The Elements of Style

  1. ​Choose a suitable design and hold to it​
  2. ​Make the paragraph the unit of composition​
  3. ​Use the active voice​
  4. ​Put statements in positive form​
  5. ​Specific, definite, concrete​
  1. ​The Elements of Typographic Style​
  2. ​The Elements of Graphing Data​
  3. ​The Sense of Style​
  4. ​The superficial aspects of what someone else is doing​
  1. Choose a suitable design and hold to it

    A basic structural design underlies every kind of writing.

    Writing, to be effective, must follow closely the thoughts of the writer, but not necessarily the order in which those thoughts occur. This calls for a scheme of procedure. In some cases, the best design is no design, as with a love letter, which is simply an outpouring, or with a casual essay, which is a ramble. But in most cases, planning must be a deliberate prelude to writing.

    The more clearly the writer perceives the shape, the better are the chances of success.

    1. ​Such tortuous syntax​
  2. Make the paragraph the unit of composition

    As a rule, begin each paragraph either with a sentence that suggests the topic or with a sentence that helps the transition.

    More commonly, the opening sentence simply indicates by its subject the direction the paragraph is to take.

  3. Use the active voice

    "I shall always remember my first visit to Boston” is better than "My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me."

  4. Put statements in positive form

    Make definite assertions. Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion.

    "He was not very often on time” becomes “He usually came late.”

    “She did not think that studying Latin was much use” becomes “She thought the study of Latin useless."

    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.

  5. Omit needless words

    When a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter.

    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 sentence short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

    1. ​Less, but better​
  6. The principle of parallel construction

    This principle, that of parallel construction, requires that expressions similar in content and function be outwardly similar.

    Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs in the kingdom of Heaven.
    Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.
    Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.

    1. ​Structural parallelism​
  7. Steering by stars that are disturbingly in motion

    Here we leave solid ground. Who can confidently say what ignites a certain combination of words, causing them to explode in the mind? Who knows why certain notes in music are capable of stirring the listener deeply, though the same notes slightly rearranged are impotent? These are high mysteries, and this chapter is a mystery story, thinly disguised. There is no satisfactory explanation of style, no infallible guide to good writing, no assurance that a person who thinks clearly will be able to write clearly, no key that unlocks the door, no inflexible rule by which writers may shape their course. Writers will often find themselves steering by stars that are disturbingly in motion.

  8. Design informs even the simplest structure

    Design informs even the simplest structure, whether of brick and steel or of prose.

    Even the kind of writing that is essentially adventurous and impetuous will on examination be found to have a secret plan: Columbus didn’t just sail, he sailed west, and the New World took shape from this simple and, we now think, sensible design.

  9. Do not overstate

    When you overstate, readers will be instantly on guard, and everything that has preceded your overstatement as well as everything that follows it will be suspect in their minds because they have lost confidence in your judgment or your poise.

    A single overstatement, wherever or however it occurs, diminishes the whole.

  10. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end

    The proper place in the sentence for the word or a group of words that the writer desires to make most prominent is usually the end.

    The principle that the proper place for what is to be made most prominent is the end applies equally to the words of a sentence, to the sentences of a paragraph, and to the paragraphs of a composition.

  11. Style is not separate from substance

    Young writers often suppose that style is a garnish for the meat of prose, a sauce by which a dull dish is made palatable. Style has no such separate entity; it is nondetachable, unfilterable. The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is an expression of self, and should turn resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style - all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.

    The young writer should learn to spot them - words that at first glance seem freighted with delicious meaning but that soon burst in air, leaving nothing but a memory of bright sound.