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By now matters of taste and grammar had become hand-to-hand fighting against trolls and Visigoths on the barricades of the contemporary culture war. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo. What makes bad writing bad? Read more. Chen says when people get into their teaching positions, they tend to use the textbooks that are available to them, and Strunk and White was not a resource that was made available to her.

One of her favorites is using Brain Pop videos, which she uses in conjunction with writing assignments. Chen also incorporates Grammarly and the Hemingway App in her lessons. Her students use Grammarly to pinpoint simple grammar mistakes, and after those are picked up, they turn to the Hemingway App, which highlights some areas they can focus on. With the Hemingway App, she wants her students to understand whether a sentence is highlighted because it is awkward and has poor grammar, or because it is complex.

She tells her students that the algorithm may not necessarily be one hundred percent accurate—the more complex a sentence is, the more it will be highlighted. But Hall sees problems with these types of online grammar tools. She wonders what algorithms the Hemingway App uses to determine a sentence is too dense. She points out that getting rid of sentences that are too dense would mean getting rid of writers like Jacques Derrida and Virginia Woolf.

Grammarly, she says, would correct it for the writer, but it may not reflect what the novice writer might actually want to say. Several years ago, Cathlina Bergman and her brother, Daniel Bergman , wrote a journal article for the 50th anniversary of The Elements of Style. However, she still thinks Strunk and White is relevant today, even with the advent of digital grammar tools.

But will she assign Strunk and White in the future? View all 8 comments. In her charming essay, "Insert a Carrot", Anne Fadiman describes a trait shared by everyone in her family - a heightened sensitivity to the flaws in other people's writing. The Fadimans all belong to that tribe whose members cannot read without simultaneously copy-editing.

When dining out, they amuse each other by pointing out typos on the menu. It might seem obnoxious, but really they just can't help it. If you're blessed with the copy-editing gene you can't just switch it off. I have the same In her charming essay, "Insert a Carrot", Anne Fadiman describes a trait shared by everyone in her family - a heightened sensitivity to the flaws in other people's writing.

I have the same problem. When I read, typographical and grammatical errors leap off the page, assailing my eyeballs, demanding to be noticed.

A distraction that I am incapable of ignoring, they hijack my attention and diminish my respect for the author. I want my own writing to be free of such distractions; it should be forceful and persuasive.

I welcome constructive advice that helps me attain that goal. My copy of "Modern American Usage" is grubby and well-thumbed. I think its author, Bryan A. Garner, has accomplished something quite remarkable. He has written a usage guide that gives writers clear, concrete, reasoned advice, without being overly dogmatic or erring on the side of sloppiness.

I hate sloppy writing. I also hate Strunk and White. Its popularity is inexplicable to me. Here are just a few of my objections: 1. Their famous motto, "Omit needless words", is fatuous and has absolutely no practical value.

If I knew how to do this, I'd already be some kind of great communication guru. Repeating this essentially vapid advice in similarly empty formulations like "Be clear" and "Don't explain too much" is of no practical help to anybody, and suggests that even the authors have difficulty in deciphering their own admonitions.

The stylistic tips that are not simply platitudinous are often just silly, hopelessly vague, or reflective of the long outdated prejudices of a couple of old white dudes. For example - Do not inject opinion. Prefer the standard to the offbeat. Do not use dialect unless your ear is good. Write with nouns and verbs.

Don't construct awkward adverbs. Avoid fancy words. Use figures of speech sparingly. Do not overwrite. Having trouble figuring out whether your ear is "good", your adverb is "awkward", or your writing is "over"? Good luck with that. Why not? The examples used to illustrate "bad" style in the book are generally ludicrously bad. The need for correction is so glaringly obvious that the examples have little instructive value.

The authors are well able to demolish straw men, but if you want advice on a subtle point, they are unlikely to be of any practical help. The fetishistic obsession with avoiding the passive voice is a baffling b profoundly irritating when some freaking paperclip starts to lecture you about it c so obviously idiotic that the authors themselves ignore it throughout the book.

These exemplify one of the book's biggest problems, which - to be fair - is not necessarily the authors' fault. It has achieved the status of a kind of sacred text, with all of the problems that result. People become blind to the internal inconsistencies within the text, it gets quoted with the kind of self-righteous zeal characteristic to "true believers" and to similar ends.

Which might not be so terrible if the advice it contains were not so vague, idiosyncratic and frequently inconsistent. Probably the most infuriating aspect of writing our book was my co-author's continual invocation of Strunk and White as the final arbiter. One can only wonder by whose authority these two gentlemen were anointed God.

