An Approach to Style (With a List of Reminders)
Dear Everybody,
On my first day as a speechwriter in 2009, General David Petraeus told me to buy a copy of the The Elements of Style, the classic handbook on English usage by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. “Follow the rules and apply the principles in that book,” he said. “I try not to deviate from them.”
The book is best known for its 22 elementary rules of usage and principles of composition, but I’ve always been drawn to a lesser appreciated chapter titled, “An Approach to Style (With a List of Reminders).”
For years, I’ve wanted to summarize that chapter for my own reference. Here it is, organized and distilled from 6,500 words to 1,300. The summary includes ten observations about an approach to style, and the original 21 reminders, condensed and rewritten.
No infallible guide to good writing
No satisfactory explanation of style
No inflexible rule by which writers may shape their course
Style is an expression of self
To approach it, turn away from mannerisms, tricks, and adornments
Move toward plainness, simplicity, orderliness, and sincerity
The writer is the style, and the style is the writer
Who you are, not what you know, will determine your style
A style reveals a writer’s identity, as surely as fingerprints
Writers reveal their spirits, their habits, their capacities, and their biases
Writing is communication, and creative writing is the Self escaping into the open
That is, place yourself in the background
Draw the reader's attention to the sense and substance of the writing
Solid writing reveals the temper of the writer, and not at the expense of the work
The use of language begins with imitation
Never imitate consciously, but do not worry about being an imitator
Take pains to admire what is good
Use words and phrases that come readily to hand
Then when you write naturally, you will echo the halloos that bear repeating
Great writing will on examination be found to have a secret plan
Design informs even the simplest structure
Anticipate what you are getting into and build a scheme
Lest you miss the forest for the trees and there be no end to your labors
Nouns and verbs, not their assistants, give good writing its toughness and color
No adjective can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place
This is not to disparage adjectives and adverbs; they are indispensable and cccasionally surprise us with their power
Few writers produce what they’re after on the first try
Therefore, revising is part of writing
Don’t be afraid to experiment with what you’ve written
It’s no sign of weakness that your work needs major surgery
This is a common occurrence in all writing, and among the best writers
Everything before and after an overstatement is suspect
A single overstatement diminishes the whole
A single carefree superlative has the power to destroy
Readers must have confidence in your judgment and poise
These are leeches that infest the pond of prose
Do a *little* better, be *very* watchful, for it’s *rather* important, and we are *pretty* sure to violate it
Don’t cut rhetorical capers
Be compact, informative, unpretentious
Present items in a straightforward manner
Keep a tight rein on the material and stay out of the act
Writers using unorthodox spellings defeat their own purpose
Unaccepted and oversimplified spellings distract attention and exhaust patience
Readers mentally supply the missing letters of an abbreviation, at the cost of a fraction of attention
Do not dress words up by adding -ly to them
Such adverbs are easy to build
But you're probably be better off without them
Words not used orally are seldom the ones to put on paper
Indicate who the speaker is
In dialogue, obscurity is an imposition
Make sure attributives don’t awkwardly interrupt a spoken sentence
Place them where the break would come naturally in speech
Use Anglo-Saxon words
Cock your ear and let it be your guide
Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute
Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy
Be economical of your talents
If you use dialect, be consistent
Spare your readers as you convince them
Use the minimum, not the maximum, of deviation from the norm
Spell phonetically, or at least ingeniously, to capture unusual inflections
Clarity is not always the principal mark of a good style
But since writing is communication, clarity can only be a virtue
And although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one
Muddiness is not merely a disturber of prose, it is also a destroyer of life, of hope
Try to keep things straight
The demand for your opinion is not brisk
Inject opinion only if there is a good reason for its being there
Opinions scattered indiscriminately leave a mark of egotism
Rapid fire similes coming are more distracting than illuminating
Give readers time to catch their breath
Readers can't be expected to compare everything with something else, with no relief in sight
Write things out
The longest way round is usually the shortest way home
The one reliable shortcut is choosing strong and surefooted words to carry readers on their way
Many shortcuts waste the reader's time instead of conserving it
It’s occasionally necessary to borrow from other languages
Some writers, though, sprinkle their work with foreign expressions
It’s a bad habit and shows no regard for the reader’s comfort
So, write in English
Young writers are drawn toward eccentricities in language
They hear the beat of new vocabularies and exciting rhythms
All of us come under the spell of these drums
The challenge for beginners is to listen, learn the words, feel the vibrations, and don’t be carried away
That’s the purpose of writing – and its principal reward
As you get better, your style will emerge, because you yourself will emerge
When this happens, you’ll find it easy to reach other minds and other hearts
It’s not the intent of these cautionary remarks to suggest otherwise
You may ask, “What if it comes natural to me to experiment? What if I am a pioneer, or even a genius?"
Answer: then be one
Writing good standard English is no cinch
Before you’ve managed it, you will have encountered enough rough country to satisfy even the most adventurous spirit
No idiom is taboo, and no accent is forbidden
But there is a better chance of doing well if you hold a steady course
Show concern for your readers and sympathize with their plight
Don’t paralyze their senses; instead, engage them
Adopting a patronizing air
Being humorless, dull, and empty
Saying something when you have nothing to say
Directing the attention of the reader to yourself
When you’re full of belief
When you’re armed with the rules of grammar
When you’re sustained and elevated by the power of purpose
Thank you for reading! If you'd like more Big Idea Summaries like this, please do join the email list. And follow me on Twitter!Sincerely,
Justin
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