William Strunk Jr. · 105 pages
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“To achieve style, begin by affecting none.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“The mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of learning to make occasional wing shots, bringing down the bird of thought as it flashes by. A writer is a gunner, sometimes waiting in the blind for something to come in, sometimes roaming the countryside hoping to scare something up.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“If you don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud!" (William Strunk) ... Why compound ignorance with inaudibility?”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“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 writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“When a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“Never call a stomach a tummy without good reason.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“A single overstatement, wherever or however it occurs, diminishes the whole, and a carefree superlative has the power to destroy, for the reader, the object of the writer's enthusiasm.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“It is an old observation that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules 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. Unless he is certain of doing as well, he will probably do best to follow the rules. After he has learned, by their guidance, to write plain English adequate for everyday uses, let him look, for the secrets of style, to the study of the masters of literature.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“Many references have been made in this book to 'the reader,' who has been much in the news. It is now necessary to warn you that your concern for the reader must be pure: you must sympathize with the reader's plight (most readers are in trouble about half the time) but never seek to know the reader's wants. Your whole duty as a writer is to please and satisfy yourself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one. Start sniffing the air, or glancing at the Trend Machine, and you are as good as dead, although you may make a nice living.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“I remember a day in class when he leaned forward, in his characteristic pose - the pose of a man about to impart a secret and 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! "This comical piece of advice struck me as sound at the time, and I still respect it. Why compound ignorance with inaudibility? Why run and hide?”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“Consciously or unconsciously, the reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not; the reader wishes to be told what is... If your every sentence admits a doubt, your writing will lack authority.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“Writers will often find themselves steering by stars that are disturbingly in motion.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“1. Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“Flammable. An oddity, chiefly useful in saving lives. The common word meaning "combustible" is inflammable. But some people are thrown off by the in- and think inflammable means "not combustible." For this reason, trucks carrying gasoline or explosives are now marked FLAMMABLE. Unless you are operating such a truck and hence are concerned with the safety of children and illiterates, use inflammable.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“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.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“If you have received a letter inviting you to speak at the dedication of a new cat hospital, and you hate cats, your reply, declining the invitation, does not necessarily have to cover the full range of your emotions. You must make it clear that you will not attend, but you do not have to let fly at the cats. The writer of the letter asked a civil question; attack cats, then, only if you can do so with good humor, good taste, and in such a way that your answer will be courteous as well as responsive. Since you are out of sympathy with cats, you may quite properly give this as a reason for not appearing at the dedicatory ceremonies of a cat hospital. But bear in mind that your opinion of cats was not sought, only your services as a speaker. Try to keep things straight.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“Negative words other than not are usually strong:”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“The situation is perilous, but there is still one chance of escape.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“This book is intended for use in English courses in which the practice of composition is combined with the study of literature. It aims to give in a 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. The numbers of the sections may be used as references in correcting manuscript.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“1. Form the possessive singular of nouns with 's.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“Try - Takes the infinitive: "try to mend it," not "try and mend it." Students of the language will argue that 'try and' has won through and become idiom. Indeed it has, and it is relaxed and acceptable. But 'try to' is precise, and when you are writing formal prose, try and write 'try to.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“This rule is difficult to apply; it is frequently hard to decide whether a single word, such as however, or a brief phrase, is or is not parenthetic. If the interruption to the flow of the sentence is but slight, the writer may safely omit the commas. But whether the interruption be slight or considerable, he must never omit one comma and leave the other. Such punctuation as”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“5. Do not join independent clauses by a comma.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“The language is perpetually in flux: it is a living stream, shifting, changing, receiving new strength from a thousand tributaries, losing old forms in the backwaters of time.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“The audience, which had at first been indifferent, became more and more interested.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“2. As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic sentence; end it in conformity with the beginning.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
“As the American poet, Marianne Moore, said: "There is a great deal of poetry in unconscious fastidiousness.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style
William Strunk Jr.
Born date July 1, 1869
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“The Delores tank rolled on inexorably, “You get a mortgage to buy a house, a larger mortgage than the previous owner because the price of the house has been artificially increased by the market, which is controlled by the banks. Then you live in the house for a few years paying a lot more in mortgage payments than you would if you were renting a similar property. But hey, you ‘own’ it and can ‘do things to it’… things that cost even more money, by the way… so you maintain its upkeep, improve it with say a new kitchen or bathroom; the more salubrious the neighbourhood the more expensive the kitchen would need to be – a Küche & Cucina, say; impressing your cleaner is very important after all and at the end you sell it to someone else for more than you paid for it so they’ll need an even bigger mortgage. And all the while everyone is paying all this money to the banks and the banks give the money to their shareholders, the biggest of whom are the incredibly rich. This, when you boil it all down, means that you’re taking a large sum out of your wages and passing it across to some rich person to live large, whilst you and others like you struggle to make their monthly payments. Basically you’ve been screwed, Doc, but somehow they’ve convinced you that you own a bit of England, when the truth is you don’t really own anything, you’re just renting it at a higher cost and they can take it back from you any time they want. It’s all just a card trick, Doc. All just ‘smoke and mirrors’ and that’s what’s getting to me.”
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“Something is nagging at the edge of my consciousness. It's a good feeling, but I can't quite place it. And then suddenly I do. It's a feeling of being where I'm supposed to be. A feeling of knowing that I'm in the right place at the right time. With the right person.”
― Amy Plum, quote from After the End
“I could put some serious hurt on Prince Not-So-Charming if I need to.”
― Carey Corp, quote from Doon
“Unlike Tania, who was so slim, Rykoff looked as if he'd been given an order to get fat--an order he had been delighted to obey.”
― Henning Mankell, quote from The White Lioness
“Father Abraham… has many sons…. Many sons has Faaaaather Abraham. I am one… and so are you… sooooo let’s all praise the Lord!”
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