ELEMENTS OF STYLE

The Elements of Style is a prescriptive American English writing style guide in numerous editions. The original was composed by William Strunk Jr., in 1918, and published by Harcourt, in 1920, comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of 49 "words and expressions commonly misused", and a list of 57 "words often misspelled".

In The Elements of Style, William Strunk concentrated on specific questions of usage—and the cultivation of good writing—with the recommendation "Make every word tell"; hence the 17th principle of composition is the simple instruction: "Omit needless words." The book frames this within a triplet credited to an influential lecturer:

●Omit needless words

●Use active voice

●Use parallel construction on concepts that are parallel

The contents of this Elements of Style app includes:

● I. Introductory

● II. Elementary Rules of Usage

1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's

2. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after

each term except the last

3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas

4. Place a comma before a conjunction introducing a co-ordinate clause

5. Do not join independent clauses by a comma

6. Do not break sentences in two

7. A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the

grammatical subject

● III. Elementary Principles of Composition

8. Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic

9. As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic sentence; end it in conformity with

the beginning

10. Use the active voice

11. Put statements in positive form

12. Use definite, specific, concrete language

13. Omit needless words

14. Avoid a succession of loose sentences

15. Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form

16. Keep related words together

17. In summaries, keep to one tense

18. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end

● IV. A Few Matters of Form

● V. Words and Expressions Commonly Misused

● VI. Spelling

● VII. Exercises on Chapters II and III

● Recommended Resources

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