The Elements of Style

I received The Elements of Style: 50th Anniversary Edition from a very close friend a few years back, and she was someone who understood my love for this book that goes back to my college days in the 1970s. Someone once asked me how I was able to hold a 3.9 average in college back in the post-Vietnam era when as a veteran I was in school and working full time. My answer then is as it is now: "Strunk and White." But if my friend reads this, I hope that she will accept my apology that I rarely open the cover of this book, yet it's one of my most treasured. It's the accepted 4th edition, and now a collectable in this hardbound version. These days I use a well worn paperback edition, The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition , which is still accessed at least a few times a week. I just heep this one on a special bookshelf with my most treasured books, and still glance at it when using the paperback. There are plenty of reviews, both pro and con, posted here on both of the above editions, and I am not as erudite as some of the other reviewers, nor am I an authority. As far as these editions go, Time Magazine listed Strunk & White's 'The Elements of Style' as "one of the 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923" in their August 30, 2011 issue. But my concern is that there are many editions of "The Elements of Style" listed here on Amazon, both in paper and Kindle editions, yet few of them are what the reader may assume are the real ones. For example, this THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE - The Original Edition (Annotated) may not be the edition that you're looking for. It's one of a number of versions of the original title "The Elements of Style" written by Cornell University English professor William Strunk, Jr., who wrote it 1918. But this is not the version that is also known as "Strunk & White." The product description is incorrect. There are other Kindle reissues of the 1918 edition, most notably THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE (UPDATED 2011 EDITION) The All-Time Bestselling Book on Writing English Newly Edited (Special 2011 Edition) The Elements of Style OVER 10 MILLION COPIES SOLD! [Revised ], which notes that it is newly revised and edited by Chris Hong, who is listed in the electronic flyleaf as a former editor at Harvard University, and bears a © 2011 The Elements of Style Press notation. This particular edition does have a slightly better layout on the Kindle, and the table of contents is well hyperlinked, but no mention is made of original author William Strunk, Jr., except for his name on the flyleaf. Among the other Kindle editions are The Elements of Style (Original Edition) , with the quill on it's cover is basic, and it costs under a dollar. But if you're going for basic, the The Elements of Style edition with its generic cover is a no-cost freebie. And there are other Kindle editions if you search. The problem with these 1918 editions is that the writing style is dated. Original author Strunk had died in 1946, and in 1959, the publishers commissioned writer and author E. B. White, well known for his Charlotte's Web , that classic for children, to revise the 41-year-old text. This was was fitting as Strunk had been one of White's professors at Cornell. White's rework of the book was extremely well received, and further editions of the work followed in 1972, 1979, and 1999. White's expansion and modernization of Strunk's original became informally known as Strunk & White. As to whether it's considered a valid part of a writer's bookshelf, more than ten million copies of the three editions of Strunk & White have been sold. The history of this writing manual can be found in Mark Garvey's Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style , which was published in 2009, an excellent book in its own right. So if you're looking for the real Strunk & White, The Elements of Style (4th Edition) , by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, is one you want, and it's only available in paper editions, except for the rare The Elements of Style: 50th Anniversary Edition , which is now a collectable. Otherwise, you may enjoy one of the Kindle editions listed here, but think of them more as an interesting background than as contemporary writing style references. 9/11/2012

I purchased the fiftieth anniversary edition of "William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, The Elements of Style". It is a little hardcover book, beautifully bound in black and gold, and well enough made to last beyond this generation. So it should. To me, it is a valuable treasure. I learnt English Grammar during the nineteen-fifties in Australia, but today there seems to be no such subject. Such a tragedy. But this little book is much more than grammar. It tells how to use our language, and it tells it with great authority. It is the sort of contribution that will help save our beautiful language from the decline that is becoming evident everywhere we look. Any aspiring writer, in fact every writer should read this book, and read it often. It produces an amazing sense of confidence. My writing style evolved instantly as a result, and I admit to a certain faint redness of cheek sometimes when editing my latest work. Buy ten copies to give as gifts. You will be doing the world a favour. Kind regards.

Picked this one up so I could learn to communicate as other writers in the industry have been taught. I learned the source of a lot of rules that I have picked up over the years. Stuck and White come across as quaint, restrictive and curmudgeonly, but I was surprised to see some deference to the audience and the writer’s task and audience in the book. Otherwise stated, the book makes the rules, and then acknowledges the rules can be broken. I will definitely need to read this again and again to get the point. So many rules.

What a great book - a classic. I loved the funny examples (of yore), sentences most of us would not write any longer. Then again, because we would not write them anymore we pay attention, we are tempted to analyze them. Is the book still relevant? You bet! “… show the weakness of the word NOT. Consciously or unconsciously, the reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not; he wishes to be told what is. Hence, as a rule, it is better to express even a negative in positive form. Not honest …………………………….…….dishonest Not important ……………………..…….…..trifling Did not remember…………....……………. forgot Did not pay attention to…………............... ignored Did not have much confidence in..........… distrusted…” And isn’t it, that we read the words listed on the left side, every day? Whoops, make that, "the book's importance and relevance is proven in the fact that that most of us get to read and also write the words listed on the left side, too frequently. Highly recommended. Gisela Hausmann, author & blogger

Some schools don't teach the basic punctuation and grammar like they used to, so I found this to be a very handy guide on my bookshelf. This is also the perfect gift for any humanities graduate/student, aspiring writer or journalist because it so succinctly and clearly reminds you how to avoid those basic language traps and mistakes that we are prone to. Simply timeless advice packed into such a stylish little black book.

An excellent product

Este clásico es una joya, dejé mi copia en un storage en USA y fue un alivio conseguirlo en Amazon Mexico. Lo recomiendo enormemente a estudiantes y/o profesionales quienes deban escribir en inglés. Hace toda la diferencia del mundo y sus lectores les agradecerán su nuevo estilo de escritura.

I just bought this and read it again after a few years. It remains an excellent basic text on the essentials of good writing

Libro útil para aprender a escribir en inglés en los diferentes estilos, enfocado al ámbito laboral

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