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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 usageand the cultivation of good writingwith 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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