Comparing Strunk and White to Williams
22 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
In my previous post about Strunk and White’s book, “The Elements of Style”, I mentioned that I did not find the book particularly engaging or helpful. It was a helpful reminder of good writing techniques, but much of what I read were things that I think any writer should, and would, already know.
Joseph M. Williams book, “Style, Toward Clarity And Grace” was much more enriching for me as a writer. While Strunk and White gave good examples of writing and offered up some techniques for better composition, Williams helped me to see the simple things that made a piece of writing great. Williams stressed the idea of subject, and he also provided readers with a nice section on concision (115). I found this chapter particularly helpful because it helped break down sentences, offer ways to shorten sentences, use different words that have a greater meaning, and form well developed and concise paragraphs. As a writer, it is easy for me to go on and on when I’m passionate about something, but reading Williams’ book has helped me to revise some of my work and find better ways to express what I’m trying to say.
In chapter 4 of Williams’ book, we learn about emphasis (67). Again, this section helped me to revise some of my own work. Sometimes it is easy to overlook the subject of a sentence when there is not enough emphasis on it. There are also times when there really isn’t enough emphasis being put at the beginning of the sentence, where the subject SHOULD be. Williams helped me to think about directness and clarity in writing.
On page 157 of “Style, Towards Clarity and Grace,” Williams talks about elegance in a piece of writing and he mentions emphasis and rhythm. Rhythm is a very important part of writing, and it helps a piece to flow nicely and it also helps readers to easily understand what is being said.
In Chapter 10, Williams’ gives good advice about grammar and what words should and should not be used in writing. Strunk and White also spend some time on this, but Williams’ book gives some really great examples of bad grammar and how to correct it.
While Strunk and White’s book includes many of the elements in Williams’ book, Williams takes it a step further. Upon first reading Strunk and White, I did find it useful, but many of the things that I read were simply a review for me. However, in Williams’ book, everything was fresh, and it was nice to read some pieces that were considered “bad” writing and to see how to correct them. All of the examples in Williams’ book were very helpful to me, and some of them even mirrored many of my own mistakes.
I think that as a useful tool for writing, Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style” is not nearly as helpful as Joseph Williams’ “Style, Toward Clarity And Grace.” Williams’ book is much more sophisticated, and it takes the time to point out the details of “bad” writing that can easily be overlooked.
