The Little Book

It has fewer than 80 pages. It’s a book every writer, reporter, and anyone interested in writing just about anything should have. “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk and E.B. White is a simple guide to beautiful writing. It was originally written, and privately published in 1919, by Cornell University professor William Strunk  who used it as a text book for his students. Fortunately for all of us, E.B. White was one of those students. White went on to become one of the great writers and literary figures of the 2oth century. He started out as wire service and newspaper reporter, and worked in advertising before joining The New Yorker magazine staff in 1927 where he worked for decades. He was called the greatest contributor to what was considered America’s greatest literary magazine. If that wasn’t enough, he wrote several children’s books, including “Charlotte’s Web” which one readers’ survey identified it as the top children’s novel.

White was asked by the Macmillan Company to revise and update “The Elements of Style” in 1957. The second edition was published in 1959. It’s now in its fourth edition. In the introduction, White explained what Professor White was trying to accomplish. “It was William Strunk’s parvum (little) opus, his attempt to cut the vast tangle of English rhetoric down to size and write the rules and principals on the head of a pin. Will himself had hung the tag “little” on the book: he referred to it sardonically and with secret pride as “the little book,” always giving the word “little” a special twist, as though he were putting a spin on a ball.”

The book is broken into five sections with titles like “Elementary Rules of Usage”,” Principals of Composition” and “Words and Expressions Commonly Misused.” I know if you’re not a writer, your eyes may be starting to glaze over. It sounds like junior high English class. But the rules are elegantly simple. “Omit needless words”. “Write with nouns and verbs”. “Be clear”. “Don’t over write”. “Avoid fancy words.” White explains his philosophy this way, “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 should have no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and that he treats his subject only in outline, but every word should tell.” Sixty three words, and every word a “tell”.

The point is get to the point. Whether writing a script for broadcast, a newspaper story, a magazine article, a web post, or a blog make it simple and strong. We are entering the college graduation season when millions of  young men and women will be starting on careers where they will have to communicate ideas by writing presentations, reports, legal arguments, and news stories. Many will not have the writing skills they need to succeed. This should be required reading for every student, and for anyone starting out in a career that requires any kind of writing.

White died of Alzheimer’s disease in 1985. A cruel disease that robs the mind of words and memory. In 1978, White was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize citing, “his letters, essays, and the full body of his work.” His work enriched the lives of children and adults. One of his biggest achievements came in a “little book”.