Rule 1 to avoid bad storywriting11/16/2023 This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. 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 no unnecessary parts. Next, there’s the infamous rule seventeen: Omit needless words. That is: This is not to say that White’s suggestions are without merit, only that the presence of such a major counter-example seems to suggest that there is nothing hard nor fast about these rules. The study linked this intensifier use to a crucial trait of her writing, one that might at first seem to resist quantification: irony.” And yet, the authors of the aforementioned article noted that “Austen used intensifying words-like very, much, so-at a higher rate than other writers. “ Rather, very, little, pretty-these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words,” says White. It also connects to time markers and states of mind: always, fortnight and week awkward, decided, dislike, glad, sorry, suppose.” So we are to avoid the very language that has made Jane Austen one of the most beloved writers of all time?Īctually, this study also flies in the face of another of the style guide’s dictums: Avoid the use of qualifiers. The authors describe Austen’s place on the chart as “related to a higher-than-average propensity for words like quite, really and very-the sort that writers are urged to avoid if they want muscular prose. A recent piece in the New York Times attempted to explain Jane Austen’s enduring popularity by unpacking her word choices the authors found the language in her six novels to be more abstract than concrete (or “physical”) and more quotidian (that is, referring to “emotions and time”) than dramatic (“Medieval stuff”). By no means do I think any of those three writers are primarily effective because of their “definite, specific, concrete language.” Shakespeare may report the details that matter (whatever that means), but his work is full of elaborate wordplay, extended metaphors, ellipses and poetic interludes, and even if it weren’t, he’d still have a lot more going for him than concrete sentences.īut don’t take my word for it. Well, as one who has studied the art of writing, we are certainly not in accord. Rule Sixteen implores the writer to “prefer the specific to the general, the definite to the vague, the concrete to the abstract.” The book presents two examples, the first, in each, being “wrong”: Instead, I’ll just highlight a few that I find particularly annoying.įirst off, we have Rule Sixteen. But one can generally assume that any given “rule” or piece of advice comes with a “not always,” so I won’t go through all of these one by one. Nabokov’s novels are full of foreign languages, and if Nabokov did it, it can’t be wrong. Paragraph-long (and even page-long) sentences can be fantastic. Personally I quite like the passive voice. I have the typical qualm with a lot of the advice- don’t use active voice, paragraphs should be more than one sentence, place yourself in the background, avoid foreign languages-the typical qualm being, of course: well, not always. I recognize that this guide is not aimed at professional writers, but rather beginning writing students, many of whom do in fact need to be told that clarity is king-but still, rules learned early on can be tough to shake, and almost all of us learned, at least a little, on Strunk & White. Some may swear by it, but let’s be clear: this book is not the be-all-end-all, especially for literary writers. But even in 2017, The Elements of Style occupies a pride of place in the canon of literary how-to manuals, with many teachers holding it up Bible-ishly, and with many students following it to the letter. ![]() I am not the first writer to suggest that the book has some problems. “Start sniffing the air, or glancing at the Trend Machine, and you are as good as dead, although you may make a nice living.” Do not use dialect unless your ear is good. ![]() Much of the following advice is also useful. The very first rule, “form the possessive singular of nouns with ‘s,” for instance, is still necessary and oft-unheeded. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of important information in The Elements of Style. in 1918-this is getting spooky-but much expanded by White), it’s time to admit that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. ![]() White, and some 18 years after I first encountered his classic style guide (originally written by William Strunk Jr. But today, 118 years after the birth of E.B. The first-greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.” It’s rare to see a Parker quip-compliment, so I don’t take it lightly. Dorothy Parker famously quipped, “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style.
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