eac h ofwhich should be dea lt with in a paragraph . The obj ect of treating eac htopic in a paragraph by itself is, of course, to aid the reader. The begin­nin g of eac h paragraph is a s ignal to him that a new s tep in the devel­opm ent of the subject has been reached.

As a ru le, s ingle se ntences should not be written or pr inted as para­graphs. An exception may be made of se ntences of tra nsi tion, indica tingthe relat ion be tween the parts of an expos ition or argumen t.

In d ialogu e, eac h sp eech, even if on ly a single word, is usuall y aparagraph by itself; that is, a new paragraph begins with eac h change ofsp eaker. The applica tion of thi s rule when dialogue and narrative arecombined is bes t learned from examples in we ll-edited works of fict ion.Somet imes a writer, seek ing to c rea te an effect of rapi d ta lk or for someother rea son , will e lect not to se t off eac h sp eech in a se pa ra te para­graph and instea d will run speeches together. The common practice,however, an d the one that se rves best in most instances, is to give eac hspeech a paragraph of its own.

As a ru le, begin ea ch paragraph eithe r with a se ntence tha t sugges tsthe topi c or with a se ntence tha t he lps the transition. If a paragraphform s part of a larger compos ition, its re lation to what preced es, or itsfuncti on as a part of the whole , may need to be ex pressed. Thi s ca nsometimes be done by a mere word or phrase (again, th erefore , [or thesame reason) in the first se ntence. Some times, however, it is ex ped ientto get into the topic slowly, by way of a se ntence or two of in trodu ctionor trans ition.

ln narration and descrip tion , the paragraph some times begins with aconc ise , comprehe nsive s ta tement serv ing to hold toge ther the detai lsthat follow.

Th e breeze served us admi rably.

Th e ca mpaign opened with a se ries of reverses.

Th c E l e me nts 11/ S I} le I ;12

The next ten or twelve pages were filled with a curious set ofent ries .

But when th is device , or any device, is too often used, it becomes ama nn erism. More commonly, the opening sentence simply indicates by

its subject the direction the paragraph is to take .

At lengt h I thought I might return toward the stockade.

He picked up the heavy lamp from the table and began to explore.

Another flight of steps, and they emerged Oil the roof.

In an ima ted narrative, the paragraphs are likely to be short andwithou l any sembla nce of a topi c senten ce, the writer rushing headlong,event following event in rapid succession. Th e break between such

paragraphs merely serves the purpose of a rhetorica l pause, throwinginto prominence some detai l of the act ion .

In general, remember that paragraphing calls for a good eye as wellas a logical mind . E normous blocks of print look formida ble to readers,

who a re often re luct a nt to tack le them. Therefore, breaking long para­graphs in two, even if il is not necessa ry to do so lor sense, mea ning, orlogica l development, is o fte n a visua l help. But rem embe r, too, that firingolf many short paragraphs in quick succession ca n be dist rac ting.

Paragraph breaks used only for show read like the writing of comme rceor of d ispl ay advertising. Mode ra tion and a sense of order shou ld be themain consi derations in paragrap hing.

14.. US(~ the actice voice.

Th e active voice is us ua lly more direct and vigorous than the pass ive:

I shall always remember my first visit to Boston.

This is much beller than

My first visit to Boston will always be remembered hy me.

The la tter sentence is less di rect, less bold, and less concise. If thewri ter tries to make it more concise by omitting "by me,"

My first visit to Boston will always be remembered,

it becomes indefinite: is it the wri ter or some undisclosed person or theworld at large that will always remember this visit?

33 I ELEMENTARY P R I NCI P LES OF CO MPOS ITION

Thi s rul e does not , of course, mean that the writ er should entirelydiscard the passive voice, which is frequently conve nient and some­times necessary.

Th e dram at ists of the Restoration are little es teemed today.

Modern read ers hav e little es tee m for the dramatists of theResto rati on .

The first would be the preferred form in a pa ragraph on the dramatistsof the Restorati on; the second, in a paragraph on the tastes of modernread ers. The need of making a particular word the subject of the se ntencewill often, as in these exa mples , determine which voice is to be used .

Th e habitual use of the ac tive voice, however, mak es for forcibl ewriting. Thi s is true not onl y in narrati ve principally concerned withaction but in writing of any kind. Many a lame se ntence of descriptionor exposition can be mad e lively and empha tic by substituting a tran si­tive in the ac tive voice for some suc h perfunctory express ion as there isor could be heard.

Th ere were a great numberof dead leaves lyin g on theground.

At dawn the crowing of arooster cou ld he heard .

The reason he left collegewas that his health becam eimp aired .

It was not long before hewas very sorry that he hadsaid wha t he had.

Dead leaves cove red theground.

Th e coc k's c row came withdawn.

Failing health compelle dhim to lea ve college .

She soon repented herword s.

Note, in the examples above, that when a se ntence is mad e stronger,it us ually becomes shorter. Th us, brevity is a by-product of vigor.

15 . Put statements in positive form.

Make definite assertions . Avoid tam e, colorless, hesitating, noncom­mittal language . Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis,never as a mean s of evasion.

Th e El em e nl s of SI )"I, I 3 4

He was not very ofte n ontime.

She did not think thats tudying La tin was much use.

The Taming 0/ the Shrewis ruth er weak in spots.Shakespeare does not por trayKatha rine as a very admirahlecharacte r, nor doe s Biancaremain long in memory as animportant churact er inShakespeare's works .

He us ually came late.

He thought the study ofLatin usel ess .

Tho women in The Taming(~/JJw Shrew are unattractive.Kathari nc is disagreea hle,Bianca insignifican t.

The last example, before correction, is ind e fin ite as we ll as ne ga ti ve .

The corrected ve rsion, conseq ue ntly, is s im ply a gu ess at the wr ite r's

in te ntion.

Al l th re e e xa m p les show the weakness in heren t in the word not..

Conscious ly or u nc on sci o us ly, the reade r is d issa tis fie d with bei ng told

only what is not; th e re ad e r wishes 10 be lo ld what is. Hence, as a ru le,

it is better to e xp re ss e ve n a negaliv e in posit ive [o rm .

not honest

not impo rtant

d id nol remember

did not pay any attent ion 10

did not havc much confi­den ce in

disllOncs l

lrirJing

forgot

ignorcd

d islrusl (:d

Placing negat ive a nd pos it ive III opposition makes for a s tron ger

structure.

Not charity, bUI simple ju stice.

Not that I loved Caesar less, hu t that I loved llom « more.

Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can dofor your cou ntry.

Negati ve words other tha n not are usually s tro ng.

Her lovel iness I nev er kn ew / Until she smil ed on me.

:JS I E LE M E NTA ll Y PIUNCIPLE S OF COMPO S ITIO N

Statements qualified with unnecessary auxiliaries or conditionalssound irresol ut e.

If you would let us knowthe time of your arrival , wewould be happy to arrangeyour transportation from theairport.

Applicants can make agood impression by being neatand punctual.

If you will let us know thetime of your arrival, we shallbe happy to arrange yourtransportation from the airport.

Applicant s will make agood impression if they areneat and punctual.

Plath was one of thosemodern poets who died young.

Plath may be rankedamong those modern poetswho died young.

If your eve ry sente nce admits a doubt, your writing will lack authority.Sav e th e aux iliaries would, should, could, may, might, and can for situ­a tions involving real un certai nty.

16. Use definite, specific, concrete language.

Prefer the specific to the gen eral, the definite to th e vagu e, the con­

cre te to the abstrac t.

A period of unfavorableweather set in.

He showed satisfaction ashe took possession of his well­earned reward .

It rained every day for aweek.

He grinned as he pocketedthe coin.

If those who have studied the art of writing are in accord on an yonepoi nt, it is this: the surest way to arouse and hold the reader's attentionis by bei ng specific, definite , and concret e. Th e greatest writers ­Hom er, Dante, Shakespeare-are effecti ve largely because they deal inparticul ars and report the de tails that matter. Their words call up pictures.

Jean Stafford, to cite a more modern author, demonstrates in hershort story " In th e Zoo" how prose is made vivid by the use of words that

evoke images and sensations:

. . . Daisy and I in time found asylum in a small menagerie downby the railroad tracks. It belonged to a gentle alcoholic ne'er-do-well,who did nothing all day long but drink bathtub gin in rickeys and

37 I ELEME NT ARY PRI N CIPL E S OF COMPO SITION

play solitai re and smile to himself an d talk to his animal s. He had alittle, stunted red vixe n an d a deodorized skunk, a parrot from Tahitithat spoke Parisian Fren ch , a woebegone coyote, and two capuc hinmonk eys, so serious and humanized , so small and sad and swee t, andso religious-looking with their tonsured head s that it was impossiblenot to think their gibbe rish was really an ordered lan guage with agra mmar that someday some ph ilologist would underst and .

Gra n knew about our vis its to Mr. Mur phy and she did not objec t,for it gave her keen pleasure to excoriate him when we came home.Hi s vice was not a matter of guesswork ; it was an es tablished fact thathe was half-sea s over from dawn till midnight. "With the black Irish ,"said Gran, " the taste for the drink is taken in with the mother's milkand is never master ed . Oh , I know all ab ou t those promi ses to jo in thetem peran ce movement and not to toueh another drop. Th e way to Hellis paved with good in tentions."*

If the experiences of Waller Mill y, of Molly Bloom, of HahhitAngs trom ha ve seemed for the moment real to countless readers, ifin reading Faulkner we have almost th e sense of inhabitingYoknapatawpha County du rin g the decline of the South, it is becausethe det ail s used are definite, the terms concrete . It is not that eve rydet ail is given- Ihat would be imp ossible , as well as to no purpose­but that a ll the s ignificant deta ils a re given, and with suc h accuracy andvigor that readers, in imagin ation , can proj ect themsel ves int o the scen e.

In exposition and in argum ent, the writ er must lik ewise ne ve r losehold of the concret e; and even when dealing with genera l principl es, thewriter must furni sh parti cul ar instan ces of thei r appli cation.

In his Philosophy 0/Style, Herbert Spe ncer gives two sentences toillust rat e how the vague and gen eral can be turned into the vivid andparticular:

In proportion as the man ­ne rs, customs, and amuse­ments of a nation are erue land barbarous, the regulationsof its penal code will besevere.

In proportion as mendeli ght in battles, bullfi ght s,and combats of gladiators, willthey punish by han ging, burn­ing, and the raek.

"Excerpt from "ln the Zoo" from /lad Cha racters hy Jean Starford. Copyright © 1964 by Jean Stafford.Copyright renewed © 1992 by Nora Cosgrove. Rep rinted hy permission of Far ra r, Stra us & Giroux, Inc. Alsocopyr ight © ]969 by Jean Stafford; repr inted by permiss ion of Cur tis Brown. Ltd.

T h e E l e m e nt s of S t yl e I ;~8

To show what happens when strong writing is deprived of its vigor,George Orwell on ce took a passage from th e Bible and drained it of itsblood. On the left, below, is Orw ell's translation; on the righ t, the verse

from Ecclesiastes (King James Version).

Objective consideration ofcontemporary phenomenacompels the conclusion thatsuccess or failure in competi­tive activities exhibits notend ency to be commensu ratewith innate capacity, but thata considerable element of theunpredictable must inevitablybe Laken into account.

17. Omit needless words.

I return ed, and saw underthe sun, that the race is not tothe swift, nor the battle to thestrong, neith er yet bread tothe wise, nor yet riches to menof understanding, nor yetfavor to men of skill; but timeand chance happeneth tothcm all.

Vigorous writing is co nc ise . A se nte nce s hould co nta in no unneces­

sary words , a paragraph no unneces sary se ntences, for the same reasonthat a dra wing should ha ve no unnecessary lin es an d a machi ne nounnecess ary parts, Th is requ ires not that the writ er mak e a ll se nte ncesshort, or a void all det ail a nd treat subjects only in outline, bUI that e ve ry

word te ll.

Man y ex press ions in common use viola te thi s principl e.

the question as to whether

there is no doubt hut that

used for fuel purposes

he is a man who

in a hasty manner

this is a subjec t that

Her story is a strange one.

the reason why is that

wh e th er (th« qu es tion

whether)

no douht (douhtless)

used lor fuel

he

hastily

this subjec t

Her story is strange.

because

The fact that is a n especially debilitating expressi on. It should be

revised ou t of every sen tence in which it occurs.

:l lJ I E LE MENTAR Y PRI N CI PL E S O F COMPO SITIO N

owing to the fac t that

in spite of the fact that

ca ll your all ention to thefact that

I was unaware of the factthat

the fact that he had notsucceeded

the fac t that I had ar rived

since (beca use)

thoug h (although)

remind you (notify you)

I was unaware that (didnot know)

his failure

Illy ar rival

See also the words case, character, nature in Chapter IV. Who is, whichwas, and the lik e are often superfluous.

His cousiu, who is a mem­ber of the same firm

Trafalgar, which wasNelson's last bat tle

His cousin, a member ofthe same firm

Trafalgar, Nelson's lastballle

As the active voice is more conc ise than the passive, and a posi tivesta tement more conc ise than a negative one, many of the examplesgiven und er Rul es 14 and 15 illustrate this rul e as well.

A com mon way to Ial] into wordin ess is to present a single complexidea , s tep by step , in a seri es of sent en ces that might to advant age becombined in to one .

Macbeth was very ambi­tious. This led him to wish tobecome king of Sco tlan d. Thewitches told him that this wishof his would come true. Theking of Scotland at this timewas Duncan. Encouraged byhis wife, Macbeth murderedDun can . He was thus enabledto suc ceed Duncan as king.(51 words)

Encouraged by his wife,Macbeth achi eved his ambitionand realized the prediction ofthe witches by murd er ingDuncan and becoming king ofScotland in his place.(26 words)

13. Avoid a succession of loose sentences.

This rul e refers especially to loose sentences of a particular type:thos e consisting of two clauses, the second introduced by a conjunction

Her story is strange.

or relative. A writer ma y err by making sen te nces too compact and peri­odic . An occasional loose sente nce pre vents the s tyle from becomingtoo formal and gives the read er a cer ta in relief. Consequently, loose sen­tences are co mmon in easy, unstudied writing . Th e danger is that theremay be too many of them.

A n un skilled writer will some times cons truct a whol e paragraph of

sentences of thi s kind , using as connectives and, but, and, le ss fre­quently, who, which, when, where, and while, these la st in nonrestrict ivesenses. (See Hul e 3.)

The third concert of the subscription se ries was given last evening,and a large audience was in attendance. Mr. Edward Appleton wasthe soloist, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra furnished theinstrum ental music. The former showed himself to be an artist of thefirst rank, while the laller proved itself fully deserving of its highreputation. The interest aroused by the series has been very gratifyingto the Committee, and it is plann ed to give a similar series annuallyhereafter. The fourth concert will be given on Tuesday, May 10, whenan equally attra ctive program will be presented .

Apart from its trit eness and emptiness, the paragraph above is badbecause of the s truct ure of its se ntences, with their mechanical sym me try

a nd s ingsong. Compa re these sen te nces from the c ha pte r " Wha t IBeli e ve" in E. M. Forst er's 7100 Cheersfor Democracy:

I believe in aristocracy, though-if that is the right word, and if ademocrat lIIay use it. Not an aristocracy of power, bused upon rankand influence, but an aristocracy of the se nsitive, the considerate andthe plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and class es,and all through the ages, and there is a sec ret understanding betweenthem when they meet. They represent the true human tradition , theone perman ent victory of our queer race over crue lty and chaos.Thousands of them perish in obscurity, a few are great names. Theyare se nsitive for others as well as for themselves, they are conside ratewithout being fussy, their pluck is not swankiness but the power toendure, and they ca n take a joke.*

" Exce rp t from " Whal l Believe" ill Tuo Cheers/or Democracy, copyright 1 9:~<) and renewed 196 7 byE. 1\'1. Fors ter, reprinted hy per mission of Harcourt . Inc. Also, hy permission of Th e Provost and Scholars ofKing's College. Cambridge. and The Soddy of Authors as the literary representa tives of the E. 1\1. FOI15le r Estate.

Th e El em ents oj St yl e I 42

A writ er who has written a se ries of loose se nte nces should recastenough of them to remov e the monotony, repl acing them with simplesenten ces , senten ces of two clauses joined by a se micolon, by periodicsent ences of two clauses, or sentences (loose or periodic) of thre e clauses­whichever best represent the real relations of the thought.

19. Express coordinate ideas in similar form.

This principl e, that of parallel construc tion, requires that expressionssimilar in content and function be outwardl y similar. The likeness of formenables the read er to recognize more readil y the likeness of content and func ­tion. The familiar Beatitudes exemplify the virtue of parallel construction.

