Strunk and White: First Impressions

Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style” is interesting because, despite having been original written over 80 years ago, much of it is still relevant today. Many of Strunk’s central issues in the second chapter would still be items of concern to many teachers and students today.
For example, principle 16 explains the importance of using uncomplicated, clear language. “…the surest way to arouse and hold the reader’s attention is by being specific, definite, and concrete.” (21) For many new writers there is the urge to bump the word-count of a paper by using muddled and redundant language; this just as much of a problem today as it was when Strunk wrote this book in the early 1900s.
I find in my own writing, whether it be for fun or school, I tend to be rather wordy. For me it’s a subconscious thing that I can trace back to my junior year of High School when my composition teacher urged her students to pick up a thesaurus. Most likely if Strunk read some of my writing he would write, “Rule 17! Omit needless words,” all over it.
Another principle outlined by Strunk that is still a problem for many students today is principle 6, where Strunk cautions against using periods instead of commas. He provides the example of, “She was an interesting talker. A woman who had traveled all over the world and lived in half a dozen countries.” (7) Sentence fragments are a frequent nemesis of many an essay and term paper.
In fact, as I’m writing this the second part of that sentence is underlined by the squiggly green line in Microsoft Word. Strunk explains that sentence fragments can be used for emphasis, most commonly in fiction. I think this accounts for part of its prevalence, as many young writers might think they are using it to emphasize a point while the teachers simply sees it as being wrong.
Not everything in “The Elements of Style” is still relevant today, however. Many of Strunk’s points go completely against what I’ve been taught so far in writing classes. One of which is in the third chapter on form. Strunk writes, “Formal quotations cited as documentary evidence are introduced by a colon and enclosed in quotation marks.” (36)
In my writing classes both in High School and College I’ve never heard a professor say that quotes must be introduced by a colon. In most cases, at least as I’ve been taught, a quote is introduced with a comma. (Example: Strunk claims that, “…”)
Another difference is the very first principle Strunk introduces regarding the possessive singular of nouns. Strunk provides the example, “Charles’s friend.” In any writing class today this would come back surrounded in red ink. We’ve all been taught that proper way to form a sentence similar to the one above would be, “Charles’ friend.”
But for the most part I would say “The Elements of Style” is a straightforward and useful guide that many today, including myself, would find to be preferable to most modern writing textbooks.