6 ms·
What do you not like about this book? Would you have better recommendations?
by dr_kiszonka 5y ago
What do you not like about this book? Would you have better recommendations?
- rendall 5y agoIf you read and follow the strictures of Elements of Style, your writing is worse than not following it: awkward, stilted, self-conscious, clumsy. The authors did not follow their own advice in their own writing, and not even in that book itself. Its advice is presented and received as truth when it is merely opinion. Worse, people who have real power over you but are not writers will use its advice to evaluate your writing: editors, teachers, even actual judges. But don't take my word for it. There are language and writing experts who are more articulate and detailed than I who can tell you: Here is a Boston Globe language columnist on why it's so awful: https://people.brandeis.edu/~smalamud/2006ling100/frankenstrunk.htm https://people.brandeis.edu/~smalamud/2006ling100/frankenstr... UPenn professor: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=26621 https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=26621 More ink spilled than 100s of _Elements of Style_ about what's wrong with it: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=what%27s+wrong+with+elements+of+style&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=what%27s+wrong+with+elements+of+st...