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kin gdom of hea ven.Blessed are they that mourn: for they sha ll be comforted .Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit the ea rth,Blessed are they which do hun ger and thirst after righteousness: for

they shall be filled .

The unskilled writer often violates this principl e mistakenly believing inthe value of constantly varying the form of express ion. When repeating astatement to emphasize it, the writer may need to va lY its form. Otherwise,the writer should follow the principle of parall el construction.

Formerly, sc ience wastauglu in the textbook meth od,while now the laboratorymethod is employed.

Formerl y, sc ience waslau ght by the textbookmethod; now it is taught bythe laborato ry method.

The lefthand vers ion gives the impression that the writer is und ecidedor timid , apparently unabl e or afraid to choose one form of express ion andhold to it. The right hand version shows that the writer has at least mad ea choice and abide d by it.

By this principle, an article or a preposition applying to all the membersof a se ries must either be used only before the first term or else be repeat­ed before eac h term.

the Fren ch , the Ital ian s,Spanish , and Portu gue se

. . .in spn ng, summer, or in

winter

the French , the Italians, theSpanish, and the Portuguese

in spring, summer, or winter(in spring, in summer, or inwinter)

43 I ELE MENTARY PR INC I PLF:S OF CO MPOS IT ION

Some words require a parti cular preposit ion in certa in idiomaticuses. Wh en suc h words are joined in a compound cons truction, all theappropriate prep ositions must be included, unl ess they are the sa me.

His speech was mark ed bydisagreement and sco rn forhis oppo ne nt's positi on .

His speech was marked bydi sagreement with an d sco rnfor his oppone nt's position.

Correlative expressions (both, and; not, but; not only, but also; either,or; first, second, third; and the like) should be followed by the sa megra mmatical cons truction. Many viola tions of this rul e ca n be correctedby rea rranging the se nte nce.

It was both a long ceremonyand very tedious.

A time not for words butaction.

Eithe r you must grant hisrequest or incur his ill will.

My objections are, first ,the injus tice of the measure;second, that it is uncon stitu­tional.

Th e ceremony was bothlong and ted ious.

A time not for words bu tfor ac tion.

You must ei ther gra nt hisrequest or incur his ill will.

My objecti ons are, first ,that the measure is unjust ;second, that it is unconstitu­tional.

It may be asked , what if you need to express a rath er large numberof si milar ideas- say, twenty? Must you write twenty consecutive se n­ten ces of the sa me pattern? On closer examination, you will probabl yfind that the difficulty is imaginary-that these twenty ideas ca n beclassifi ed into groups, and that you need apply the principl e only withineach group. Otherw ise, it is best to avoid the difficulty by putting state­ment s in the form of a table.

20. Keep related words together.

Th e positi on of the words in a se nte nce is the prin cip al means ofshowing their relationship. Confus ion and ambiguity res ult when wordsare badly placed . The writer must, therefore, br ing togeth er the wordsand groups of words that are related in thou ght and keep ap art thosethat are not so related.

Th e Elem ent s oj S ty le I 44

H e noticed a large stain inthe ru g that was right in the

ce nte r.

He noticed a large stainright in the center of the rug.

You can call your motherin London and tell her allabou t George's taking you outto dinner for ju st two doll ars.

For just two doll ars youca n ca ll your moth er inLond on and tell her all aboutGeorge's taking you out todinn er.

New York's Erst commercialhuman-sperm bank opene dFrid ay with se men samplesfrom eightee n men frozen in astainless stee l tank .

New York's first commercialhum an -sp erm bank ope nedFriday when se me n sa mpleswere tak en from eightee nmen . Th e samples were thenfrozen and store d in a sta in­less steel tank .

In the lefthand vers ion of the first example, the reader has no way ofknowing wheth er the stain was in the ce nter of the rug or the rug was inthe ce nter of the room. In the lefthand vers ion of the sec ond exa mple, thereader may well wond er which cos t two dollars-the phon e call or thedinner. In the lefth and vers ion of the third exa mple, the read er 's heartgoes out to those eighteen poor fellows frozen in a stee l tank.

The subject of a se ntence and the principal verb should not, as arul e, be se parated by a phrase or clau se that can be transferred to thebeginning.

In Beloved, Toni Morriso nwrites about cha racte rs whohave esc aped from slavery butare haunted by its heritage .

Unless disci plined , a dogbecomes a hou sehold pest.

Toni Morr ison, in Beloved ,writes about cha rac ters whohave esc aped from slavery butare haunted by its heritage.

A dog, if you fail to disci ­pl ine him , becomes a house­hold pest.

Int erposin g a phrase or a clau se, as in the lefthand examples above,int errupts the flow of the main clause. Thi s in terruption, however, is notusually bothersome whe n the flow is checked only by a relative clauseor by an express ion in apposition. Sometimes, in periodic senten ces, theinterruption is a deliberate device for creating suspe nse. (See examplesunder Rule 22. )

Th e El e m e n t.s of S t yle / 4 6

The relative pronoun should come, in most instances , immediatelyafter its an tecedent.

There was a stir in theaud ien ce that sugges ted dis­ap proval.

He wrote three articlesabout his adventures in Spain,which were pub lished inHarper's Magazine.

Th is is a portrait ofBenjamin Harrison, whobecame Presiden t in 1889. Hewas the grand son of WilliamHenry Harri son.

A st ir that sugges ted dis ­approval swept the audience.

He published three arti­cles in Harper's Magazineabout his adv en tures in Spain.

This is a portrai t ofBenjamin Harrison, grandsonof William Henry Harrison ,who becam e Presid ent in1889.

If the ant eced ent consists of a group of words, the relative comes atthe end of the group, un less this would cause ambigu ity.

The Sup erintendent of the Chicago Division , who

No ambiguity results from the abov e. But

A proposa l to amend the Sherman Act, which has been vario uslyjudged

leaves the reader wondering whether it is the proposal or the Act thathas been variousl y judged . The re lative clause must be moved forward ,to read, "A proposal , which has been variously judged, to am end theSherman Act. .. ." Similar ly

The grandson of WilliamHenry Harrison, who

Willi am Henry Harrison'sgrandson , Benjamin Harrison,who

A noun in ap posi tion may come between antecedent and relati ve,because in such a combination no real ambiguity can arise.

The Duke of York, his brother, who was regarded with hostility bythe Whigs

Modifiers should corne, if possible, next to the words they modify. Ifseveral expressions modify the same word, they shou ld be arranged sothat no wrong relation is suggested.

T h e El e m e n ts oj S tyle / 48

All the members were notpresent.

She only found two mis­takes.

The director said he hopedall members would give gener­ously to the Fund at a meetin gof the committee yesterday.

Major It E. Joyce willgive a lecture on Tuesda yevening in Bail ey Hall , towhich the publi c is invited on" My Experi ences inMesopotumia " al 8:00 p.m.

Not all the members werepresent.

She found only two mis­takes.

At a meetin g of the com­mittee yesterd ay, the directorsaid he hoped all memberswould give generously to theFund .

On Tuesday evening ate ight, Major H. E. Joyce willgive a lecture in Bailey Hallon "My Experiences inMesopotamia." The public isinvited.

Nol e, in th e last lefLhand e xa mple , how swiftly meaning departs whenwords are wron gly juxtaposed .

21. In summaries; keep to one tense,

In s umma riz ing the notion of a drama, use the present ten se. Tn s um­

marizing a poem, story, or nov el , al so use the present though you ma y

use th e past if it seems more natural to do so. If th e s umma ry is in th e

present tense , antec ed ent action should he ex pressed hy the perf ect ; if

in the past , hy the pa st perfect.

Chan ce prevents Friar .John from deliv erin g Friar Lawrcucc's leiterto Homco. Meanwhile, owing to her father 's arh itrury change of thoday set for her wedding, .luliet has heen compelled 10 dr ink the potionon Tuesday night , with the result that Balthazar informs Homeo of hersupposed death before Friar Lawrence learns of the non-deli very ofthe lett er.

Rut whi chever tense is used in th e s u mmary, a pa st ten se in indirect

di scourse or in indirect qu estion remains un changed.

The Friar confesse s that it was he who married them.

Apart from the exceptions noted, th e writer should use th e same

tense throughout. Shifting from one tense to another giv es the appear­

ance of un certainty and irresolution.

49 I ELE MENTAHY PRI CIPI.ES OF C O ~t P oS IT I O

In presenting th e sta tements or the thought of someone else, as insummarizing an essay or reporti ng a speech, do not overwor k su chexpressions as "he sai d," "she stated," " the speake r added," " thespeaker then went on to say," " the author also thinks." Indicate clearlya t the ou tse t, once for all, tha t what follo ws is sum mary, and then was teno words in rep eating the notification.

In noteb ooks, in newsp ap ers, in handbooks of lit erature, sum mariesof on e kind or another may be indisp en sable, and for children in pri ­mary sc hools ret elling a story in thei r own word s is a useful exerc ise.But in the critic ism or interpretation of lit erature , be care ful to avoiddropping into summary. It may be necessary to devot e one or two se n­ten ces to ind ica ting the su bject, or the ope ning situation, of the workbeing di scu ssed , or to cite num erous details to illustrate its qu alities.But you should ai m at wr iting an orde rly di scu ssion supported by evi ­den ce, not a summary with occasional comme nt. Similarly, if the sc opeof the di scu ssion includes a number of work s, as a ru le it is better notto tak e them up singly in ch ronological order but to a im from the begin­nin g at es tabl ishing gene ra l conclus ions.

2 2. Place the emp h a tic words of a sen tence at. the end.

The proper place in the se ntence for the word or gro up of words thatthe writ er desires to mak e most prominent is usu all y the end.

Humanity has hardlyadvanced in fortitude sincethat time, though it hasadvance d in many other ways.

This steel is principallyused for making razors,because of its hardness.

Since that time, humanityhas advanced in many ways,bUI it has hardly advanced infortitude.

Because of its hardness,this steel is used principall yfor making razors.

The word or group of words en titled 10 this posi tion of prominence isusu all y the logical predi cate-that is, the new elem ent in the sentence,as it is in the second example .

The effec tive ness of the pe riodic se nte nce arises from the promi­nen ce it gives to th e main statem ent.

Four centuries ago, Christopher Columbus, one of the Italianmariners whom the decline of their own republics had put at the service

Th e E l e m e n t s "j St yle / .02

of the world and of adventure, seeking for Spain a westward passageto the Indies to offset the achievement of Portuguese discoverers,lighted on America.

With these hopes and in this belief I would urge you, laying asideall hindrance, thrusting away all private aims, to devote yourselfunswervingly and unflinchingly to the vigorous and succes sful prose­cution of this war.

Th e other prominent position in the sentence is the beginning. Anyel em ent in the sentence oth er than the subject becomes emphatic whenplaced first.

Deceit or treachery she could never forgive.

Vast and rude, frelted by the action of nearly three thousand years,the fragments of this architectu re lllay often seem, at first sight, likeworks of natur e.

Horne is the sailor.

A subject corning first in its se n tence may be e mpha tic, but hardl yby its posit ion alone . In the sentence

Great kings worshiped ut his shrine

the e mphas is upon kings ari ses largel y from its meaning and from thecontex t. To receiv e spec ia l emp has is, the subject of a se ntence mu sttak e the pos ition of the predicate.

Through the middle of the valley flowed a winding stream.

Th e principl e that the proper place for what is to be mad e mostprominent is the e nd appl ies eq ually to the word s of a se ntence, to thesenten ces of a paragraph, an d to the paragraphs of a compos ition.

5:l I EL F:MENTATIY PTII N C1PLF: S or COMPO SITIO N

III

A Few Matters of Form

Colloquialisms. If you use a colloquialism or a slang word orphrase, simply use it; do not draw att ention to it by enclosing it in quo­tation marks. To do so is to put on airs, as though you were inviting thereader to join you in a se lect society of those who know better.

Exclamations. Do not attempt to emphasize simple statements byusing a mark of exclamation .

It was a wonderful show! It was a wonderful show.

The exclamation mark is to be reserved for use after true exclamationsor commands.

What a wond erful show!

Halt !

Headings . If a man uscript is to be submitted for publication, leaveplenty of space at the top of page 1. The edi tor will need this space towrite directions to the compositor. Place the heading, or titl e, at least afourth of the way down the page. Leave a blank line, or its equivalent inspace, after the heading. On succeeding pages, beg in near the top, butnot so near as to give a crowded appearance. Omit the period after atitle or heading. A question mark or an exclamation point may be usedif the heading calls for it.

Hyphen. Whe n two or more words are combined to form a com­pound adjective, a hyphen is us ually requi red .

55 I

" He bel onged to the leisure class and enjoyed leisure-class pursuits .""S he en tered her boat in the round-the -island race."

Do not use a hyph en bet ween words that can bett er be writte n as oneword: water-fowl, waterfowl. Common se nse will aid you in the deci sion ,but a dicti onary is more reliable . The stea dy evolution of the lan guageseems to favor union: two words eventually become one, usu ally after aperiod of hyph en ation.

bed chamber

wild life

bell boy

bed-chamber

wild-life

bell-boy

bedchamber

wildlife

bellboy

The hyph en ca n play tr ick s on the unwary, as it did in Cha tta noogawhen two newsp ap ers merged-the News and the Free Press. Someo neintroduced a hyph en int o the merger, and the pap er became TheChattanooga News-Free Press, which sounds as thou gh the pap er werenews-free, or devoid of news. Obviously, we ask too much of a hyph enwhen we as k it to cas t its spell over words it does not adj oin.

Margins. Kee p righth and and lefthand margin s roughly the sa mewidth. Excepti on: If a grea t deal of annotating or editing is antic ipa ted,the lefth and margin should be roomy enough to acc ommoda te thi s work.

Numerals. Do not spe ll out dates or other se ria l numbers. Writethem in figures or in Homan notati on, as appropria te.

August 9, 1933

Rule :~

Part XII

:~52d Infantry

Exception : When they occ ur in dialogue, most dates and numbers arebest spe lled out.

" I arrived horne a ll August ninth ."

"In the yea r 1990, I turn ed twenty-one."

" Read Chapte r Twelve."

Parentheses. A se ntence containing an express ion in pare nthesesis punctuated outside the last mark of parenthesis exactly as if the par­enthe tic al expression were ab sent. The expression within the marks ispunctuated as if it stood by itself, except that the fin al stop is omittedunless it is a qu estion mark or an exclamation point.

What a wonderful show!

1 went to her house yesterday (my third attempt to see her), butshe had left town.

He declares (and why should we doubt his good faith?) that he isnow certain of success.

(When a wholly detached expression or se nte nce is parenthesized,the final stop comes before the last mark of pa re nthesis.)

Q uotations. Formal quotations cited as doc umen tary evidence areintroduced by a colon and encl osed in quotation marks .

The United States Coast Pilot has this to say of the place: "BracyCove, 0.5 mile eastward of Bear Island, is exposed to southeast winds,has a rocky and uneven bottom, and is unfit for anchorage."

A quotation grammatically in apposition or the di rec t object of averb is preceded by a com ma and enclosed in quotat ion ma rks.

[ am reminded of the advice of my neighbor, "Never worry aboutyour heart till it stops beating."

Mark Twain says, "A classic is something that everybody wants tohave read and nobody wants to read."

Wh en a quotation is followed by an attributive phrase, the comma isenclosed within the q uota tion marks.

"1 can't attend," she said.

Typographical usage dic tates that the comma be inside the marks,thou gh logically it often seems not to belong there.

"The Fish," "Poetry," and "The Monkeys" are in MarianneMoore's Selected Poems.

When quo tat ions of an en tire line, or more, of either verse or proseare to be di stingu ished typogra phicall y from tex t matter, as are the qu o­tations in the book, begin on a fresh li ne and ind ent. Quo tation markssho uld not be used unless they appear in the ori ginal , as in dial ogue.

Wordsworth's enthusiasm for the French revolution was at firstunbounded:

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,But to be young was very heaven!

T h e El ements of S t yl e / S8

in the second scene of thethird act

Quo tations introduced by that are indirect discourse and notencl osed in quotation marks.

Keats declares that beauty is truth, truth beauty.

Dickinson states that a coffin is a small domain.

Proverbial expressions and familiar phrases ofliterary origin requireno quotation marks.

These are the times that try men's souls.

He lives far from the madding crowd.

References. In sc holarly work requiring exact references, abbreviatetitles that occur frequently, giving the full forms in an alphab eti cal lista t the end . As a gene ral practi ce, give the references in parentheses orin footnotes, not in the bod y of the senten ce. Omit the words act, scene,line, book, volume, page, except when referring to only one of them.Punctuate as indica ted below.

in IIl.ii (Better still, simplyinsert 11I .ii in parentheses atthe proper place ill the sen­tence.)

