Review: The Elements of Style (1920) by William Strunk, Jr. — Part 1

Title: The Elements of Style (1920)

Author: William Strunk, Jr.

Pages: 52

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace & Howe

“This book aims to give in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style. It aims to lighten the task of instructor and student by concentrating attention on a few essentials, the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated.”

— Introductory of The Elements of Style.

The Elements of Style consists of seven chapters in total, with Chapter I being an introductory chapter and Chapter VII being an exercise. Being simple and easy to understand, this book is worth to read.

The electronic copy of this book can be acquired here.

The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.

Synopsis

A few essentials, often violated by student or even instructor, yet it denotes a very important point in mastering English.

Following the rules of usage, there are three rules for the usage of the comma and one for the usage of the semicolon, in the belief that these four rules provide all the internal punctuation that is required by nineteen sentences out of twenty. 

Chapter 1

This chapter covers the introductory written by the writer of the book. A quick and simple introduction, gives the reader a quick insight of what is written in the book. The writer also writes down some references in this chapter, these references can be used in conjunction with this book or further study.

Chapter II

Elementary Rules of Usage, the name of this chapter really said it all. The chapter covers the basic rules, a few essentials that often violated by us. Divided into 7 parts, the first part explains about the usage of possessive singular of nouns by adding ‘s. Following this part is the usage of comma in a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction. The third part covers the usage of parenthetic expressions between commas and the next part is about the place of comma before a conjunction. The next two parts cover what you should not do and the last part explains about the usage of participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence.