Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about William Strunk Jr.
William Strunk Jr. Quotes
15 Sourced Quotes
Source
Report...
Omit needless words.
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.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language. Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
The proper place for the word, or group of words, which the writer desires to make most prominent is usually the end of the sentence.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
Avoid the use of qualifiers. Rather, very, little, pretty—these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. The constant use of the adjective little (except to indicate size) is particularly debilitating.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
When a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
If you use a colloquialism or a slang word or phrase, simply use it; do not draw attention to it by enclosing it in quotation marks. To do so is to put on airs, as though you were inviting the reader to join you in a select society of those who know better.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
The position of the words in a sentence is the principal means of showing their relationship. The writer must therefore, so far as possible, bring together the words, and groups of words, that are related in thought, and keep apart those which are not so related.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
Kind of. Not to be used as a substitute for rather (before adjectives and verbs), or except in familiar style, for something like (before nouns). Restrict it to its literal sense: "Amber is a kind of fossil resin;" "I dislike that kind of notoriety." The same holds true of sort of.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
The situation is perilous, but there is still one chance of escape.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
The surest way to arouse and hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definitive, and concrete. The greatest writers - Homer, Dante, Shakespeare - are effective largely because they deal in particulars and report the details that matter. Their words call up pictures.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
Every writer, by the way he uses the language, reveals something of his spirit, his habits, his capacities, his bias....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.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
In his Philosophy of Style, Herbert Spencer gives two sentences to illustrate how the vague and general can be turned into the vivid and particular: In proportion as the manners, customs, and amusements of a nation are cruel and barbarous, the regulations of its penal code will be severe. In proportion as men delight in battles, bullfights, and combats of gladiators, will they punish by hanging, burning, and the rack.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
In exposition and in argument, the writer must likewise never lose his hold upon the concrete; and even when he is dealing with general principles, he must furnish particular instances of their application.
William Strunk Jr.
Source
Report...
Opinions scattered indiscriminately about leave the mark of egotism.
William Strunk Jr.
Quote of the day
What's a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority.
Robert Altman
William Strunk Jr.
Born:
July 1, 1869
Died:
September 26, 1946
(aged 77)
Bio:
William Strunk Jr. was an American professor of English at Cornell University and author of the The Elements of Style. After revision and enlargement by his former student E. B.
Known for:
The Elements of Style (1920)
William Strunk Jr. on Wikipedia
William Strunk Jr. works on Gutenberg Project
William Strunk Jr. works on Wikisource
Suggest an edit or a new quote
Related Authors
E. B. White
American Poet
Thomas Carlyle
Scottish Philosopher
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Politician
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes