Joseph Tate — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:39:01 GMT

First, without doubt: a useful article that should be required reading. But this isn’t the first time I’ve seen Strunk and White quoted lately and it isn’t the first time I’ve wondered if web writers realize much more (and dare I say) much better has been written about writing since. Amid the all the applause, I just want to interject: Strunk and White can be useful reading, but it’s not faultless. Consider the injunction to not overstate (no. 7). Then read no. 14: “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, ready and able.” If that’s not overstating, what is? The first sentence uses four words where one would work and the second sentence, well, restates the first. The book is rife with these sorts of inconsistencies, some of which are tongue-in-cheek, some of which are endearing lapses of the “do as I say, not as I do” variety.

I think the article closes on the best advice: “No one has all the answers,” and Strunk and White have only the barest handful.

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Joseph Tate