After the killing of Polonius, Hamlet is placed und er guard (rv.u.Ia).

2 Samuel i:17-27

Othello Il.iii. 264-267, III.iii.155-161.

Syllabication. If there is room al the end of a lin e for one or moresyllables of a word , but nol for the whole word, divide the word, un lessthis involves cutting off onl y a single letter, or CUlling off onl y two le t­ters of a lon g word. No hard and fast ru le for all words can be laid down .Th e principles most frequently applicable are :

(a) Divide the word according to its formation:

know-ledge (not knowl-edge); Shake-speare (not Shakes-peare);de-scribe (not des-cribe); atmo-sphere (not atmos-phere);

(b) Divide on the vowel :

edi-ble (not ed-ible); propo-sition; ordi-nary; espe-cial; reli-gious;oppo-nents; regu-lar; classi-fi-ca-tion (three divisions allowable);deco-rative; presi-dent;

59 I A FEW MAT T ER S OF FORM

(c) Divid e between double lett er s, unless they com e at the end of thesimple form of the word:

Apen-nines; Cincin-nati; refer-r ing; bUI tell -ing.

(d) Do not di vide before final -ed if the e is sile nt:

treat- ed (but not roam-ed or nam- ed).

The treatm ent of consona nts in combination is bes t shown from examples :

for-tune; pie-lure; sin-gle ; presump-tuous; illu s-t rati on; sub-s tan­tial (eithe r di vision); indus- try; instruc- tion; sug-ges-tion; incen -di ary.

Th e student will do well to examine the sylla ble-division in a numberof pages of an y carefully printed book . Wh en in doubt, consult a di c­tion ary.

Titl es, For the titl es of lit erary works, sc hola rly usage prefers italicswith cap italized initials. Th e usage of ed itors and publishers varies,some using italic s with ca pita lized initial s, othe rs usin g Homan withca p ita lized initials and with or without quotati on marks. Use ital ics(ind ica ted in manuscript by und erscoring) except in writ ing for a peri ­odical that follows a different practice. Omit initia l A or The from titl eswhen you place the possessi ve before them .

A 'fid e of 'l/oo Cities; Dick ens's 'fide of 'f, 110 Cities.

The Age (!I. Innocence; Whar ton's Age (!I. Inn ocence.

6 1 I A F E W M ATT EII S OF FOHM

IV

Words and ExpressionsCommonly Misused

Man y of the words and express ions listed here are not so much bad En­glish as bad style, the commonpluces of ca reless writin g. As illustrat edund er Feature, the proper correc tion is likely to be not the repl acementof one word or se t of words by another bu t the replacement of vague ge n­era lity by defin ite s ta tement.

The shape of our lan gua ge is not rigid ; in qu estions of usage we haveno lawgiver whose word is final. Stude nts whose cur ios ity is aroused bythe inte rpreta tions tha t follow, or whose doubts a re raised , wiII wish topursu e their inves tigations fur ther. Books useful in su ch pu rsu its areMerriam Webster :~ Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Ed ition; The American.Heritage Dictionary ~r the Englisli Language, Thi rd Editi on; Webster\Third New International Dictionary; The New Fo uiler's Modem EnglishUsage, Third Edition, ed ited by R. W. Burchfi eld ; Modem AmericanUsage: A Guide by Wilso n Follett and Erik Wensberg; and The CarejiLlWriter by Theodore M. Bernste in.

Aggravate. Irritate . The first mean s " to add to" an alread y trou ­blesome or vexin g matt er or cond ition. The second means " to vex" or" to annoy" or " to chafe."

All right. Idiomatic in familiar spe ech as a detached phrase in thesense "Agreed ," or "Go ah ead," or "O .K." Properl y written as twowords-all right .

63 I

Allude. Do not confuse with elude. You allude to a book; you eludea pursu er. Note, too, that allude is not synonymous with ref er. An allu­sion is an indirect men tion , a refe rence is a specific one .

Allus ion. Easily confuse d with illusion. The first means "an indirectreference"; the second mean s "an unreal imag e" or "a fal se impression ."

Alternate . A lternative. The word s are not always interch angeableas nouns or adjectives . The first mea ns every other one in a series ; thesecond, one of two possibili ties . As the other one of a series of two, analternate may stand for "a substitute," but an alternative, although usedin a simi lar sense , connotes a matter of choice that is never pres ent withalternate.

As the Ilooded road left them no alterna tive, they took the alter­nat e route.

Am ong. Between. When more than two thi ngs or per sons areinvolved, among is usually calle d for: "The money was divided amongthe four players ." When however, more than two are involved but eac his considered individually, between is preferred: "an agreemen t betweenthe s ix heirs."

A nd/or. A device, or shortcut, that damages a sentence and oftenleads to confus ion or am biguity.

First of all, would anhonor sys tem successfully cutdown on the amount of stealingan d/or cheating?

First of all , would anhonor system reduce the inci­dence of stealing or cheatingor both ?

An ticipate . Use expect in the sen se of simple expec tation.

I anticipated tha t he wouldlook older.

My brother an ticipated theupturn in the marke t.

I expected that he wouldlook older.

My broth er expected theupturn in the mark et.

In the second example, the word ant icipated is ambiguous . It couldmean sim ply that the broth er bel ieved the up turn would occur, or it

T h e E l eme nts 0/ S l :rle / 6 4

could mean that he acted in advance of the expected upturn-by bu y­ing stock, perhaps.

Anybody. In the sen se of "any person ," not to be writte n as twowords. Any body means "any corpse," or "any human form," or "anygroup." Th e rul e hold s equally for everybody, nobody, and somebody .

Anyone. In the sense of "anybody," written as one word. Anyonemeans "any single person" or "any single thing."

As good or better than. Expression s of this type should be cor­rected by rearranging the se ntences .

My opinion is as good orbett er than his.

My opinion is as good ashis, or beller (if not better).

As to whether. Whether is sufficient.

As yet. Yet nearly always is as good, if not bett er,

No agreement has beenreach ed as yet.

No agreem ent has yetbeen reach ed .

The chief exception is at the beginning of a se ntence, where yetmeans sdmething different.

Yet (ur despite everything) he has not succeede d.

As yet (or so far) he has not succeeded.

Being. Not appropriate after regard . . . as.

He is regarded as bein gthe best dancer in the club.

He is regard ed as the bestdan cer in the c1uh.

But. Unnecessary after doubt and help.

I have no doubt but that

He could not help but seethat

I have 110 doubt that

He could not help seeingthaL

6 5 I W ORD S A D EX PRESS ION S COMMONLY MI SUSE D

The too-frequent use of but as a conjunction leads to the fault di scussedunder Rule 18 . A loose sentence formed with but ca n usually be con­verted into a periodic se nte nce formed with although.

Particularly awkward is one but clo sely following an oth er, thusma king a contrast to a contrast, or a reservation to a reservation. Thisis easi ly correc ted by rearrangem ent.

Our country had vastresources but seemed almostwholly unprepared for war.But within a year it had creat­ed an army of four million.

Our country seemedalmost wholly unprepared forwar, but it had vast resources.Within a year it had createdan army of four million.

Can. Means "am (is, are) able." Not to be used as a subs titute lor may.

Ca re less. Th e di smi ssiv e "1 co uld n' t care less" is often used withthe shorten ed " not" mistak enl y (and mysteriously) omitted : "1 couldcare less ." Th e error destroys the meaning of the se ntence and is care ­less ind eed.

Case . Often unn eces sary.

In many cases, the roomslacked air con dit ioning ,

It has rarely heen the casethat any mistake has heenmade.

Many of the rooms lackedair conditioning.

Few mistakes have hccnmud e,

Certainly. Used indiscriminately by some speake rs, much as othersuse very, in an attempt to in tensify any and every sta teme nt. A man ner­ism of thi s kind, bad in speech , is even worse in writing.

Character. Often simply redundant, used from a mere habit ofword iness.

acts of a hostile character hostile acts

Claim (verb). With obj ect-noun, means "l ay clai m to." May beused with a dependent clau se if thi s sense is clearly involved : "She

6 7 I WORDS A N D E X PRESS I ONS COM M ONLY M I SUSED

claimed that he was the sale heir." (But even here claim ed to be wouldbe bett e r.) Not to be used as a substitute for declare, maintain, or charge.

He claimed he knew how. He declared he knew how.

Clever. Note that the word mean s one thing when applied to people,a no ther when applied La horses. A clever horse is a good-natured one,not an ingenious one.

COlllpare . To compare to is to point out or imply resemblan cesbet ween objec ts regarded as esse ntially of a different order; to comparewith is main ly to point out diffe rences be tween obj ects regarded asessentia lly of the same order. Thus, life has been compared to a pi lgrim­age, to a drama, to a ba ttle; Congress may be compa red with the Briti shPa rliament. Paris has been compared to anc ient Athens; it may be com­pared with modern London .

COlllprise . LiL erall y, "embrace" : A zoo comprise s mamm als, rep ­tiles, an d bird s (because it "embraces ," 01' inc ludes them}. But animalsdo noLco mprise ("e mbrace") a zoo-s-they cons titute a zoo.

COl/sider. 0 1 followed by as when it means " believe to be."

I co ns ide r him as compete nt. I cons ider him compe tent.

Whcn considered means "exa mined" or "discussed," it is followedby as:

Th e lect ure r co ns ide red Eisenhower first as sold ier and seco nd asad minist rator.

COl/lacl. As a transit ive verb, the word is vagu e and se lf-important.Do noLcontact people ; geLin touch with them, or look them up , or phonethem , or find them, or meeL them.

Cope . An in transit ive verb used with with . In formal writing, onedoesn ' t "cope," one "copes with" something or somebody.

[ knew they'd cope . (jocul ar) r knew they would copewith the situa tion.

Th e El e m e n t s of S t y le I 6 8

Currently. In the sense of now with a verb in th e pres ent tense, cur­rently is usually redundant; emphasis is better achieved through a moreprecise reference to time.

We are currently reviewingyour application.

We are at this momentreviewing your appl ication.

Data. Like strata, ph enomena, and media, data is a plural and isbest used with a pl ural ver b. The word , however, is slowly gaining ac­ce ptance as a singula r.

The data is misleading. These data are misleading.

Different than. Here log ic supports es tablished usage: one thingdiffe rs from anothe r, hen ce, different from. Or, other than, unlike .

Disinterested. Means " impar tia l." Do not confuse it with uninter­ested, whi ch means " not int erested in."

Let a disinterested person jud ge our dispute. (an impartial person)

This man is ohviously uninterested in our dispute. (couldn't care less)

Divided into. Not to be misused for composed 0/ Th e lin e is some­times d ifficult to draw; doubtless plays are divided into acts, but poem sare comp ose d of s tanzas. An apple, halved, is divided into sections, butan apple is compose d of seed s, flesh, and skin.

Due to . Loosely used for through, becaus e of, or owing to, in ad ver­bial phras es.

He lost the first game dueto carelessness.

He lost the first gamebecause of carelessness.

In correct use, synonymous with attributable to: "The ac cident was du eto bad weather" ; "losse s due to preventable fires. "

Each and every one. Pitchma n's jargon. Avoid, except in dialogue.

It should be a lesson toeach and every one of us.

It should be a lesson toevery one of us (to us all).

The E leme nt s of S ly l e / 70

Effect. As a noun, means "result"; as a verb, means "to bringabout," to ac complish (not to be confused with affect, which means " to. f1 ")In uence .

As a noun, often loosely used in perfunctory writing about fashions,music, pain ting, and other arts: "a Southwestern effect"; "effects in palegreen"; "very delicate effects" ; "subtle effects"; "a charming effec t wasproduced." The writer who has a definite meaning to express will nottake re fuge in such vagueness.

Enormity. Use only in the sense of "monstrous wickedness."Misleading, if no t wrong, whe n used to express bigness.

Enthuse. An annoying verb growing out of the noun enthusiasm.Not recommended.

She was enthused abouther new car.

She enthuse d about hernew car.

She was enthusiastic abouthe r new car.

She ta lked enthusias tically(expressed en thus iasm) abouther new ca r.

Etc. Literally, "and other things" ; somet imes loosely used to mean" and other persons." The phrase is equival ent to and the rest, and sofo rth, and hen ce is not to be used if one of these would be insufficient­that is, if the read er would be left in doubt as to any important particu ­lars . Least open to objection when it represents the last terms of a listalready given almost in full, or immate rial words at the end of a quotation.

At the end of a list introduced by such as.for example, or any similarexpression, etc. is incorrect. In formal writ ing , etc . is a misfit. An itemimportant enough to call for etc. is probably important enough to benamed.

Fact. Use this word only of mat ters capable of direct verification,not of ma tters of judgment. That a particular event happen ed on a givendate and that lead melts at a certain temperature are facts. But suchconclusions as that Napoleon was the greatest of modern generals, orthat the climate of California is de lightful, however defens ible they maybe , are not pro pe rly called facts .

7 1 I WORDS AND EX PRESS IO NS COMMONLY MIS USED

Facility. Why must jails, hospitals, and schools suddenly become"faciliti es"?

Parents complained bitterlyabout the fire hazard in thewooden facility.

He has been appointedwarden of the new facility.

Parents complained bitterlyabout the fire hazard in thewooden schoolhouse.

He has been appointedwarden of the new prison.

Factor. A hackneyed word; the expressions of which it is a part canusually be replaced by something more direct and idiomatic.

Her superior training wasthe great factor in her winningthe match.

Air power is becoming anincreasingly important factorin deciding battles.

She won the match bybeing better trained.

Air power is playing alarger and larger part indeciding battles.

Farther. Further. The two words are commonly interchanged, butthere is a distinction worth observing:jizrlher serves best as a distanceword,jiU"lher as a time or quantity word. You chase a ball farther thanthe other fellow; you pursue a subjectjurlher.

Feature. Another hackneyed word; likefaclor, it usually adds noth­ing to the sentence in which it occurs.

A feature of the entertain­ment especially worthy ofmention was the singing ofAllison Jones.

(Better use the same num­ber of words to tell whatAllison Jones sang and howshe sang it.)

As a verb in the sense of "offer as a special attraction," it is to beavoided.

Finalize. A pompous, ambiguous verb. (See Chapter V, Reminder 21.)

Fix. Colloquial in America for arrange, prepare, mend. The usageis well established. But bear in mind that this verb is fromfigere: "tomake firm," "to place definitely." These are the preferred meanings ofthe word.

The Elements of Style / 72

Flammable. An oddity, chiefly useful in saving lives. The commonword meaning "combustible" is inflammable. But some people arethrown off by the in- and think injlammable means "not combustible."For this reason, trucks carrying gasoline or explosives are now markedFLAMMABLE. Unless you are operating such a truck and hence areconcerned with the safety of children and illiterates, use inflammable.

Folk. A collective noun, equ ivalent to people. Use the singular formonly. Folks, in the sense of "parents," "family," "those present," is col ­loquial and too folksy for formal writing.

Her folks arrived by theafternoon train.

Her father and motherarrived by the afternoon train.

Fortuitous. Limited to what happens by chance. Not to be used forfortunate or lucky.

Get. The colloquial have got for have should not be used in writing.The preferable form of the participle is got, not gotten.

He has not got any sense.

Th ey returned withouthaving gotten any.

He has no sense.

They returned withouthaving got any.

Gratuitous. Means " unearned," or "unwarranted."

The insult seemed gratuitous . (undeserved)

He is a man who. A common type of redundant expression; seeRule 17.

He is a man who is veryambitious.

Vermont is a state thatattracts visitors because of itswinter sports.

He is very ambitious.

Vermont attracts visitorsbecause of its winter sports.

Hopefully. This once-useful adverb meaning "with hope" has beendistorted and is now widely used to mean "I hope" or "it is to be hoped."Such use is not merely wrong, it is silly. To say, "Hopefully I'll leave on

73 I WORDS AND EXl'11ESSIO NS COMMONLY MISUSED

the noon plane" is to talk nonsense. Do you mean you'll leave on the

noon plane in a hopeful frame of mind? Or do you mean you hope you 'llleave on the noo n pla ne '? Wh ichever you mean, you haven't said itcl early. Although th e word in its new, free-flo ating capacity may bepl easurable and even useful to many, it offends th e ear of many others,

who do not like to see words dulled or eroded, particularly when th eerosion leads to ambiguity, softness, or nonsense.

However. Avoid star ting a se n tence with however when th e mean ­ing is " nev e rtheles s." The word usually serves better when not in first

posi tion .

The roads were almostimpassable. However, we atlast succeeded in reachingcamp.

The roads were almostimpassabl e. At last, however,we succeeded in reachingcamp.

W hen however comes first, it means " in whatever way " or "to what­

ever extent."

However you advise him, he will probably do as he thinks best.

However discoura ging the prospect, they never lost heart.

Illusion. See allusion.

Imply. Infer. Not interchangeable . Som ething implied is some­

th ing suggested or indicated, thou gh not expre ssed. Something inferredis s ome thing deduced from evidence at hand.

Farming implies early rising.

Since she was a farmer, we inferred that he got up early.

Importantly. Avoid by rephrasing.

More importantly, he paidfor the damages.

With the breeze freshening ,he altered course to passinside the island. More impor­tantly, as things turned out, hetucked in a reef.

What's more, he paid forthe damages.

With the breeze freshening,he altered course to passinside the island. More impor­tant , as things turn ed out, hetucked in a reef.

The Element s of S ty le / 74

In regard to. Often wrongly written in regards to. But as regards iscorrec t, and means the same thing.

In the last analysis. A bankrupt expres sion.

Inside of. Inside. The oJfollowing inside is correct in the adverbialmeaning "in less than." In other meanings, oj is unnecessary.

Inside of five minutes I'll be inside the bank.

Insightful. The word is a suspicious overstatement for "perceptive."If it is to be used at all, it should be used for instances of remarkablypenetrating vision. Usually, it crops up merely to inflate the common­pla ce.

That was an insightfulremark you made.

That was a perceptiveremark you made.

In terms of. A piece of padding usually best omitted.

The job was unattra ctivein terms of salary.

The salary made the jobunat tractive.

Interesting. An un con vincing word ; avoid it as a means of intro­du ction. Instead of announcin g that what you are about to tell is int er­es ting, mak e it so.

An interesting story istold of

In connection with theforthcoming visit of Mr. B. toAmerica, it is interesting torecall that he

(Tell the story without pre­amble.)

Mr. B. who will soon visitAmerica

Also to be avoided 111 introduction IS the word funny: Nothingbecomes funn y by being labeled so.

Irregardless. Should be regardless. The error results from failure tosee the negative in -less and from a desire to get it in as a prefix, suggestedby such words as irregular, irresponsible, and, perhaps especially,irrespective.

T h e E l e me nts of S tyl e I 76

-ise , Do not coin verbs by adding this tempting suffix. Many good anduseful verbs do end in -ize: summarize.fraternize, harmonize,j ertilize. Butthere is a growing list of abominations: containerize, prioritize, finalize,to name three. Be suspic ious of -ize; let your ear and your eye guide you.Neve r tack -ize onto a noun to create a verb. Usually you will discoverthat a useful verb already exists . Why say " utilize" when there is thesimple, unpretentious word use?

J(ind of. Except in famili ar style, not to be used as a subs titute forrather or something like. Restri ct it to its literal se nse: "A mber is a kindof fossil resin" ; " I dislike that kind of publicit y." The sa me hold s tru efor sort of

Lay. A tran sitive verb . Except in slang ("Let it lay"), do not misu seit for the intransit ive verb lie. The hen, or the play, lays an egg; thellama lies down. The playwright went horne and lay down.

lie, lay, lain, lying

lay, laid, laid , laying

Leave. Not to be misu sed for let.

Lea ve it stand the way it is .

Lea ve go of that rope!

Less. Should not be misused for/ewer.

Let it stand the way it is.

Let go of that rope!

They had less workersthan in the previous ca m­paIgn .

They had fewer worke rsthan in the previous ca m­paign.

Less refers to quantity,jewer to number. "His troubles are less thanmine" means " His troubles are not so great as mine." "His troubles arefewer than mine" means "His troubl es are not so num erou s as mine."

Like. Not to be used for the conjunc tion as. Like governs nouns andpronouns; before phrases and clauses the equivalent word is as.

77 I W OHn S AN D EX PHESS I O S C OM MON LY ~ l lSUSE D

We spent the evening likein the old days.

Chloe smells good, lik e ababy should.

We spent the evening as inthe old days.

Chloe smells good, as ababy should.

Th e use of like for as has its defenders; they argu e that any usa gethat achi eves curre ncy becomes valid automatically. Thi s, they say, isthe way the language is formed. It is and it isn't. An expression some­times merely enjoys a vogue, much as an article of apparel does. Likehas long been widely misu sed by the illit erate; lately it has been tak enup by the knowing and the well-informed , who find it ca tchy, or lib erat­ing, and who use it as though they were slumming. If every word ordevi ce that achi eved cur re ncy were immediately authenticated , simplyon the ground of popularity, the language would be as chaotic as a ballgame with no foul lines. For the stude nt, perhaps the most useful thingto know about like is that most ca refully edited publications regard itsuse before phrases and clauses as simple error.

Line. Along these lines. Line in the sense of "course of procedure,conduc t, thought" is allowable but has been so overworked , parti cul arl yin the phrase along these lines, that a writer who aim s at freshness ororiginality had bett er discard it entirely.

Mr. 13 . also spoke alongthe sa me lines.

She is study ing along theline of French literature.

Mr. B. also spoke to thesame effec t.

She is studying Frenchliterature.

Literal. Literally. Often incorrectl y used in support of exaggera tionor violent metaphor.

a literal flood of abuse

literally dead with fati gue

Loan. A noun. As a verb, prefer lend .

Lend me your ears.

the loan of your ears

Chloe smells good, as a baby should.

a flood of abuse

almost dead with fati gue

Meaningful. A bankrupt adjecti ve. Choose another, or rephrase.

Hi s was a meaningful con­tribution .

We are instituting man ymeaningful changes in thecurriculum.

His contribution countedhea vily.

We are improving thecurriculum in man y ways.

Memento. Often in correctly written momenta.

Most. Not to be used for almost in formal composition.

most eve rybody

most all the time

almost eve rybody

almost all the time

Nature. Often simply redundant, used like character.

acts of a hostil e nature hostile acts

Nature should be avoid ed in such express ions as "a lover of nature,""poems about nature." Unless more spec ific statements follow, theread er cannot tell wheth er the poems have to do with natural scene ry,rural life, the sunset, the untracked wildern ess, or the habits of squirrels .

Nauseous. Nauseated. The first means "s icke ning to contem­plate"; the sec ond means "s ick at the stomach." Do not , therefore, say,"1 feel nau seou s," unl ess you are sure you have that effec t on others.

Nice. A shaggy, all-purpose word, to be used sparingly in formalcomposition. " I had a nice time." "It was nice weather." "She was sonice to her mother." The meanings are indistinct. Nice is most useful inthe se nse of " prec ise " or "del icate" : "a nice distinction."

Nor. Often used wrongly for or after negativ e expressions.

He ca nnot eat nor sleep. He cannot ea t or sleep.

He can neither eat norsleep.

He cannot eat nor can heslee p.

Th e El em ent s of S t yl e I 8 0

Noun used as verb. Many nouns ha ve lately been pressed int o ser­vice as verbs. Not all are bad, but all are sus pect.

Be prepared for kisseswhen you gift your girlfriendwith this merry scent.

The candidate hosted adinner for fifty of her workers.

The meeting was chairedby Mr. Oglethorp.

She headquart ers inNewark.

The theater troupedebuted last fall.

Be prepared for kisseswhen you give your girlfriendthis merry scent.

The candidate gave a din­ner for fifty of her workers.

Mr. Oglethorp was chair ofthe meeting.

She has headquarters inNewark.

The theater troupe madeits debut last fall.

Offputting. Ongoing. Newfound adj ecti ves , to be avoid ed becausethey are inexact and clumsy. Ongoing is a mix of "continuing" and"active" and is usually supe rfluous .

He devoted all his sparetime to the ongoing programfor aid to the elderly.

He devoted all his sparetime to the program for aid tothe elderly.

Offputting might mean "o bjectionable," "disconcerting," "dis tas te ­ful." Se lec t ins tead a word whose meaning is clear. As a simple test ,transform the partic iples to verbs. It is possible to upset something. Butto offput? To ongo?

One. In the se nse of "a person ," not to be followed by his or her.

One must watch his step. One must watch one's step.(You must watch your step.)

One of the most. Avoid thi s feeble formula. "One of the mostexciting developments of modern sc ience is. .."; "Switzerland is one ofthe most beautiful countries of Europe." Th ere is nothing wrong withthe grammar; the formula is simply threadbare.

-oriented, A clumsy, pretentious devi ce, much in vogue. Find abe tte r way of indicating orie nta tion or ali gnm ent or dire ction.

T he Ele ments of S ty le I 82

It was a manufa cturing­oriented company.

Many of the skits aresituation-orien ted.

It was a company chieflyconcerned with manufacturing.

Many of the skits rely onsituation.

Partially. Not alwa ys in terchangeable with partly. Best used in th ese nse of " to a ce rtai n degree, " when speaking of a condi tion or sta te:

"I'm partially resigned to it. " Partly carries the idea of a part as di st inctfrom th e whole-usually a phys ical object.

The log was part ially sub­merged.

She was partially in andpartially out.

Participle for verbal noun.

There was littl e prospectof the Senate accepting eventhis compromise.

The log was partly sub­merged.

She was partly in andpartly out.

She was part in, part out.

There was little prospectof the Sena te's accepting eventhis compromise.

In the lefthand column, accepting is a present partic iple; in the

righthand column, it is a verb al noun (gerund). Th e construction shownin the lefthand column is occasionall y foun d, and has its defend ers. Yetit is easy to see that the second se ntence has to do not with a prospectof the Se nate but with a prospect of accepting .

Any se nte nce in whi ch the use of the possessive is awkw ard or

impossible should of course be recast.

In the event of a reconsid­eration of the whole matter'sbecoming necessary

There was great dissatis­faction with the decision ofthe arbitrators being favorableto the company.

If it should become neces­sary to reconsider the wholematter

There was great dissatisfac­tion with the arbitrators' deci­sion in favor of the company.

People. A word with many meanings. (The American HeritageDictionary, Third Edition, gives nin e.) The people is a political term, not

8 3 I WORD S AN D EX P RESS I ONS COM MO NLY MI S USED

to be confused with the public. From the people comes political supportor oppo sition; from the public comes arti stic appreciation or commercialpatronage.

The word people is best not used with words of number, in pla ce ofpersons. If of "s ix peop le" five went away, how man y peop le would beleft ? Answer: one people .

Personalize. A pretentious word, often carrying bad ad vice. Do notpersonalize your pros e: simply mak e it good and keep it clean . SeeChapt er V, Reminder 1.

a highly personalizedaffair

Personalize your stationery.

Personally. Often unnecessary.

Personally, I thought itwas a good book .

a highly personal affair

Design a lett erhead .

I thought it a good book.

Possess. Often used because to the writer it sounds more impressivethan have or own . Such usage is not incorrect bu t is to be guarde dagainst.

She possessed grea tcourage.

He was the fortunate pos­sesso r of

She had great courage(was very brave).

He was luck y enough toown

Presently. Ha s two meanings: "in a short while" and "c urre ntly."Because of this ambiguity it is best restri cted to the first meamng:"She 'll be her e presently" ("soon ," or " in a short time").

Prestigious. Often an adj ective of last resort. It's in the dictionary,but that doesn't mean you have to use it.

Refer. See allude .

Regretful. Some times carelessly used for regrettab le: "The mixupwas du e to a regretful breakdown in communications ."

85 I WOHD S AN D EX PR ESS I ONS CO M MON LY M I SUSED

Relate. Not to be used int ran sitively to suggest rapport.

I relate well to Janet. Janet and I see things thesame way.

Janet and I have a lot incommon.

Respective. Respectively. These words may usually be omittedwith advantage.

Works of fiction are listedunder the names of theirrespecti ve authors .

Th e mile run and the two­mile run were won by Jon esand Cummings respectively.

Work s of fiction are listedund er the nam es of theirauthors .

Th e mile run was won by.Jones, the two-mil e run byCummings.

Secondly, thirdly, etc. Unless you are prepared to begin with firstlyand defend it (which will be difficult), do not prettify numbers with -ly.Modem usage prefers second, third, and so on.

Shall. Will. In formal writing, the future tense requires shall for thefirst person , will for the sec ond and third. Th e formula to express thespeaker's beli ef regarding a future action or state is I shall; I willexpres ses determination or consent. A swimm er in distress cri es, " Ishall drown; no one will save me!" A suicide puts it the other way:" I will drown; no one shall save me!" In relaxed speech, however, thewords shall and will are seldom used precisely; our ear guides us orfail s to guid e us , as the case may be, and we are quite likely to drownwhen we want to surv ive and survive when we want to drown.

So. Avoid , in writing, the use of so as an intensifi er: "s o good"; "s owarm"; "so delightful."

Sort of. See kind of

Split infinitive. There is precedent from the fourt eenth centurydown for interposing an adverb between to and the infinitive it govems,

T h e El e m e n t s of S t }l e I 8 6

but the construction should be avoided unless the writer wishes to placeunusual stress on the adverb.

to diligently inquire to inquire diligently

For another side to the split infinitive, see Chapter V, Reminder 14.

State. Not to be used as a mere substitute for say, remark. Restrictit to the sense of "express full y or clearly": "He refused to state hisobjections."

Student body. Nine times out of ten a needless and awkwardexpression, meaning no more than the simple word students .

a member of the studentbody

popular with the studentbody

a student

liked by the students

Than. Any sentence with than (to express comparison) should beexamined to make sure no esse ntial words are missing.

I'm probably closer to mymother than my father.(Ambiguous.)

It looked more like a cor­morant than a heron.

I'm probably closer to mymother than to my fath er.

I'm probably closer Lo mymother than my father is.

It looked more like a cor­morant than like a heron.

Thanking you in advance. This sounds as if the writer meant, "Itwill not be worth my while to write to you again." In making yourrequest, write "Will you please," or "I shall be obliged." Then, later, ifyou feel moved to do so, or if the circumstances call for it, write a letterof acknowledgment.

That. Which. That is the defining, or restrictive pronoun, whichthe nondefining, or nonrestrictive. (See Rule 3.)

The lawn mower that is broken is in the garage. (Tells which one.)

37 I WORDS AND EXPRES SION S COMMO NLY MISUSED

It looked more like a cormorant than like a heron.

The lawn mower, which is brok en, is in the garage. (Add s a factabout the only mower in question .)

The use of which for that is common in written and spoken language (" Letus now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come topass."). Occasionally which seems preferable to that, as in the sentencefrom the Bible. But it would be a convenience to all if these two pro­nouns were used with precision. Careful writers, watchful for small con­ven iences, go which-hunting, remove the defining whiches, and by sodoing improve their work .

The foreseeable future . A cliche, and a fuzzy one. How muc h ofthe future is foreseeable? Ten minutes? Ten years? Any of it? By whomis it foreseeable? Seers? Experts? Everybody?

The truth is .... The f act is . . . . A bad beginning for a sentence. Ifyou feel you are possessed of the tru th, or of the fact, simply state it. Donot give it advance billing.

The Elements of S tyl e / 88

They. He or She. Do not use they when the antecedent is a distrib­utive expression such as each, each one, everybody, everyone, many aman. Use the singular pronoun.

Everyone of us knowsthey are fallible.

Everyone in the communi­ty, whether they are a memberof the Association or not, isinvited to attend .

Everyone of us knows heis fallible.

Everyone in the communi­ty, whether he is a member ofthe Association or not, isinvited to attend.

A similar fault is the use of the plural pronoun with the antecedentanybody, somebody, someone, the intention being eithe r to avoid theawkward he or she or to avoid committing oneself to one or the oth er.Some bashful speakers even say, "A friend of mine told me that they . . . ."

Th e use of he as a pronoun for nouns embracing both genders is asimple, practical convention rooted in the beginnings of the Englishlanguage. Currently, however, many writers find the use of the gen eri c heor his to rename indefinite an tecedents limiting or offensive. Substituting heor she in its place is the logical thing to do if it works. But it often doesn'twork, if only because repetition makes it sound boring or silly.

Consider these strategies to avoid an awkward overuse of he or sheor an unintention al emphasis on the mas culine:

Use the plural rather than the singular.

The writer must addresshis readers ' concerns.

El iminate the pronoun altogether.

The writer must addresshis readers' concerns.

Writers must address theirreaders' concerns.

The writer must addressreaders' concerns.

Substitute the second person for the third person.

The writer must addresshis readers' concerns.

As a writer, you mustaddress your readers' concerns.

No one need fear to use he if common sense supports it. If you thinkshe is a handy substitute for he, try it and see what happens.Alternatively, put all con troversial nouns in the plural and avoid the

89 I WOR DS AND EXPRES SI O NS COMMO NLY MISUSED

choice of sex altogether, although you may find your prose soundinggeneral and diffuse as a result.

This. The pronoun this, refe rri ng to the complete se nse of a preced­ing sentence or clause, ca n't always carry the load and so may producean imprecise statement.

