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Strunk and White – 50 years of stupid grammar advice
April 15, 2009 | 6:39 pm
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By Paul Biba
So says Geoffrey K. Pullum, head of linguistics and English language at the University of Edinburgh and co-author (with Rodney Huddleston) of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
While it is a bit off topic here, I found the article so interesting that I just had to alert you all to it. It’s great fun. I wonder what the author, Mr. Pullum, would say about the ebook/e-book debate.
April 16 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of a little book that is loved and admired throughout American academe. Celebrations, readings, and toasts are being held, and a commemorative edition has been released.
I won’t be celebrating.
The Elements of Style does not deserve the enormous esteem in which it is held by American college graduates. Its advice ranges from limp platitudes to inconsistent nonsense. Its enormous influence has not improved American students’ grasp of English grammar; it has significantly degraded it.
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Comments:
Thank you, Paul, for that entertaining link.
The article reminded me of two quotes:
“The critic is always looking for the flea in the lion’s mane.” (Elie Faure)
and (one of Mark Twain’s favorites):
“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.”
My grandfather’s copy of the first edition of “The Elements of Style” is dated 1918, and published in my home town in Ithaca, New York. So this year might actually be the 51st anniversary (not, as the article claims, the 50th) of this excellent little book.
“The Elements” will never be appreciated by Cambridge grammarians until they make a translation from the concise American English to the more florid “English English”. … England and America, two nations separated by a common language.
That first edition by Strunk alone, with the 1918 copyright page, is free as an ebook, on Bartleby: http://www.bartleby.com/141/
The original is still worth reading, but E.B. White’s literary genius added much to the future editions.
Michael Pastore, author
50 Benefits of Ebooks; and, The Ithaca Manual of Style
Really? We’re, “The land of the free in the grip of The Elements of Style.”? Then why can’t I get through a day without hearing/reading the word “unique” abused multiple times?
And the level of writing in this “land of the free” would instantly be elevated if everyone would follow this bit of guidance from Elements.
“Utilize. Prefer use.”
I have a little copy S&W that I read years ago. I can’t say I ever consult it as a reference. I have a copyediting book from journalism school that is easier to use and answers my questions quickly. I will say that S&W does a good job of teaching you to reduce wordiness and be concise.
1918 was 50 years ago? Looks like someone needs to read “Elements of Math”!
Stupid British grammarians, always skewing things based upon logic and facts.
Hi!
Hindsight is invariably sharper than foresight. This is true for every moron, but this jejune of a Pullum seems have been blessed with a morbid hind without sight.
Frank Dudley-Hart, the British rheumatologist recalls a fastidious arthritic asking lots of questions, including what to eat or avoid. To a clarifying query as to which grapes are good for arthritis, red or green, the good doctor, suppressing his exasperation and feigning an authoritative tenor, replies
” only red, please” – a personal preference that he mentions later in an aside.
William Strunk had lots of red grapes to recommend in an authoritarian manner, but such a Strunkian command was decisive for the fence-sitters or served as a lantern for gropers in the dark.
At 72, Strunk & White’s Elements of Style is doubling as a walking stick and often prevents me from stumbling or skidding.
Rajeshwar Singh