I tend to think of Strunk and White like training wheels: eventually you should take them off and break the rules (as George Orwell said in his similarly-malign

I tend to think of Strunk and White like training wheels: eventually you should take them off and break the rules (as George Orwell said in his similarly-maligned "Politics and the English Language", "Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous") in pursuit of clear, beautiful prose, but for a beginner the rules can be a lifeline. If nothing else, their constraints provide a new writer a framework on which to hang their thoughts, and force them to think carefully about how their prose is constructed. The experience of thinking about one's writing structurally, and how that structure can be used for stylistic effect, is something that I suspect does not come naturally to new writers, and it's what I found most valuable about Strunk and White when I was taught it in high school. I also, someday, would love to try my hand at teaching writing style using Freddie de Boer's technique: http://fredrikdeboer.com/2015/12/07/teaching-style-to-freshmen-why-how/ http://fredrikdeboer.com/2015/12/07/teaching-style-to-freshm... But being a CS professor I doubt I'll have that opportunity any time soon :)