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

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 VI

"The spelling of English words is not fixed and invariable, nor does it depend on any other authority than general agreement."

Spelling is one important thing which exist in English (and any other languages). This chapter discuss about some words that often misspelled because of confusing letters or the difference between the written word and the spoken word.

Moreover, this chapter also talking about rules or suggestion in which a word should be writing depending on the context and the usage of the word on said sentence.


Chapter VII

"What have we learned from this book?"

"Do we really understand what is written in this book?"

"Can we apply what we have learned from this book?"

The final chapter of this book, after learning a lot a rules and other essentials, it is time to check whether the reader really understand what is written in this book, thus this final chapter contains exercises on Chapter I and Chapter II as a media to enhance reader's understanding about what is written in this book.

A simple example, questions, there are a lot of sample sentences which can be used as exercise in this chapter.

It's​ Called an Experience for a Reason

Good day, fellas.

Today is probably the first time I write as a one of the writer in this blog using a personal approach to our reader –if there is any– rather than the lacks-of-interaction-post as usual.

Why? because today is special?

Yes, that is because today's post is a special post where I'll share my own experience of reading my friends' blog.

It started as a personal project in which our lecturer asked us to write a blog about what we've learned in class. Even though it started as an assignment and almost every single one of us never really run our own blog –as long as I know– but, it started to get better and better with each post I and my friends have made.

Everyone of us have our own style and method to write what we've learned in our blog, and reading my friends' post in the past few weeks help me to understand better about something we've learned since their own way to explain it give a better understanding in some parts that I might missed.

But, the most entertaining post I've read in my friends' blog is a post where they review a book. First, they help me to find the title of interesting book. Secondly, it helps me to find someone who has the same interests with me –according to the book they've reviewed; since you won't even bother to review a book you didn't put your interest in– and the most important part is, they give me a brief information about what is contained within the book without reading it.

Here are some quick spoilers of what I've found in my friends' blog about book review.

One of them review a book about insecurities. Personally, I think this is a good topic and we have to know, insecurity is a symptom that exists within everyone, whether they are aware or not. This book that my friend has reviewed gives us the informations needed to deal with insecurities. A good book in overall and it helps us to raise our awareness against insecurities.

Following this review is another review –from another friend– about personality. The book is talking about the type of personality and the way we overcome our weakness. The review that my friend has made is simple and clear, it gives us an insight about what is contained in the book. If you want to understand yourself better, read the book!

Oh, by the way the book's title is Personality Plus by Florence Littauer.

I put my favorite one for the last and this is the last segment in this post. So, this is my favorite –two– review(s).

There are two people who reviewed a Sherlock Holmes' book written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is what I meant by saying to find someone who has a same interest. These two books are about the fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes and some of the cases he had solved. The review is simple, but helps me to find some interesting title about Sherlock's cases which is the best experience thus far.

I think that is enough for today post as I've shared my experience of reading other's blog and such.

Thank you.

Review: The Elements of Style (1920) by William Strunk, Jr. — Part 3

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 IV

A few matters of form, it is only a few but it affects the beauty of a masterpiece. The quick list about those few matters are headings, numerals, parentheses, quotations, references, syllabication and title. Moreover, a few matters in this chapter are explained further by the rules bound to them. The chapter itself covers more than just a mere explanation, but some suggestions on how to use those few matters correctly.


Chapter V

When writers write down their ideas, they often express some of their thought through words. However, the usage of words and expressions is commonly­ misused. Those words and expressions however, still serve as a tool to express what the writer meant even if those words and expressions are misused. This chapter explain how to use some common words and expressions in the correct way or form to avoid infelicity. It is also necessary to use the correct words or expressions to avoid redundancy and needless words, in addition to help the reader in understanding what the writer really meant by using those words and expressions.

While exploring this chapter, the first few part of this chapter discuss about how a word is mean to be and used in a text, moreover there is also a brief explanation as why this word cannot be used that way and so on.