In a cunning marketing gimmick, the latest edition of Strunk and White has been jazzed up by including illustrations by Maira Kalman. Ms Kalman is a delightful artist, whose work elsewhere I greatly admire. But she really should have said no to this particular project. Her illustrations are occasionally pretty, sometimes baffling, but generally pointless.

They add no particular insight, though some readers may find them a welcome distraction from the barked eccentricities of the book's two main authors. View all 15 comments. Oct 14, Kenny rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: anyone who writes.

Shelves: writing-craft. The gold standard. No more need be said than to quote Mr. Strunk's thoughts under the headline "Omit Needless Words": "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the reader make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

Strunk's as updated and expanded by the brilliant and self-effacing E. White indeed does tell. Don't touch your keyboard without reading this book! Jan 21, Roy Lotz rated it it was amazing Shelves: prose-style , highly-recommended-favorites , help-me-help-myself. I still remember, and will always remember, my 11th grade English class.

Before that year, English class had meant little more than vocabulary tests, book reports, and those five-paragraph hamburger essays. But this class was different.

Our teacher was not interested in getting us to pass a standardized test; instead, she wanted to really teach us how to read and write. To my astonishment, I realized that nobody had ever done that before.

I had been taught how to write a five-paragraph essay, b I still remember, and will always remember, my 11th grade English class. I had been taught how to write a five-paragraph essay, but not how to write.

I had been taught how to pass tests on books, but not how to read them. Writing formulaic essays and passing multiple-choice tests requires certain skills: brute memorization and learning by rote. But reading and writing require something much different: a sensitivity to the written word. Integral to developing this sensitivity was reading this slim volume. The Elements of Style is normally billed as a kind of guidebook or instruction manual—these are the rules of grammar; these are the rules of style: follow them and you will produce good writing.

And, indeed, this is how the book is formatted. No; the value of this book lies neither in its rules of grammar nor of style. It is valuable because Strunk and White cherish language. To my high school self, this was beyond belief. Say what you will about him, he was not a hypocrite; this little book can be read in one sitting.

The point is not that you write this way or that; the point is that you care about the way you choose. View all 7 comments. This is a wonderful book for beginning writers to use as a guide. It cleary spells out the rules of English grammar, and provides examples to explain each guideline. I highly recommend this little gem! It is very good for what it does, which is advise on how to write clearly and concisely. But generations of writers have completely misunderstood its purpose and used it as a Bible of Good Writing.

It's not. View 1 comment. How much better to start with a guide to achieving an effect you're looking for. View 2 comments. Jul 10, Simon Fay rated it really liked it. As a couple of reviewers have mentioned, Elements of Style has become somewhat out of style.

There are plenty of people who stand by it as a trusted source for all things grammar, but I imagine even diehard supporters will grudgingly admit that the standards it established have led to some truly convoluted sentences.

Even so, I still recommend it as a handy pocketbook for anybody who's interested in the craft of writing. When I originally read it a number of years ago, I was a little strict in fo As a couple of reviewers have mentioned, Elements of Style has become somewhat out of style. When I originally read it a number of years ago, I was a little strict in following the rules it outlined. It had a negative impact on my writing. But as I outgrew some of the habits it taught me, I began to think of it more as a leap off point for amateur wordsmiths, a sturdy foundation for beginners to build their own style on.

Yes, there are probably more up to date guides on grammar and writing, but I haven't read those, so my rating for this book exists in a vacuum of sorts: It's a good manual if you take it as the beginning of wisdom, not the end. Most importantly, the material is simple and engaging. The examples and logic are straightforward. And at the very least it will get you playing with the English language. View all 5 comments.

May 30, Tassa DeSalada rated it it was amazing. This small book is a mountain of good writing advice! Mar 12, L. Popovich rated it it was amazing Shelves: nonfiction , , 5-star. Many other books on writing are not as directly helpful as this one. I have made every mistake a human being can make while writing. I'm making mistakes right now. Improvement is a lifelong process.

This readable and referenceable book is one to keep in the desk drawer, to peruse before and after writing. Aside from the argument that the English language is sliding toward less standardization, many editors, agents, publishers and readers demand or expect PhD-level grammar whatever that equates t Many other books on writing are not as directly helpful as this one. Aside from the argument that the English language is sliding toward less standardization, many editors, agents, publishers and readers demand or expect PhD-level grammar whatever that equates to.

But it really should not take years of reading and diagramming sentences to put words together in a satisfactory fashion. If you have tried other how-to-write books, I'd set them aside until you've finished this one. This may contain all you need to know in a much smaller bundle.