The Elements of Style - University of Washington

1 1 The Elements of StyleStrunk, W., Jr. and White, RULES OF 21. Form the possessive singular of nouns with 's.. 22. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction , use a commaafter each term except the 33. Enclose parenthetic expressions between 34. Place a comma before and or but introducing an independent 45. Do not join independent clauses by a comma.. 56. Do not break sentences in two.. 57. A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to thegrammatical 68. Divide words at line-ends, in accordance with their formation the word according to its formation.

2 7b. Divide "on the vowel:".. between double letters, unless they come at the end of thesimple form of the word:.. PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION .. 79. Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic.. 710. As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic 811. Use the active voice. The active voice is usually more direct and vigorousthan the passive:.. 1112. Put statements in positive 1213. Omit needless 1214.

3 Avoid a succession of loose sentences.. 1315. Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form.. 1416. Keep related words 1517. In summaries, keep to one 1618. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the FEW MATTERS OF FORM .. AND EXPRESSIONS COMMONLY MISUSED.

4 OFTEN book is intended for use in English courses in which the practice ofcomposition is combined with the study of literature. It aims to give in brief spacethe principal requirements of plain English Style . It aims to lighten the task ofinstructor and student by concentrating attention (in Chapters II and III) on a fewessentials, the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonlyviolated. The numbers of the sections may be used as references in book covers only a small portion of the field of English Style , but theexperience of its writer has been that once past the essentials, students profit mostby individual instruction based on the problems of their own work, and that eachinstructor has his own body of theory, which he prefers to that offered by writer's colleagues in the Department of English in Cornell University havegreatly helped him in the preparation of his manuscript.

5 Mr. George McLane Woodhas kindly consented to the inclusion under Rule 11 of some material from hisSuggestions to following books are recommended for reference or further study: in connectionwith Chapters II and IV, F. Howard Collins, Author and Printer (Henry Frowde);Chicago University Press, Manual of Style ; T. L. De Vinne Correct Composition(The Century Company); Horace Hart, Rules for Compositors and Printers (OxfordUniversity Press); George McLane Wood, Extracts from the Style -Book of theGovernment Printing Office (United States Geological Survey); in connection withChapters III and V, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, The Art of Writing (Putnams),especially the chapter, Interlude on Jargon; George McLane Wood, Suggestions toAuthors (United States Geological Survey); John Leslie Hall, English Usage (Scott,Foresman and Co.)

6 ; James P. Kelly, Workmanship in Words (Little, Brown andCo.)It is an old observation that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules ofrhetoric. When they do so, however, the reader will usually find in the sentencesome compensating merit, attained at the cost of the violation. Unless he is certain ofdoing as well, he will probably do best to follow the rules. After he has learned, bytheir guidance, to write plain English adequate for everyday uses, let him look, forthe secrets of Style , to the study of the masters of RULES OF the possessive singular of nouns with ' this rule whatever the final consonant.

7 Thus write,Charles's friendBurns's poemsthe witch's maliceThis is the usage of the United States Government Printing Office and of theOxford University are the possessives of ancient proper names in -es and -is, thepossessive Jesus', and such forms as for conscience' sake, for righteousness' such forms as Achilles' heel, Moses' laws, Isis' temple are commonly replacedby3the heel of Achillesthe laws of Mosesthe temple of IsisThe pronominal possessives hers, its, theirs, yours, and oneself have no a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction , use a comma after each termexcept the write,red, white, and bluehonest, energetic, but headstrongHe opened the letter, read it, and made a note of is also the usage of the Government Printing Office and of the OxfordUniversity the names of business firms the last comma is omitted, asBrown, Shipley and CompanyThe abbreviation etc.

8 , even if only a single term comes before it, is always precededby a parenthetic expressions between best way to see a country, unless you are pressed fortime, is to travel on 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 theflow of the sentence is but slight, the writer may safely omit the commas. Butwhether the interruption be slight or considerable, he must never omit one commaand leave the other. Such punctuation asMarjorie's husband, Colonel Nelson paid us a visityesterday,orMy brother you will be pleased to hear, is now in perfecthealth, is relative clauses are, in accordance with this rule, set off by audience, which had at first been indifferent, becamemore and more clauses introduced by where and when are similarly 1769, when Napoleon was born, Corsica had butrecently been acquired by Stowey, where Coleridge wrote The Rime of theAncient Mariner, is a few miles from these sentences the clauses introduced by which, when, and where are non-restrictive.

9 They do not limit the application of the words on which they depend, butadd, parenthetically, statements supplementing those in the principal clauses. Eachsentence is a combination of two statements which might have been audience was at first indifferent. Later it became moreand more was born in 1769. At that time Corsica had butrecently been acquired by wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner atNether Stowey. Nether Stowey is only a few miles relative clauses are not set off by candidate who best meets these requirements willobtain the this sentence the relative clause restricts the application of the word candidate to asingle person.

10 Unlike those above, the sentence cannot be split into two abbreviations etc. and jr. are always preceded by a comma, and except at the endof a sentence, followed by in principle to the enclosing of parenthetic expressions between commas isthe setting off by commas of phrases or dependent clauses preceding or followingthe main clause of a sentence. The sentences quoted in this section and under Rules4, 5, 6, 7, 16, and 18 should afford sufficient a parenthetic expression is preceded by a conjunction , place the first commabefore the conjunction , not after saw us coming, and unaware that we had learned of histreachery, greeted us with a a comma before and or but introducing an independent early records of the city have disappeared, and thestory of its first years can no longer be reconstructed.