This post is a memo when I read “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. My book review is here.
I want to pick up some expression from “III A Few Matters of Form” and “IV Words and Expressions commonly Misused.” I feel the auther matters some expression and I want to try to avoid using them.
Exclamations
Don’t emphasize your sentence just by exclamation mark. We can try other way without relying on the mark.
and/or
Don’t use “and\or” to avoid misunderstanding. We can say A or B or both instead of A and/or B.
Buts
Don’t use “But” when it’s not necessary. Frequent conjunction with “but” sounds boring and negative.
This also leads to “Avoid a succession of loose sentences.”
Our country had vast resorces but seemed almost wholly unprepared for war. But within a year it had created an army of four million.
Our country seemed almost wholly unprepared for war, but it had vast resorces. Within a year it had created an army of four million.
Case
Case is most likely unnecessary.
In many cases, the rooms lacked air conditioning.
Many of the rooms lacked air conditioning.
Consider
“as” is not necessary when it means “believed to be”.
We should use “I consider him competent.” instead of “I consider him as competent.”
We can use “as” after “considered” when it means “examined” or “discussed.”
The lecturer considered Eisenhower first as soldier and second as administrator.
However
We should avoid starting with “However” when we want to say “nevertheless.” In that case, we can use “however” in the middle of the sentence as follows.
The roads were almost impassable. However, we at last succeeded in reaching camp.
The roads were almost impassable. At last, however, we succeeded in reaching camp.
Interesting
I use “interesting” many times…
The author suggests avoiding starting with “It is interesting that ~”. We should try to make our story interesting without telling it’s interesting.
Also to be avoided in the introduction is the word funny. Nothing becomes funny by being labeled so.
Kind of
Don’t use “kind of” when it’s not necessary to write so. Also the author suggest not using a substitute for “rather” or “something like.”
Lay
Don’t misused for “Lie” and “Lay”
Lie, lay, lain, Lying
Lay, laid, laid, laying
Like
Not use for the conjunction as.
We spent the evening like in the old days.
We spent the evening as in the old days.
Loan.
It’s a noun. We can use “lend” for a verb.
Lend me your ears.
The loan of your ears.
Meaningful
Tha authors wrote
A bankrupt adjective. Choose another, or rephrase.
Meaningful is not meaningful adjuctive.
Meaningful is not useful adjuctive.
Thanking you in advance.
I thought this expression is polite and want to say Thank you twice one time when you ask something and the other time after someone does something for you. However, the author wrote this as
This sounds as if the writer meant, “It will not be worth my while to write to you again.” In making your request, write “Will you please,” or “I shall be obliged,” Then, later, if you feel moved to do so, or if the circumstances call for it, write a letter of acknowledgement.
Thank you for reading this post. I hope you find something useful.
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