The Elements of Style
The Classic Style Manual
Brand New Copy
New Edition
This book aims to give in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style. It aims to lighten the task of instructor and student by concentrating attention (in Chapters II and III) on a few essentials, the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated. In accordance with this plan it lays down three rules for the use of the comma, instead of a score or more, and one for the use of the semicolon, in the belief that these four rules provide for all the internal punctuation that is required by nineteen sentences out of twenty. Similarly, it gives in Chapter III only those principles of the paragraph and the sentence which are of the widest application. The book thus covers only a small portion of the field of English style. The experience of its writer has been that once past the essentials, students profit most by individual instruction based on the problems of their own work, and that each instructor has his own body of theory, which he may prefer to that offered by any textbook.
CONTENTS
Introductory
Elementary Rules of Usage
Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's
In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last
Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas
Place a comma before a conjunction introducing a co-ordinate clause
Do not join independent clauses by a comma
Do not break sentences in two
A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject
Elementary Principles of Composition
Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic
As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic sentence; end it in conformity with the beginning
Use the active voice
Put statements in positive form
Use definite, specific, concrete language
Omit needless words
Avoid a succession of loose sentences
Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form
Keep related words together
In summaries, keep to one tense
Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end
A Few Matters of Form
Words and Expressions Commonly Misused
Spelling
Exercises on Chapters II and III