Visiting dignit arieswatched yes terday as groundwas broken for the new high­energy physics laboratory witha blowout safe ty wall . Th is isthe firs t visi ble evide nce ofthe university's plans for mod­ern ization and expansion.

Visiting dignitarieswatched yes terday as groundwas broken for the new high­ene rgy physics laborato ry witha blowout safety wall. Thece remony afforded the firstvisible evide nce of the univer­si ty's plans for modern izat ionand expa nsi on.

In the lefthand example above, thi s does not immedi ately make clearwha t the firs t visi ble evidence is.

Thrust. This showy noun , sugges tive of power, hinti ng of sex, is thedarling of executives, politicos , and speechwriters . Use it sparingly.Save it for specific ap plic ation .

Our reorganization planhas a tremendous thrust.

The thrust of his letter wasthat he was working morehours than he'd bargained for.

The piston has a five-inchthrust.

The poin t he mad e in hislell er was that he was workingmore hours than he'd bar­gained for.

To rtuous. To rturous . A wind ing road is tortuous, a painful ordealis torturous . Both words carry the idea of " twist," the twist hav ing beena form of torture .

Transpire. Not to be used in the sense of "happen," "come to pass."Many writers so use it (usually when groping toward imagined ele­gance), but their usage finds little support in the Lat in "breathe acrossor through." It is correct, however, in the sense of "become known.""Eventually the grim acco unt of his villainy transp ired" (literall y,"leaked through or out" ).

The E l e m e nt s 0/ Style / 90

Try. Takes the infinitive: "try to mend it," not "try and mend it."Stude nts of the language will argue that try and has won through andbecome idiom. Indeed it has, and it is relaxed and acceptable. But try tois precise, and when you are writin g formal prose, try and write try to.

Type. Not a synonym for kind of The examples below are commonvulgarisms.

that type employee

I dislike that typepubl icity.

small , home-type hotels

a new type pla ne

that kind of employee

I dislik e that kind ofpublicity.

small, homelik e hotels

a plane of a new design(new kind)

Unique . Means "without like or equal." Hence there can be nodegrees of uniqueness.

It was the most uniqu eeggbeater on the mark et.

The bal ancing act wasvery ulllque.

Of all the spiders, the onethat lives in a bubble und erwater is the most unique.

Utilize. Prefer use.

I utilized the facilities.

He utili zed the dishwa sh er.

It was a unique eggbeater.

The ba lancing ac t wasulllqu e.

Among spiders, the onethat lives in a bubble und erwater is unique.

I used the toilet.

He used the dishwasher.

Verbal. Sometimes means "word for word" and in this se nse mayrefer to something expressed in writing. Oral (from Latin os, "mouth")limits the meaning to what is tran smitted by speech. Oral agreement ismore preci se than verbal agreement.

Very. Use this word sparingly. Where emphasis IS necess ary, usewords strong in themselves.

9 1 I WO IW S A N D EXPR ESSIO NS COM Ma N LY MI SUSED

While. Avoid the ind iscriminate use of this word for and, but, andalthough . Many writers us e it frequ ently as a subs titute for and or but,ei ther from a mere des ire to vary the connective or from doubt aboutwhich of the two connec tives is more appropriate . In this use it is bestrepl aced by a se mico lon.

Th e office and sa les roomsare on the ground 11oor, whilethe rest of the building is usedfor manu facturing.

The office and salesroomsare on the ground 11001'; therest of the building is used formanufacturing.

Its use as a virtua l equivalen t of although is allowable in se nten ceswhere thi s leads to no ambiguity or ab surdity.

While I ad mire his ene rgy, I wish it were employed in a bett ercause.

Thi s is ent irely cor rec t, as shown by the paraphrase

I ad mire his energy; a t the same time, I wish it we re employed illa bett er ca use.

Compare:

While the temperatu re reaches 90 or 95 degrees in the daytime,the night s are often chill y.

The pa raph rase shows why the use of while is incorrec t:

The tempe rature reaches 90 or 95 degrees in the daytime; at thesa me time the uights are often chilly.

In genera l, the writer will do well to use while only with strict liter­aln ess, in the sense of "during the time that."

-uiis e, ot to be used indi scriminately as a pseud osulli x: uixunse,priceunse, marriageioise, proseioise, saltwater taff Jwise. Chiefly usefulwhen it means "i n the manner of ": clockwise. There is not a noun in thelanguage to which -wise ca nnot be adde d if the spiri t moves one to addit. The sobe r writer will abs tain from the use of this wild additive.

9 :1 I WORD S A Il E X PIlE S SIO N S C O M M ON LY M IS USUl

Worth while. Overworked as a term of vague approval an d (withnot) of di sapproval. Strictly applicable only to ac tions: " Is it worth whileto telegraph?"

His books are not worthwhil e.

His books are not worthreadin g (are not worth one'swhile to read ; do not repayreading).

The adjective worthwhile (one word) is acceptable but emac iated. Usea stronger word .

a worthwhil e proj ect a promis ing (useful, valu­able, exciting) project

Would. Commonly used to express habitual or rep ea ted action.("He would get up early a nd prep are his own breakfast before he wentto work. ") But when the idea of hab it or repet ition is expressed, in suchphrases as once a year, every day, each Sunday, the past ten se, withoutwould , is usuall y sufficient, and, from its brevity, more emphatic.

Once a yea r he would visitthe old mansion.

Once a year he visited theold mansion.

In narrati ve writing, always indica te the tran siti on from the general tothe parti cular-that is, from sentences that merely sta te a genera l habitto those that express the action of a speci fic day or period. Fa ilure toindicate the change will cause confus ion.

Townsend would get up early and prep are his own breakfast. If theday was cold, he filled the stove and had a warm fire burn ing beforehe left the house. On his way out to the gara ge, he noticed that therewere footprints in the new-fallen snow on the porch.

The rea der is lost , having received no signal that Townsend haschanged from a mere man of habit to a man who has seen a particularthing on a particul ar day.

Townsend would get up ea rly and prepare his own breakfast. If theday was cold, he fill ed the stove and had a warm fire burn ing beforehe left the house. One morn ing in Janu ary, on his way out to thegarage, he noticed footprint s in the new-fall en snow on the porch .

T h e E lements 0/ St yl e I 94

v

An Approach to Style(With a List of Reminders)

Up to this point, the book has been concerned with what is correct, oracceptable, in the use of English. In this chapter, we approach style inits broader meaning: style in the sense of what is distinguish ed and dis­tinguishing. Here we leave solid ground. Who ca n confidently say whatignites a certain combination of words, causing them to explode in themind? Who knows why certain notes in music are capab le of stirring thelistener deeply, though the sam e notes slightly rearranged are impotent'?These are high mys te ries, and this chapter is a mystery s tory, thinlydisguised. There is no sa tisfactory exp lanation of styl e, no infall iblegu ide to good writing, no assurance that a person who thinks c learly willbe ab le to write clearly, no key tha t unlocks the door, no inflexible ru leby which writers may shape their course. Writers will often find them­se lves steering by stars that are dis turbingly in motion.

The preceding chapters contain ins truct ions drawn from establ ishedEnglish usage; this one contains advice drawn from a writer 's experi ­ence of writing. Since the book is a rule book, these ca utionary remarks,these subtly dangerous hin ts, are presented in the form of rules, bu tthey are , in essence, mere gen tle reminders: they state what most of usknow and at times forget.

Style is an increment in writing. When we speak of Fitzgerald'sstyle, we don't mean his command of the relative pronoun, we mean thesound his words make on paper. All writers, by the way they use the lan­guage, reveal something of their spirits, thei r habits, their capacities,

97 I

and their bia ses. Thi s is inevitable as well as enjoyabl e. All writing iscommunica tion; creative writin g is communication through revela ­tion-it is the Self escaping into the open . No writer long remainsincognit o.

If you doubt that style is something of a mystery, try rewriting afamiliar se ntence and see what happen s. An y much-quoted sent en cewill do. Suppose we take "These are the times that try men's souls ."Here we ha ve eight short, easy words, forming a simple declarative sen ­ten ce. Th e se ntence contains no flashy ingredient suc h as "Damn thetorp edo es!" and the words, as you see, are ordinary. Yet in that arran ge­ment , they have shown great durability: the sentence is into its thirdce ntury. Now compare a few var iations:

Times like these try men 's souls .

How Irying it is 10 live in these times!

Th ese are trying times for men 's soul s.

Soulwise, the se a re tryin g times.

It seems unlikely that Thomas Paine could have mad e his sent imentstick if he had couched it in an y of these forms . But why not? No faultof gra mmar ca n be detected in them, and in eve ry case the meaning isclear. Each vers ion is correc t, and eac h, for some reason that we can' treadily put our finger on, is mark ed for obli vion . We could, of course,talk about " rhythm" and "cadence," but the ta lk would be vague andunconvincing. We could declare souliois e to be a silly word, inappropriateto the occasion ; but even that won't do-it does not answ er the mainques tion. Are we even sure soulunse is s illy '? if otherwise is a servi ceableword, what 's the matter with souluiiset

Her e is another se ntence, this one by a later Tom. It is not a famou sse ntence, although its author (Thomas Wolfe) is well known . "Quick arethe mouths of ear th, and qui ck the teeth that fed upon thi s loveliness."The se ntence would not tak e a prize for clarity, and rhe torically it is atthe opposite pole from "These are the times." Try it in a different form,without the inversion s:

Th e mouth s of ear th are qui ck, and the teeth that fed upon thisloveli ness are quick, too.

The El e m e nt s of 51 )"1(' I 98

Th e author's meaning is s till intact , but not hi s overpowering emotion .Wh at was poe tical and se ns uous ha s becom e prosy an d wooden; insteadof the secre t sounds of beauty, we ar e left with the simple cru nch ofmasti cation. (Whe ther Mr. Wolfe was guilty of overwriting is, of course,another qu est ion-one that is not pertinent here.)

With some wri ters, style not onl y reveals the spirit of the man butreveals hi s identity, as surely as would his fingerprints. Here , following,are two bri ef pa ssa ges from the work s of two American noveli st s . Th esubject in each case is languor. In both , the word s used a re ordinary,and there is nothing eccentric about the cons truc tion.

He did not still feel weak, he was merely luxuriating in thatsupremely gutful lassitude of convalesce nce in which time, hurry,doing, did not exist, the accumulating seconds and minutes and hoursto which in its well state the body is slave both waking and sleeping,now reversed and time now the lip-server and mendicant to the body'spleasure instead of the body thrall [ 0 time's headlong course.

Manuel drank his brandy. (-Ie felt sleepy himself. It was too hot logo out inlo the town. Besides there was nothing to do. He wanted tosee Zurita. He would go lo sleep while he wailed.

Anyone ac qua inted with Faulkne r and Hemingway will have recog­nized them in these passa ges and percei ved which was which. How dif­ferent are the ir languors!

Or tak e two American poets, s topping at evening. One stops bywoods, the oth er by laughing flesh .

My litt le horse must think it queerTo stop without a farmhouse nearBetween the woods and frozen lakeThe darkest evening of the year.*

I have perceived that to be with those I like is enough,To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh

is enough . . .

Becau se of the charac te ris tic styles, there is li ttle ques tion aboutidentity here, and if the sit uation s were reversed, with Wh itman stopping

*From "S topping by \Voods on a Snowy Eve ning" from The Poetry of Robert Frost, ed ited by Ed wardCon nery Lathem . Copyright 1923 , © 1969 by l len ry l lolt a nd Compa ny, LLC. Repri nted by permission ofHenry Hol t and Company, LLG.

99 I AN APP ROAC H TO STY LE

by woods and Frost by laughing flesh (not one of his regularly scheduledstops), the reader would know who was who.

Young writers often suppose that style is a garnish for the meat ofprose, a sa uce by which a dull dish is mad e palatable. Style has nosuch se para te entity; it is nondetachable, unfilterable. The beginnershould approach style waril y, realizing that it is an expression of self,and should turn resolutely away from all devices that are popularlybeli eved to indicate style- all manneri sm s, trick s, adornments. Theapproac h to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, ord erliness, sin­ce rity.

Writing is, for most , laboriou s and slow. The mind trav els fasterthan the pen ; con sequently, writing becom es a qu estion of learning tomak e occa sional wing shots, bringing down the bird of thought as itllashes by. A writer is a gunner, some times waiting in the blind forsomething to come in , some times roaming the countrys ide hoping tosc are something up. Like other gunners, the writ er must cult ivatepati en ce, workin g many covers to bring down one partridge. Her e, fol­lowing, are some sugges tions and cautionary hints that may help thebeginner find the way to a satisfac tory style .

1. Place yourself in the background.

Write in a way that draw s the reader 's aLLention to the se nse andsubs tance of the writing, rather than to the mood and temper of theauthor. If the writin g is solid and good, the mood and temper of thewrite r will eventually be reveal ed and not at the expe nse of the work.Ther efore, the first piece of ad vice is this: to ac hieve style, begin byaffec ting none-that is, pla ce yourself in the back ground. A carefuland hon est writer does not need to worry about styl e. As you becom eprofi cient in the use of lan guage, your style will emerge, because youyourself will emerge, and when this happen s you will find it increas­ingly easy to break through the barri ers that se parate you from othermind s, other hearts-which is, of course , the pu rpos e of writing, aswell as its prin cipal rewa rd. Fortunately, the ac t of compos ition, or cre­ation, disciplines the mind; writing is one way to go about thinking,and the practice and habit of writing not only drain the mind but supplyit, too.

T h e £/e11l"" I.< 0/ S tyle / 100

2. Write in a way that comes naturally.

Write in a way that comes easily and naturally to you, using wordsand phrases that come readily to hand. But do not assume that becauseyou have acted naturally your product is without flaw.

The use of language begins with imitation. The infant imitates thesounds made by its parents: the child imitates first the spoken lan­guage, then the stuff of books. The imitative life continues long afterthe writer is secure in the language, for it is almost impossible to avoidimitating what one admires. Never imitate consciously, but do notworry about being an imitator; take pains instead to admire what isgood. Then when you write in a way that comes naturally, you will echothe halloos that bear repeating.

3. Work from a suitable design.

Before beginning to compose something, gauge the nature andextent of the enterprise and work from a suitable design. (See ChapterII, Rule 12.) Design informs even the simplest structure, whether ofbrick and steel or of prose. You raise a pup tent from one sort of vision,a cathedral from another. This does not mean that you must sit with ablueprint always in front of you, merely that you had best anticipatewhat you are getting into. To compose a laundry list, you can workdirectly from the pile of soiled garments, ticking them off one by one.But to write a biography, you will need at least a rough scheme; youcannot plunge in blindly and start ticking off fact after fact about yoursubject, lest you miss the forest for the trees and there be no end toyour labors.

Sometimes, of course, impulse and emotion are more compellingthan design. If you are deeply troubled and are composing a letterappealing for mercy or for love, you had best not attempt to organizeyour emotions; the prose will have a better chance if the emotions areleft in disarray-which you'll probably have to do anyway, since feel ­ings do not usually lend themselves to rearrangement. But even thekind of writing that is essentially adventurous and impetuous will onexamination be found to have a secret plan: Columbus didn't just sail,he sailed west, and the New World took shape from this simple and,we now think, sensible design.

10] I A N APPHOACH TO ST Y L E

4. Write with nouns and verbs.

Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectiv es and adverbs. Theadjective hasn 't been built that ca n pull a weak or ina ccurate noun outof a tight place. Thi s is not to disparage adj ectiv es and adverbs; they areindispensable parts of speech. Occasionally they surprise us with thei rpower, as In

Up the airy mountain ,Down the rushy glen,

We daren' t go a-hunting

For fear of little men . . .

The nouns mountain and glen are acc urate enough, but had the mountainnot become airy, the glen rushy, William Allingham might never ha vegot off the ground with his poem. In general, however, it is noun s andverbs , not their assistants, that give good writing its toughn ess andcolor.

5. Revise and rewrite.

Revisin g is part of writing. Few writers are so expert that they canprodu ce what they are after on the first try. Quite often you will discover,on examining the comple ted work, that there are se rious flaws in thearran gement of the materi al , ca lling for tran spositions. When this is thecase, a word processor ca n save you time and lab or on your scree n andmove it to a more appropri ate spot, or, if you cannot find the right spot,you ca n move the materi al to the end of the manuscript until you decid ewhethe r to de le te it. Some writers find that working with a printed copyof the manuscri pt helps them to visualize the process of cha nge; othe rsprefer to rev ise entirely on screen. Above all, do not be afraid to exper­iment with wha t you have writte n. Save both the original and the revisedvers ions; you ca n always use the computer to restore the manuscript toits original condition, should that course see m best. Rememb er, it is nos ign of weakness or defeat that your manuscript ends up in need ofmajor surgery. Thi s is a common occ urrence in all writin g, and amongthe best writers.

