By thudfactor on January 8, 2007
Posted in Art and Writing
The problem is, while most people don’t *try* to be obscure, write unnaturally and floridly, exaggerate, and beat every point into the ground, a lot of them still *do*. A good style guide doesn’t just tell you what to avoid, but also how to avoid it. Although my standing as an English major might be revoked for saying so, I don’t own (and never haved owned) a copy of Strunk and White, so I couldn’t really say if it does this well or not. From my limited experience with the book, I remember some useful, if sometimes dated and not always practical, advice — no less valuable a starting point for its being incredibly obvious. Perhaps some (or even much) of it is *bad* advice; if so, other style guides should be consulted instead. I don’t read them often, but I have a few others on my shelf. But there is still value in advice that *seems* obvious, that the seasoned writer thinks he already knows. (And most of the people who consult style guides are *not* seasoned writers.)
A style guide will not turn you into a great writer. It’s unlikely that it will even turn a bad writer into a passably good one. But the advice it offers, if correct and clear, can help you transform writing that *isn’t* correct and clear, help you fix simple mistakes that even people who know better often make.
I think the criticism of S&W is that it’s not particularly good at telling you how to avoid bad writing. It says the obvious but doesn’t offer much in the way of guidance.
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