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Rewrite and revise. Do not be afraid to seize what you have and cut it to ribbons ... Good writing means good revising.
William Strunk, Jr.
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William Strunk, Jr.
Age: 77 †
Born: 1869
Born: July 1
Died: 1946
Died: September 26
Professor
Writer
Cincinnati
Ohio
Learning
Revising
Means
Revise
Mean
Ribbons
Writing
Rewrite
Good
Seize
Programming
Cutting
Afraid
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The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.
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To air one's views gratuitously, is to imply that the demand for them is brisk.
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A drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.
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To acquire style, begin by affecting none.
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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.
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The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.
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Avoid fancy words....If you admire fancy words, if every sky is beauteous, every blonde curvaceous, every intelligent child prodigious, if you are tickled by discombobulate, you will have bad time Reminder 14.
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Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language.
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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.
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None are so fallible as those who are sure they're right.
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The situation is perilous, but there is still one chance of escape.
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Never call a stomach a tummy without good reason.
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It is worse to be irresolute than to be wrong.
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Vigorous writing is concise.
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Rich, ornate prose is hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and sometimes nauseating.
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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.
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A dash is a mark of separation stronger than a comma, less formal than a colon, and more relaxed than parentheses.
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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.