6. Do not overwrite.

Rich , ornate prose is hard to digest , generally unwh olesome, andsometimes nau seating. If the sickly-sweet word, the overblown phrase

l OS I AN AI' PI\OAC H T O STY LI-:

are your natural form of expression, as is sometimes the case, you willhave to compe nsate for it by a show of vigor, and by writing somethingas meritorious as the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's .

Wh en writing with a computer, you must guard aga ins t wordiness.The cli ck and flow of a word pro cessor ca n be seductiv e, and you mayfind yourself adding a few unnecessa ry word s or eve n a whole passagejust to experience the pleasure of running your fingers over the key­board and watchi ng your words appea r on the sc reen. It is always a goodidea to reread your writing lat er and ruthlessly delete the excess.

7. Do not overstate.

When you oversta te, reade rs will be instantly on guard, and eve ry­thing that has preced ed your overs tateme nt as well as everything thatfollows it will be suspec t in their mind s becau se they have lost confide ncein your judgment or your poise. Overst atement is one of the commonfault s. A single overstatement , wherever or however it occurs, diminishesthe whole, and a single carefree superlative has the power to destroy, forreader s, the object of your enthus ias m.

8. Avoid tile use of qualifiers.

Rather, very, little, pretty-these are the leech es that infest the pondof prose, suc king the blood of words. Th e cons tant use of the adj ecti velittle (except to indica te size) is parti cul arl y debilitating; we should alltry to do a littl e beLLer, we should all be ver y watchful of this rul e, for itis a rather imp ortant one, and we are prett y sure to violate it now andthen.

9. Do not affect a breezy manner.

Th e volume of writing is enormous, these da ys, and much of it has asort of windiness about it, alm ost as thou gh the author were in a state ofeuphoria . "S pontaneous me," sa ng Whitman , and, in his inno cen ce, letloose the hordes of uninsp ired scribble rs who would one day confusespontane ity with genius .

Th e breezy style is often the work of an egoce ntric, the person whoimagin es that everything that comes to mind is of general interest an dthat uninhibited pros e creates high spirits and carries the day. Openan y alumni magazine, turn to the class notes, and you are quite lik ely

"Spontaneous me," sang Whitman.

to encounter old Spontaneous Me at work-an aglllg collegian whowrit es something lik e thi s:

Well , guys, here I am again dishing the dirt about your disorderl yclassmates, after pa$$ing a weekend in the Big Apple tryin g to catchthe Columbia hoops tilt and then a cab-r ide from hell through theWest Side cas bah. And speaking of news, howzabout tossing a fewprimo items this way?

Thi s is an extreme example , but the sa me wind blows, at lesser velocities,across vas t expa nses of journalisti c prose. The author in this case hasman aged in two se ntences to commit most of the unpardonabl e sins: heobvious ly has nothing to say, he is showing off and directing the atte n­tion of the read er to him self, he is using slang with neither provocationnor ingenuity, he adopts a patronizing air by throwing in the word prime,he is hum orless (though full of fun), dull, and empty. He has not donehis work . Compa re his opening remarks with the following-a plungedirectl y into the news:

Clyde Crawford , who stroked the varsit y shell in 1958, is swingingan oar again after a lap se of forty years. Clyde resigned last spring asexecutive sales manager of the Indi ana Flotex Company and is now agondolie r in Venice .

Th is, although conve ntional, is compact, informative, unpretentious.Th e writer has du g up an item of news and present ed it in a stra ightfor­ward manner. Wha t the first writer tried to accomplish by cuttingrhetorical ca pers and by breezin ess, the second write r managed toac hieve by good report ing, by keeping a tight rein on his materi al , andby stay ing out of the act.

10. Use orthodox spelling.

In ordinary compos ition, use orthodox sp elling. Do not write nile fornight, thru for through, pleez for please, unl ess you plan to introduce acomple te sys tem of simplified spe lli ng and are prepared to tak e theconse que nces.

In the original edition of The Elements of Style, there was a chapteron spell ing. In it, the a uthor had this to sa y:

The spelling of English words is not fixed and invariable, nor doesit depend on any other authority than general agreement. At the present

Th e E l em ent s 0/ S ty le / 10 8

day there is practically unanimous agreement as to the spelling ofmost words.. .. At any given moment, however, a relat ively smallnumber of words may be spelled in more than one way. Gradually,as a rule, one of these forms comes to be generally preferred, and theless customary form comes to look obsolete and is discarded. Fromtime to time new forms, mostly simplifications, are introduced byinnovators, and either win their place or die of neglect.

The practical objection to una ccept ed and oversimplifiedspell ings is the disfavor with which they are received by thereader. They distract his atte ntion and exhaust his patience.He rea ds the form though automatically, without thought of itsneedl ess complexity; he reads the abbrev iation tho and ment allysupplies the missing lett ers, at the cos t of a fraction of hisattention. The writer has defeated his own purpo se.

Th e lan gu age manages somehow to keep pace with eve nts . A wordthat has tak en hold in our century is thruway; it was born of necess ityand is apparently here to s tay. In combina tion with way, thru. is moreserviceabl e than through; it is a high- sp eed word for readers who aregoing s ixty-five. Throughway would be too long to fit on a road sign, toos low to se rve the speeding eye . It is conce iva ble that becau se of ourthruways, through will eventua lly become thru- after man y more thou­sa nds of mil es of tra vel.

II. Do not exp la in too milch.

It is se ldo m ad visabl e to tell all. Be spa ring, for inst an ce, in the useof adverbs aft er " he sa id," "she repl ied," and the lik e: " he said consol­ingly" ; "she replied grumblingly." Let the conversa tion itse lf di sclosethe spe ake r's manner or condition. Dialogue heavil y weight ed withadve rb s a fte r th e attributi ve verb is cl utlery a nd an noy ing .Inexp eri en ced wr ite rs not onl y overwork thei r ad verbs but load theira tt ributes with ex plana tory ver bs : " he consoled," "she co ngra tula ted."Th ey do thi s, appare ntly, in the beli ef that the word said is always inneed of support, or becau se they have been told to do it by expe rts inthe art of bad writing.

12. Do not construct awkward adverbs.

Adv erbs are easy to build . 'lake an adjective or a participle, add -ly,and behold! you hav e an adverb. But you' d probably be better off without

10 ') I AN APPIIOACII TO ST Y LE

it. Do not write tangledly. The word itself is a tangle. Do not even writetiredly . Nobody says tangledly and not many people say tiredly. Wordsthat are not used orally are se ldom the ones to put on paper.

He cl imbed tiredl y to bed.

The lamp cord lay tan ­gledly beneath her chair.

He climbed weari ly tobed.

The lamp cord lay in tan ­gles beneath her cha ir.

Do not dress words up by add ing -ly to them, as though pu tting a hat ona horse.

overly

muchl y

thusly

over

much

thus

13. Make sure the reader knows who is speaking.

Dialo gue is a total loss unless you indi cate who the speaker is. Inlong di alogue passages containing no attributives , the read er maybecome lost and be compelled to go back and reread in order to puzzl ethe thing out. Obscurity is an imposition on the reader, to say nothingof its damage to the work .

In dia logue, mak e sure that your attributives do not awkward ly inter­rupt a spoken se ntence. Place them where the break would come natu ­rall y in speech- tha t is, where the speaker would pause [or emphas is,or tak e a breath. The best test [or locating an attri butive is to spea k these ntence aloud.

"N ow, my boy, we sha llsee ," he sa id, "how well youhave learned your lesson."

"What's more, they wouldnever," she added, "conse nt tothe plan."

"Now, my boy," he said,"we shall see how well youhave learn ed your lesson."

"W hat's more," she added," they would never conse nt tothe plan. "

14. Avoid fancy words.

Avoid the elaborate, the pretenti ous, the coy, and the cute. Do not betempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-cen ter hand y,

III I A N A P P R O A C H TO S T Y L E

ready and abl e. Anglo-Saxon is a liveli er tongu e than Latin, so useAnglo-Saxon words . In thi s, as in so man y matters pertaining to style,one's ear must be one's guide : gut is a lu sti er noun than int estine, butthe two words are not int erch an geable, because gut is often inappropri­ate, being too coarse for the context. Neve r call a stomac h a tumm ywithout good reason .

If you admire fanc y words , if every sky is beauteous, every blondecurvaceous, every int elligent child prodigious, if you are tickled by dis­combobulate, you will ha ve a bad time with Reminder 14 . What iswrong, you ask , with beaut eous? No one knows, for sure . There is nothingwrong, reall y, with any word-all are good, but some are better than oth­ers. A matter of ear, a matter of reading the books that sharpen the ea r.

Th e lin e between the fancy and the plain, between the atroc ious andthe feli citous, is some times alarmingly fine. The opening phrase of theGett ysburg address is close to the lin e, at lea st by our s tandards toda y,and Mr. Lincoln, knowingly or unknowingly, was flirtin g with disasterwhen he wrote " Four score and seven years ago." The President couldhave got into his senten ce with plain " Eighty-seven"- a saving of twowords and less of a strain on the listen ers' powers of multiplication. ButLincoln 's ea r must have told him to go ah ead with four score and seven.By doing so, he achi eved cade nce while skirting the edge of fancin ess.Suppose he had blundered over the line and written , " In the yea r of ourLord seventee n hundred and seventy-s ix." His speech would have sus­tain ed a heavy blow. Or suppose he had se ttled for " Eighty-seven." Inthat case he would have got into his introductory se ntence too qui ckl y;the timing would have been bad.

The question of ear is vital. Only the writer whose ear is reliable isin a position to use bad grammar deliberately ; this writer knows for surewhen a colloquialism is better than formal phrasin g and is abl e to sus tainthe work at a level of good taste. So cock your ear. Years ago, stude ntswere warn ed not to end a se ntence with a prepo sition; time, of course,has softe ned that rigid decree. Not onl y is the prepo siti on acceptable atthe end, sometimes it is more effective in that spot than an ywhere else."A claw hammer, not an ax, was the tool he murdered her with. " Thi s ispreferable to "A claw hammer, not an ax, was the tool with which hemurdered her." Why? Becau se it sounds more violent , more like murd er.A matter of ea r.

Th e El em ent s of St yl e I 1 1 2

And would you writ e "The worst tennis player around her e is I" or"The worst tennis player aro und here is me"? The first is good gram­mar, the sec ond is good judgment-although the me might not do in allcontexts.

The split infinitive is another trick of rhetoric in which the ear mustbe quicker than the handbook. Some infinitives seem to improve onbeing split, just as a st ick of round stovewood does. "I cannot bringmyself to really like the fellow." The sentence is relaxed, the meaning isclear, the violation is harmless and scarcely perceptible. Put the otherway, the sentence becomes stiff, needlessly formal. A matt er of ear.

There are tim es when the ea r not only guides us through difficult sit­uations but also saves us from minor or major embarrassments of prose.Th e ear, for example, must decide when to omit that from a sentence,when to retain it. "She knew she could do it" is preferable to "She kn ewthat she could do it"-simpler and just as clear. But in many cases thethat is needed . "He felt that his big nose, which was sunburne d, mad ehim look rid iculous." Omit the that and you have "He felt his big

"nose. . ..

15. Do not use dialect unless your ea r is good.

Do not att empt to use dialect unl ess you are a devoted stude nt of thetongue you hop e to reproduce. If you use dialect , be consistent. Th ereader will become impatient or confused upon finding two or more ver­sions of the same word or expression. In dialect it is necessary to spe llphoneti cally, or at least ingeniously, to capture unusual inflec tions .Take, for example, the word once. It often appears in dialect writing asoncet, but oncet look s as though it should be pronounced "onset." A bet­ter spelling would be wunst. But if you write it oncet once, write it thatway throughout. The best dialect writers, by and large, are economicalof their tal ents; they use the minimum, not the maximum, of deviationfrom the norm , thu s sparing their read ers as well as convincing them.

16. Be clear.

Clarity is not the priz e in writing, nor is it always the principal markof a good style. There are occasions when obscurity serves a literaryyearn ing, if not a lit erary purpose, and there are write rs whose mien ismore overcast than clear. But since writing is communication, claritycan only be a virtue . And although there is no substitute for merit in

] ] 3 I AN A PPR OA CH TO STY L E

writing, clarity comes closest to bein g one. Even to a writer who is beingint entionally obscure or wild of tongue we can say, "Be obscure clearly!Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand!" Even to writers of mar­ket lett ers, telling us (but not telling us) which secur ities are promising,we can say, "Be cagey plainly! Be elliptical in a straightforward fashion! "

Cla rity, clarity, clarity. When you become hop elessly mired in a sen­ten ce, it is best to start fresh; do not try to fight your way through againstthe terrible odds of syntax. Usually what is wrong is that the cons truc tionhas becom e too involved at some point; the se nte nce need s to be bro ­ken apa rt and replaced by two or more shorter se ntences.

Muddiness is not mer ely a disturber of prose, it is also a destroyerof life, of hop e: death on the highway caused by a badly worded roadsign, heartbreak among lover s cause d by a misplaced phrase in a well­intentioned lett er, anguish of a tra veler expecting to be met at a railroadsta tion and not bein g met because of a slips hod telegram. Think of thetragedi es that are rooted in ambiguity, and be clear! Wh en you saysomething, mak e sure you have said it. The chances of your having saidit are only fair . .

17. Do not inject opinion.

Unless there is a good reason for its bein g there, do not inject opinioninto a piece of writin g. We all have opinions about almo st everything, andthe temptation 10 toss them in is great. To air one's views gratuitously, how­ever, is to impl y that the demand for them is brisk , which may not bethe case, and which , in any event, may not be relevant to the discu ssion .Opinions scattered indi scriminately about lea ve the mark of egotism ona work. Simila rly, to a ir one's views at an improper time may be in badtaste. If you have received a lett er inviting you to speak at the dedi ca­tion of a new cat hospital , and you hate ca ts, your reply, declining theinvitation, does not necessarily have to cover the full range of your emo­tion s. You must make it clear that you will not a tte nd, but you do nothave to let fly at cats . The writer of the lett er asked a civil question;attack ca ts, then , only if you ca n do so with good hum or, good taste, andin suc h a way that your an swer will be courteous as well as responsive.Since you are out of sympathy with cats, you may quite properl y givethi s as a reason for not appearing at the dedi catory ce remonies of a cathospital. But bear in mind that your opinion of cats was not sought, onlyyour se rvices as a speaker. Try to keep things stra ight.

Th e El e m e n t s of S ty l e / 114

18. Use figures of speech sparingly.

The simile is a common device and a useful one, but similes comingin rapid fire , one right on top of another, are more dis tracting than illumi­nating. Readers need time to catch their breath; they can' t be expected tocompare everything with something else , and no re lief in sight.

Wh en you use metaphor, do not mix it up. That is, don 't start by ca ll­ing something a swordfi sh and end by calling it an hourglass.

19. Do not take shortcuts at the cost of clarity.

Do not use ini tial s for the names of organ izations or movementsunless you are ce rtain the initial s will be readily unde rstood. Writeth ing s out. Not everyone knows that MADD means Mothe rs AgainstDrunk Driving, a nd eve n if everyo ne did, there are babies bei ng bornevery minute who will someday encounter the nam e for the first time.They de serve to see the words, not s imply the in itials . A good rule is tostart your article by wri ting out names in full , and then, later, when yourreaders have got thei r bearings, to shorten them .

Many shortcuts are self-defeating; they waste the reade r's timeinstea d of conserving it. Th ere a re all sorts of rhetorical stra tage ms anddevices that attract writers who hope to be pithy, but most of them aresimply both ersome. The longest way round is usually the shor tes t wayhome, and the one trul y reliabl e shortcut in writin g is to choose wordsthat are strong and sure looted to ca rry readers on the ir way.

20. Avoid fo reign languages.

The writer will occasionall y find it conve nient or necessary to borrowfrom othe r lan guages. Some writers, however, from shee r exubera nce ora desire to sho w off, sp rinkle thei r work lib erall y with foreign expres ­sio ns, with no regard for the reader's comfort. It is a bad habit. Write inEnglish.

21 . P refer the standard to the offbeat.

Younger writers will be drawn at eve ry turn toward eccentric ities inlanguage. They will hear the beat of new vocabular ies, the exc itingrhythms of sp ecial segments of the ir socie ty, eac h speaking a la nguageof its own. All of us come under the spell of th ese unsettling drums; thepro bl em for beginn ers is to listen to them, learn the words, feel thevibrations, and not be car ried away.

11 5 I AN APPHO A CII TO STY LE

Youths inva riably speak to other youths in a tongue of their owndevising: they renovate the lan guage with a wild vigor, as they would abasement apar tment. By the time this paragraph sees print, psyched,nerd, ripojJ, dude, geek, and funky will be the words of yes teryear, andwe will be fielding more recent ones that ha ve come bouncing into ourspeech-some of them into our dictionary as well. A new word is alwa ysup for survival. Many do survive. Other s grow stale and di sappear. Mostare, at lea st in their infancy, more appropria te to conversation than tocomposition.

