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The Elements of Style I just noticed that one of my favorite books of all time, William Strunk's The Elements of Style, is now online. "Vigorous writing is concise. 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. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."And, most importantly, this book explains why I use apostrophes the way I do (e.g., "Richard Powers's The Gold Bug Variations). I only wish I wrote as well as this book expects me to. Perhaps someday, I will. |
Steven Wu's Book Reviews |