In A Nation Gone Blind: America in an Age of Simplification and Deceit by Eric Larsen, I saw a footnote that piqued my interest. That footnote referenced The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, which I haven't used since I was in high school, and even then I probably didn't use it as much as I should have.
I spent a few minutes looking up a copy, and I think that its style reminders would make me a better writer, if I learned and used them. The style reminders that seemed the most unlike the writing I most frequently come across in everyday life are:
1. Place Yourself in the Background.
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4.Write with Nouns and Verbs.
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7.Do Not Overstate.
8.Avoid the Use of Qualifiers.
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14.Avoid Fancy Words.
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17.Do Not Inject Opinion.
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19. Do Not Take Shortcuts at the Cost of Clarity.
20. Avoid Foreign Languages.
21. Prefer the Standard to the Offbeat.
I know that when I was growing up, and to an extent as an adult, going against these style suggestions appeared to be the hallmark of good writing, and not evidence of bad writing. Maybe I should reconsider?
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1 comment:
It depends, of course, on where you're doing the writing in question. In some forums, sources like the Chicago Manual of Style are more important. And I would hope you're not considering adhering to Elements of Style's approach in IM :) Ultimately, too, some rules are more important than others, like the unwritten rule that the more established and well-known you are, the more latitude you have to break some of the rules.
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