Today, the lan gua ge of ad vertisin g enjoys an enormous circula tion.With its delib erat e infraction s of grammatica l rules and its crossbreedingof the pa rts of speech, it profoundly influen ces the tongues and pen s ofchildre n and adults. Your new kitch en ran ge is so revolutionary it obso­letes all other ran ges. Your counter top is beautiful because it is acces­sorized with gold-plated faucets. Your cigarette tastes good like a cigare tteshould. And, like the man says, you will want to try one. You will also,in all probability, want to try writing that way, usin g that lan guage. Youdo so at your peril, for it is the lan guage of mutilation.

Advertise rs are quite und erstandably interest ed in what they ca ll"a ttention ge tting." Th e man photographed must have losl an eye orgrown a pink beard , or he must have three arm s or be s itting wrong-end­to on a horse. Thi s technique is prop er in its place, which is the worldof se ll ing, but the young writer had best not adopt the de vice of mut ila­tion in ordinary compos ition, whose purpose is to engage, not paralyze,the reader's se nses. Buy the gold-plaled fau cets if you will, but do notaccessorize your prose. To use the lan guage well , do not begin by hack­ing it to bits; accept the whole body of it, che rish its classic form, itsvar iety, and its richness.

Anothe r seg ment of soc iety that has cons truc ted a lan guage of itsown is bu sin ess. People in busin ess say that toner cartridges are in shortsupply, that they have updated the next shipment of these ca rtridge s,and that they willJinalize their reco mmen da tions at the next meeti ng ofthe board. They are speaking a language familiar and dea r to them. Itsport entous nouns and verbs in vest ordinary eve nts with high adve nture,executives walk among toner ca rtridges, caparisoned lik e knights. Weshould tolerate them- every person of sp irit wants to rid e a whit e horse.The only qu est ion is wheth er busin ess vocabula ry is helpful to ordinary

Th e El em ent.' of S t yl e I li B

prose. Usually, the same ideas can be expressed less formidably, if onemakes the effort. A good many of the special words of business seemdesigned more to express the user's dreams than to express a precisemeaning. Not all such words, of course, can be dismissed summarily;indeed, no word in the language can be dismissed offhand by anyonewho has a healthy curiosity. Update isn't a bad word; in the right settingit is useful. In the wrong setting, though , it is destructive, and the troublewith adopting coinages too quickly is that they will bedevil one byinsinuating themselves where they do not belong. This may sound likerhetorical snobbery, or plain stuffiness; but you will discover, in thecourse of your work, that the setting of a word is just as restrictive as thesetting of a jewel. The general rule here is to prefer the standard.Finalize , for instance, is not standard; it is special, and it is a peculiarlyfuzzy and silly word. Does it mean "terminate," or does it mean "putinto final form"? One can't be sure, really, what it means, and one getsthe impression that the person using it doesn't know, either, and doesn'twant to know.

The special vocabularies of the law, or the military, or governmentare familiar to most of us . Even the world of criticism has a modestpouch of private words (luminous, taut), whose only virtue is that theyare exceptionally nimble and can escape from the garden of meaningover the wall. Of these critical words, Wolcoll Gibbs once wrote, " ...they are detached from the language and inflated like little balloons."The young writer should learn to spot them-words that at first glanceseem freighted with delicious meaning but that soon burst in air, leavingnothing but a memory of bright sound.

The language is perpetually in flux: it is a living stream, shifting,changing, receiving new strength from a thousand tributaries, losing oldforms in the backwaters of time. To suggest that a young writer not swimin the main stream of this turbulence would be foolish indeed, and suchis not the intent of these cautionary remarks. The intent is to suggestthat in choosing between the formal and the informal, the regular andthe offbeat, the general and the special, the orthodox and the heretical,the beginner err on the side of conservatism, on the side of establishedusage. No idiom is taboo, no accent forbidden; there is simply a betterchance of doing well if the writer holds a steady course, enters thestream of English quietly, and does not thrash about.

119 I AN APPROACH TO STYLE

"But," you may ask , "what if it comes natural to me to experimentrather than conform? Wh at if I am pioneer, or even a genius?" Answer:then be one. But do not forget that what ma y seem lik e pioneering maybe merely evas ion, or laziness-the disinclination to submit to dis ci­pline. Writin g good standard En glish is no cinc h, and before you haveman aged it you will have encountere d enough rough country to satisfyeven the most adve nturous spirit.

Style tak es its final shape more from attitudes of mind than fromprinciples of composition, for, as an elderly practitioner once remarked ,"Writing is an act of faith , not a trick of gra mmar." Thi s moral obs erva­tion would ha ve no place in a rul e book wer e it not that style is thewriter, and therefore what you are, rather than what you know, will atlast determine your style . If you write, you must believe-in the truthand worth of the sc ra wl, in the abili ty of the reader to recei ve andde cod e the message. No one can write decently who is distrustful of thereader 's intelli gen ce, or whose attitude is patronizing.

Man y refere nces have been mad e in thi s book to " the reader," whohas been much in the news. It is now necessary to warn you that yourconcern for the read er must be pure: you must sympathize with thereader's plight (most reade rs are in trouble about half the time) butnever se ek to know the reader's wants. Your whole dut y as a writer is toplease and sa tisfy yourself, and the true writer always plays to an audi­en ce of one. Start sniffing the air, or glanc ing at the Trend Machine, andyou are as good as dead , although you may mak e a nice living.

Full of beli ef, sus ta ined and elevated by the power of purpose,arm ed with the rul es of gra mmar, you are ready for exposure . At thi spoint, you may well pall ern yourself on the fully expose d cow of RobertLouis Stevenson's rhyme. Thi s friendly and comme nda ble animal, youmay recall, was "blown by all the winds that pas s lAnd wet with all theshowers." And so must you as a young writ er be. In our modern idiom ,we would say that you must get wet all over. Mr. Stevenson, working ina plainer style, sa id it with felicit y, and sudde nly one cow, out of soman y, received the gift of immortal ity. Lik e the steadfas t writer, she isat home in the wind and the rain; and, thanks to one moment of felicity,she will live on and on and on.

The El e m e n t s of St y le I 12 0

VI

Spelling *

The spell ing of English words is not fixed and invariable, nor does itdepend on any other authority than general agreement. At the presentday there is practically unanimous agreement as to the spell ing of mostwords. In the list below, for example, rime for rhyme is the only allow­abl e variation; all the other forms are co-extens ive with the English lan­guage . At any given moment , however, a relatively small number ofwords may be spelled in more than one way. Gradually, as a rul e, one ofthese forms comes to be generally preferred , and the less cus tomaryform comes to look obsolete and is discarded. From time to time newforms, mostly simplifications, are introduce d by innovators, and eithe rwin their place or die of neglect.

The practi cal objection to unaccept ed and oversimplified spell ingsis the disfavor with which they are received by the reader. They distracthis att ention and exhaus t his pati ence. He reads the form though auto­mati call y, without thou ght of its needl ess complexity; he read s theabbrev iation tho and mentall y supplies the missing letters, at the costof a fraction of his att ention. The writer has defeat ed his own purpose.

• From the first edition.

I 12 2

WORDS OFTE N M ISSPELLED

accidentally fiery principal

ad vice formerly principle

affect humorous pri vilege

believe hypocrisy pursue

benefit immedi ately repetition

challe nge impostor rhyme

coarse incident rhythm

course incidentally rid iculous

cr iticize latt er sacrilegious

deceive led seize

definite lose se pa rate

descr ibe marnage she pherd

despi se mischief sIege

develop murmur simila r

di sappoin t necessary simile

di ssipate occ urred too

du el opportuni ty tra ged y

ecstasy parallel tries

effec t Philip undoubtedly

embarrass playwright until

exis tence preceding villain

fascinate prejudice

12 3 I S PE LLIN G

Glossary

adj ectival modifier A word, phrase, or clau se that ac ts as anadjec tive in qualifying the meaning of a noun or pronoun. Your country;a tum-of-the-century style; peop le who are always late.

adj e ctive A word that mod ifies, qu antifies, or otherwise describesa noun or pronoun . Drizzly Nove mber; midni ght dreary; only require­men L.

adverb A word that mod ifies or otherwise qualifies a verb, anadjective, or anothe r adverb. Gestures gracefully; exceptionally quietengme.

adverbial phrase A phrase that functi ons as an adverb. (Seephrase.) Landon lau ghs with abandon.

agreement The corresponde nce of a verb with its subject in personand number (Karen goes to Cal Tech ; her siste rs go to UCLA), and of apronoun with its antecedent in per son, num ber, and gender (As soon asKaren fin ished the exam, she picked up her books an d left the room).

antecedent The noun to which a pronoun refers. A pronoun and itsanteceden t must agree in per son, nu mber, and gender. Michael and histeammates moved off campus .

12 5 I

appositive A noun or noun phrase that renames or adds identifyinginformation to a noun it immediately follows. His brother, an account­ant with Price, Waterhouse, was recently promoted.

articles The words a, an , and the, which signal or introduce nouns.Th e defin ite article the refers to a parti cul ar item: the report . The indef­in ite ar ticles a and an refer to a gene ral item or one not already men­tion ed : an apple .

au xilia r y verb A verb that combines with the main verb to showdifferences in ten se, person, and voice. The most common auxiliariesare forms of be, do, and have. I am going; we did not go; they have gone .(See also modal auxiliaries.)

case The form of a noun or pronoun that reflects its gra mmaticalfun cti on in a sentence as subject (they), object (them), or possessor(their). She gave her employees a raise that plea sed them greatly.

clause A group of related words that conta ins a subject and predi ­cate. Moths swarm around a burning candle. Wh ile she was taking thetest , Karen muttered to herself.

colloquialism A word or expression appropriate to informal conve r­sation but not usually suitable for acade mic or bu sin ess writing. Theywanted to get even (ins tead of they want ed to retaliate).

complement A word or phrase (especially a noun or adjective) thatcomple tes the predi cate. Su bject complemen ts comple te linkingverbs and rename or de scribe the subjec t: Marth a is my neighbor . Sheseems shy. O bject complemen ts comple te transitive verbs bydescribing or renaming the direct object : They found the play exciting .Rob ert cons ide rs Mary a wonderful wife.

compound sentence Two or more ind ep endent clauses joined by acoordinating conjunction, a corre lative conjunc tion, or a se micolon.Caesar conquered Gaul, but Alexander the Great conquered the world .

GL OSS A RY I 126

compotmd subject Two or more simple subjects joined by a coor­dinating or corre la tive conjunction. Hemingway and Fitzgerald had littleIII common.

c o njun ctio n A word that joins words, phrases, clauses, or se n­ten ces. The coordina ting conjunctions, and, but, or, nor, yet, so, f or joingrammatically equivalent elements. Corre lative conjunctions (both,and; either, or; neither, nor) join the same kinds of elements.

co ntrac tio n A shortened form of a word or group of words: can't forcannot; they 're for they are.

correlative expression See conjunction.

dependent clause A group of words that includes a subject andverb but is subordina te to an ind ep endent clau se in a sentence.Dep endent clauses begin with either a subordina ting conjunction, suc has if, because, since, or a rela tive pronoun , suc h as who, which, that.When it gets dark , we'll find a restau rant that has music.

direct object A noun or pronoun that receives the action of a tran­sitive verb. Pearson publishes books.

gerund The -in g form of a verb that fun cti ons as a noun: Hiking isgood exercise. She was praised for her playing .

indefinite pronoun A pronoun that refers to an unspecified person(anybody) or thing (something) .

independent clause A group of words with a subject and verb thatcan stand alone as a sentence. Raccoons steal foo d.

indirect object A noun or pronoun that indicates to whom or forwhom, to what or for what the action of a transitive verb is performed. Iaske d her a quest ion. Ed gave the door a kick.

infinitive/split Infinitive In the present ten se, a verb phrase con­sisting of to followed by the base form of the verb (to write). A split

12 7 I GL OSS A R Y

infinitive occurs when one or more words se pa ra te to and the verb (toboldly go).

intransitive verb A verb that does not take a direct object. Hisnerve failed.

linking verb A verb that joins the subject of a sentence to its com­plement. Professor Chapman is a philosoph y teacher. They were ecs tatic .

loose senten ce A se ntence that begins with the main idea and thenattaches modifi ers, qu alifi er s, and additional details: He was deter­min ed to succeed, with or without the promotion he was hoping for andin spite of the difficulties he was confronting at every turn.

main clause An ind ependent clause, which ca n stand alone as agram matically complete sentence. Gram marians quibble.

modal auxiliaries Any of the verbs that combine with the mainverb to express necessity (must), obligation (should), permi ssion (may),probability (might ), possibility (could), ability (can), or tentati veness(would). Mary might wash the car.

modifier A word or phrase that qu alifies, describ es, or limits themeaning of a word, phrase, or clause. Frayed ribbon, dancing flower s,worldly wisdom.

nominative pronoun A pronoun that functions as a subject or asubject complement: I , we, you, he, she, it, they , who.

nonrestrictive modifier A phrase or clause that does not limit orrestri ct the essential meaning of the element it modifi es. My younges tniece, who lives in Ann Arbor, is a magazine editor.

noun A word that nam es a person, place, thing, or idea . Most nounshave a plural form and a possessive form. Carol; the park; the cup;democracy.

GLOSSA RY I 12 8

mrmber A feature of nouns, pronouns, and a few verbs, referring tosingular or plural. A subje ct and its corresponding verb must be cons is ­tent in number; a pronoun should agree in number with its anteced ent.A solo fl ute plays; two oboes join in.

object The noun or pronoun that completes a prepositional ph raseor the meaning of a tra ns itive verb. (See also direct object, indirectobject, and preposition .) Frost offered his aud ience a poetic performancethey would likely never forget.

participial phrase A present or past parti cipl e with acc ompanyingmodifi er s, objects , or compleme nts . The buzzards, circling with sinisterdetermination, squawked loudly.

participle A verbal that functions as an adjec tive. Present partici­ples end in -ing (brimm ing ); past participles typi cally end in -d or -ed(inj ured) or -en (broken) but may appear in other forms (brought, been ,gone).

periodic sentence A sentence that expresses the main idea at theend. With or without their pare nts' conse nt, and whether or not theyreceive the assignme nt relocati on they requested , they are determinedto get married.

phrase A group of related words that functions as a un it but lack s asubjec t, a verb, or both. Without the resources to continue.

possessive Th e case of nouns and pronouns that indicates owner­ship or possession (Harold 's, ours, mine).

predicate The verb and its rela ted word s in a clau se or sentence.Th e predicate expresses what the subject does, experiences, or is. Birdsfly. Th e partygoers celebrated wildly f or a long time.

preposition A word that rel ates its object (a noun, pronou n, or -ingverb form) to anothe r word in the sentence. She is the leader of ourgroup. We opened the door by picking the lock. She went out the window.

12 9 I GLO SSA RY

prepositional phrase A group of words consisting of a preposition,its object, and any of the object 's modifi ers. Georgia on my mind.

principal verb The predi cating verb in a main clause or sentence.

pronominal possessive Possessive pronouns suc h as hers, its, andtheirs.

proper noun The nam e of a particular person (Frank Sinatra),place (Boston), or thing (Moby Dick). Proper nouns are capitalized .Common nouns name classes of peopl e (singers), places (cities), orthings (books) and are not capitalized.

relative clause A clau se introduced by a relati ve pronoun, suc h aswho, which, that , or by a relativ e adverb, suc h as where, when, why.

relative pronoun A pronoun that connects a dep endent clau se toa main clau se in a sentence: who, whom , whose, which, that , what , who­ever, whomever, whichever, and whatever.

restrictive term, element, clause A phrase or clause that limitsthe essential meaning of the sentence element it modi fies or identifies.Profession al athle tes who perform exceptionally should earn stratos­ph eri c salaries . Since there are no commas before and after the itali ­cized clau se, the itali cized clause is restri cti ve and suggests that onl ytho se athletes who perform exceptionally are entitled to suc h salaries .If commas were added before who and after exceptionally, the clau sewould be nonrestricti ve and would sugges t that all professional athletesshould receive stratospheric salaries .

sentence fragment A group of words that is not grammatically acomplete sentence but is punctuated as one: Because it matt ered greatly .

subject The noun or pronoun that indicates what a se ntence isabout, and which the principal verb of a se ntence elaborates . The newSteven Spielberg movie is a box office hit.

GLOSSA RY I 130

su b o rd in a te clause A clause dependent on the mai n clause in ase ntence . After we finish our work, we will go out for dinner.

syn tax The order or arrangemen t of words in a se ntence. Syntaxmay exhibit parallelism (I came, I saw, I conquered), inversion (Whosewoods these are I think I know), or other forma l charac te ristics .

tense The time of a verb's ac tion or sta te of bein g, such as past ,present , or future. Saw, see, will see.

transition A word or group of words that aids cohe rence in writingby showing the connec tions between ideas. Will iam Carlos Willi amswas influenced by the poetry of Walt Whi tman . Moreover, Will iams'semphas is on the presen t and the immediacy of the ord inary represen teda rejection of the poe tic stance and style of his con temporary T.S. Eliot.In addition , Williams's poetry. . . .

transitive ver b A verb that req uires a di rect objec t to complete itsmeaning: Th ey washed their new car. An intransiti ve verb does notrequire an object to comple te its meani ng: The audience laugh ed . Manyverbs can be both: The wind blew furiou sly. My car blew a gas ke t.

ve r b A word or group 01' words that expresses the action or indicatesthe state of bein g of the subject. Verbs activate se ntences.

verbal A verb form that functions in a sentence as a noun, an adjec­tive, or an adverb rath er than as a principal verb. Thinking can be fun.An embroidered handkerch ief. (See also gerund, infinitive, and participle.)

voice The attribute of a verb that indicates wheth er its subject isactive (Janet played the guitar) or passive (The guita r was played byJanet).

Glossary prepared by Hobert DiYann i.

G LO SSA HY I 13 2

Index

Jlalan:

in parallel construc tion, 43in titl es, 61

abbreviations:punctu ation of, 6and writing style, 115

accordingly, semicolon with,12

active voice, 33-34adjectival modifier, 24adj ective(s):

compound, hyphen in,55-57

and writing style , 105adverb(s), 12

awkward, 109-11sparing use of, 109

adverbial phrase, 70advertising, language of, 118affect vs. effec t, 71aggravate vs. irritate, 63

13 5 I

agreement, subje ct-verb,18-21

Allingham, Will iam, 105all right , 64allude, 64allusion vs. illusion, 64alm ost vs. most, 80along these lines, 79alternate vs. alternative, 64among vs. between, 64and:

comma before, 11, 12loose sentences with, 42parallelism with, 44subjects joined by, 18while as substitute for, 93

and/or, misuse of, 64Anglo-Saxon vs. Latin , 112antecedent(s), position in sen-

tence,48anticipate vs. expect, 64-65

anybody:pronoun after, 89vs. all)' body, 65

anyone vs. anyone, 65apostroph e, use of, 1appositive:

introdu ctory, 24positi on in sentence , 48prono un as, 22punctuat ion, 9, 16

article(s):in parallel construc tion,

43-44in titles, 6 ]

as:comma before, 11vs . like , 77-79, 118

as good or better than , 65as regards, 76as to whether, 65as well as, subjects join ed by,

21as yet, 65attri butives, in dialogue, 52 ,

109, IIIaux iliary verb(s), 37

modal, :n

Bbeing , misuse of, 65besides, semicolon with, 12between vs. among, 64both . . . and, paralle lism with,

44breezy style, 106-8brev ity. See concise writing

busin ess, language of, 118-19busin ess firms, names of, 3but:

comma before, 11loose sen tences with, 42use of, 65-67while as subs titute for, 93

ccan:

sparing use of, 37vs. may, 67

care less, misuse of, 67case, of prono uns, 21-24case (noun), misuse of, 67certainly, 67character, misuse of, 67-68claim (verb), 67clar ity in writing, 113-14c1ause(s):

pun ctuation of, 6-12restrict ive vs. nonr est ric-

tive, 6-8, 87clever, 68colloquialism(s), 55colon, use of, 15-16comma(s):

with abbrevia tions, 6in compound sentence , 12before conjunc tion, 11, 12in dates, 3-6with parenth etical expres -

sions, 3-9with quotations, 58serial, 3vs. period, 12-15

I D EX I 1:{6

compare to vs. compare with, 68compansons :

case of pronoun in , 21-24than in , 87

comple ment:in periodic se nte nce, 52inverted position of, 52-53

composed of vs. divided into,70

composition, principl es of,31-53

compoun d adjective , hyph enin, 55-57

compound sentence:

comma in, 12semicolon in, 11

compound subject, verb form

after, 18-21comprise, 68concise writ ing, 39-40

ac tive voice in , 33-34positive statements and,

34-37concrete lan guage, 37-39conditiona l verbs , 37conjunction(s) :

comma with, 11-12loose se nte nces with,

40-42parall eli sm with, 43

consider vs. considered as, 68contact (verb), 68contraction, vs . possessive, 1coordi nating conjunc tions:

comma with, 11-12loose se nte nces with,

40-42

13 7 I I NDEX

cope with, 68corre la tive conjunctions :

comma with, 11-12parallel ism with, 43-44

could, sparing use of, 37currently , misu se of, 70

Ddash , use of, 16data, 70dat es:

numerals vs. words for, 57punctuati on of, 3-6

degrees (acade mic), punctua­tion of, 6

dep endent clause, pu nctuat ionof, 11

design, 31, 101de tails, reporting, 37-38dialect , 113dialogue:

adverbs in, 109attributive s in, 52, 109,

111dates in numbers in , 57paragra ph ing of, 32se nte nce fragment in, 15tense in , 52

different than, misu se of, 70direct address, na me or titl e

in,6

di rect object, 68disinterested vs. uninterested, 70divided into vs. composed oj, 70due to, 70

Eeach:

pronoun after, 89verb form after, 18-21

each and every one, 70ec centric vs. standard lan-

guage, 115-20effect vs. affect, 71e.g., punctuation of, 6either . . . or, parallel cons truc ­

tion with , 44elude vs. allude, 64emphatic word/expression

position in se ntence,52-53

as se ntence fragment, 15enormity, 71enthuse, misuse of, 71enumeration, comma in , 3etc., 71

pun ctuation of, 6every, compound subject qu ali ­

fied by, 18-21everybody:

pronoun after, 89verb form after, 18vs. every body, 65

everyone:pronoun after, 89verb form after, 18

except, subjec ts joined by, 21exclamations, 55expect vs. anticipate, 64-65

Ffacility, 72

fact , 71factor, 72(the) fact is , 88(the)fact that , 39fancy words, avoiding, 111-13farther vs. further, 72Faulkner, William, 99f eatu re, 72f ewer vs. less, 77figures of speech, llSfinalize, 72 , ll8-19first . . . , second . . . , third, par­

alle lism with , 44firstly . . . , secondly . . . , thirdly ,

misuse of, 86fix (verb), 72flammable, 73folk,73for , comma before, ll , 12f or conscience' sake, 1foreign words, ll5form, matt ers of, 55- 61Forster, E. M., 42fortu itous, 73Frost , Robert , 99-100funny, 76further vs. farther, 72

Ggerund:

possessive case with, 24vs. parti ciple, 24, 83

get, 73Gibbs, Wolcott, 119glossary, 125-32gratuitous, 73

I N DEX I 13 8

Hhave got , 73headings, 55he is a man who, 73Hemingway, Ernest, 99he said, in dialogue, 52, 109,

111he or she, avoiding, 89-90hopefully, 73-74however, 74hyph en , 55- 57

Ii.e., punctuation of, 6illusion vs. allusion, 64imitaLion, in wri ting, 101imp iy vs. infer, 74importanily; misuse of, 74in addition to, subjects joined

by, 21indefinite pronouns, posses­

sive case of, 1ind ep endenL clau se(s):

colon after, 15-16co mma before conjunc tion

introducing, 11- 12comma se pa ra ting , 11-12se micolon se para ting,

11-12indirecL di scourse , tense in , 49infer vs. imply, 74infinitive, split, 86-87, 113in the last analysis, 76in regard to, 76irfside oj, 76insightful, 76

13 9 I [ DEX

interesting, 76in terms of, 76intransi tive verb, 68, 77introductory phrase:

participial, 24-28punctuation of, 11

irregardless, misu se of, 76irritate vs. aggravate, 63it svs. its, 1I vs . myself, 22-ize, 77

JJr., punctuation of, 6

Kkind of, 77, 91

LLatin vs. Anglo-Saxo n, 112lay, 77leave vs. let, 77lend vs. loan , 79less vs. f ewer, 77let vs. leave, 77lie vs. lay, 77like vs. as, 77-79, 118Lincoln, Abraham , 112linking verb(s):

agreement with subject, 21litera liliterally, 79little, 106loan vs. lend, 79logical pre dica te, 52

loose se nte nce(s), 40-43-ly , awkward use of, 109-11

Mmain clau se:

punctuation of, 11- 12statement supplementing,

6-9manneri sms, 33, 67margin s, 57may:

spa ring use of, 37vs. can, 67

meaningful, 80memento, 80metaphor, use of, 115might , spa ring use of, 37modal auxiliaries:

sparing use of, 37modifi er( s):

adjectival, 24position of, 48-49

most vs. almost , 80myself vs. I, 22

Nnames (of firm s), comma in, 3names (of person s):

in direct address, 6possessive case of, I

nature, 80nauseous vs. nauseated, 80needles s work , omitting,

39-40ne gative statements, avoiding,

14 1 I I ND E X

34-37neither, verb form after, 18nice, 80nobody:

verb form after, 18vs. no body, 65

no less than, subjects jo inedby, 21

nominative pronoun, 22none, verb form after, 18nonrestri ctive clause , 87

punctuation of, 6-9nor:

comma before, I Ivs. or, 80

not, misuse of, 34-37not . . . but, parallel cons truc­

tion with , 44not only . . . but also, parallel

con struction with, 44noun(s):

in apposition. See appo sit ivepossessive case of, Iused as verb, 82and writing style, 105

number, of verb, 18-21num erals, 57

oobject:

direct, 68pronoun as, 21-22

objecti ve complement s:in periodi c sentence, 52inverted position of, 53

offputting , 82

one, 82one of, verb form afte r, 18one of the most, 82ongoing, 82opinion, inj ecting in writing,

114or:

in and/or, 64comma before, 11vs. nor, 80

oral vs. verbal, 91-oriented, 82-83Orwell, George, 39overstatement, 106ovenvritin g, 105- 6

p

Pa ine, Thomas, 98paragraphs, 31-33par all el cons truc tion, 43-44paren theses, 57-58

referen ces in, 59parentheti cal expressions, 3- 9partially vs. partly, 83part icipial phrase:

int roductory, 24-28punctu ation of, 34

particip le, as verbal, 24, 83passive voice, 34past tense, in di rect discourse,

49people, 83- 85per iodic se ntence :

effectiveness of, 52-53vs. loose sentence, 43

peri od vs. comma, 12-15

persona lize, 85personally, 85personal pronouns:

case of, 21-24after each/every, 89

persons, 85phrase:

ad verbial, 70participi al , 24-28, 34preposit ional , 24-28

positive sta teme nts, 34-37possess, 85poss essive:

ap ostrophe in, 1with gerund, 24with parti ciple, 83pronominal, 1of pronouns, 24before titl es, 61

predicate, logical , 52prep osi tion(s):

at end of se ntence, 112in parallel construction,

43-44prepositional phrase, at begin­

ning of se ntence, 24-28presently, 85present participle, as verbal,

24, 83presen t tense, in summaries,

49prestig ious, 85pretty, 106principal verb, 46pronominal possessive, 1pro noun(s):

antecede nt of, 48, 89

I 0 EX I 14 2

ca se of, 21-24after each/every, 89indefinite, Inominative, 22relative, 48

proper nouns:in direct address, 6possessive case of, I

pro verbial expressions, 59

qqualifiers, avoiding, 106quotation(s), 58-59

colon introducing, 15-16quotation marks:

for colloquialisms, 55punctuation , 58

Hrather, 106references, 59refer vs. allude, 64regard . . . as, 65regretful vs. regrettable, 85relate, misu se of, 86relative clause:

followin g one of, 18position in se ntence, 48punctuation of, 6-9

relative pronoun, position inse ntence, 48

repeated action, expressing, 94respect/respectively, 86restrictive clause, 87

punctuation of, 9

14 3 I I ND EX

restrictiv e term of identifica­tion, 6

revising, 105

- ~ , use of, Isaid, in dialogue , 52, 109, IIIsecondly , misuse of, 86se micolon:

in compound se ntence, IIwhile replaced by, 93

sentence fragm ent, 12se nte nce struc ture, 44-49

emphat ic, 52- 53prepositions in, Il2

serial comma, 3shall vs. will , 86should, sparing use of, 37similes, use of, Il5so, 86somebody:

pronoun after, 89vs. some body, 65

someone:pronoun after, 89verb form after, 18

sort of, 77specific language, 37-39spell ing, 108-9, 122-23Spe ncer, Herbert , 38split infinitive, 86-87, Il3Stafford, Jean, 37- 38standard English , Il9state (verb), 87Steven son, Rob ert Louis, 120struc tural design, 31, 101

student body, 87style, 97-100,120

guidelines for, 100-120subject(s):

agreement with verb,18-21

compound, 18-21emphatic position of, 53position in sentence, 46pronoun as, 21-22

subject complements, invert edposition of, 53

subordinate clause, punctua­tion of, 11

summaries , 49-52superfluous words/phrases,

39-40, 105-6syllabification, 59-61syntax, 44-49

inversion , 52-53parallelism, 43-44

Ttense, in summaries , 49- 52than:

case of pronoun after, 22use of, 87

thanking you in advance, 87that:

omitting, 113quotations introduced by,

59redundant use of, 87- 88vs. which, 87-88

the:in parallel construc tion, 43

in titl es, 61the foreseeable future , 88then , semicolon with, 12therefore, semicolon with , 12there is/are, substituting, 34they vs. he/she, 89-90thirdly , misuse of, 86this , ambi guous reference, 90thrust, 90thus, semicolon with , 12time, notation of, 16titl es (of persons), punctuation

of,6titles (of works), 16, 61together with, subjects joined

by, 21tortuous vs. torturous, 90transition, sentences of, 32transiti ve verbs, 68, 77

and vigorous writin g,33- 34

transpire, 90(the) truth is, 88try to vs. try and, 91type vs. kind of, 91

lJuninterested vs. disinterested,

70unique , 91update, 118-19us, as appositi ve, 22utilize vs. use, 91

I ND EX I 14 4

¥verb(s):

agreement with subject,18-21

auxiliary, 37coining with -ize, 77intransitive, 68, 77linking, 21position in sentence, 46principal, 46transitive, 68, 77used as noun, 82and writing style, 105

verbal(s):gerund as, 24, 83participl e as, 24, 83

verbal vs. oral, 91very, 91, 106voice, active, 33-34

Wwhen:

clause introduced by, 9in loose sentences , 42

where:clause introduced by, 9in loose sentences, 42

which:ambiguity in use of, 49clause introduced by, 9in loose sentences, 42vs. that, 87-88

which was, 40while:

comma before, 11in loose sentences, 42

14 5 I I ND EX

use of, 93Whitman, Walt, 99-100who:

clause introduced by, 9following one of, 18in loose sentences, 42redu ndant use of, 73vs. whom, 21-22

who is, 40will vs. shall, 86-wise, 93, 98with, subjects joined by, 21Wolfe, Thomas, 98-99word division, 59-61wordin ess, avoiding, 39-40,

105- 6word order, 43-49

for emphasis, 52-53worth while/worthwhile, 94would:

for repea ted action, 94sparing use of, 37

writing:benefits of, 100difficult ies with, 100ear for, 112- 13principles of, 31-53style of, 97-120

y

yet, 65you vs. yourself, 22

This book alms to give ill brief space theprinciple requirements of plain Englishstyle. It aims to lighten the task of instructorand student by concentrating attention (inChapters I and II) on a few essentials, therules of usage and principles of compositionmost commonly violated. In accordance withthis plan it lays down three rules for the use

of the comma, instead of a score or more, and one for the use of thesemicolon, in the belief that these four rules provide for all the internalpunctuation that is required by nineteen sentences out of twenty.Similarly, it gives in Chapter II only those principles of the paragraphand the sentence which are of the widest application. The book thuscovers only a small portion of the field of English style. The experienceof its writer has been that once past the essentials, students profit mostby individual instruction based on the problems of their own work, andthat each instructor has his own body of theory, which he may prefer tothat offered by any textbook.

It is an old observation that the best writers sometimes disregard therules of rhetoric. When they do so, however, the reader will usually findin the sentence some compensating merit, attained at the cost of the vio­lation. Unless he is certain of doing as well, he will probably do best tofollow the rules. After he has learned, by their guidance, to write plainEnglish adequate for everyday uses, let him look, for the secrets ofstyle, to the study of the masters of literature.

147 I

William Strunk , Ir.(from his introduction

to the first edition)