Elements of Style

In his Elements of Style (Ithaca, NY: W. P. Humphrey, 1918), Walter Strunk, Jr., rules on using commas in a series of three or more terms, one of my favorite little "tests" for clear writing. "Thus write," he says, "red, white, and blue; honest, energetic, but headstrong; He opened the letter, read it, and made a note of its contents."

Just like any style sheet for newspaper, publishing house, or corporation, Strunk's little book is prescriptive, because he is making one of many editorial decisions that will save the writer from confusing his or her reader.

Conforming to the nature of a style sheet, which gives examples but not reasons, Strunk does not explain why the writer should use the serial comma. But the reason is that the reader never has to puzzle out the meaning of a sentence like this: "My usual breakfast is coffee, bacon and eggs and toast." (Now that I've looked up Wikipedia's example for the serial comma, I have brain-freeze on an original example.)

No, this mistake (as I would read it) is not life-threatening. If you could care less about such things, au revoir and maybe I'll catch you on the flip side. But, with the serial comma, the meaning of each sentence becomes clear on the first reading. To me, that is a win-win.

However, the original Elements of Style (1918) is nothing more than a style sheet, like Associated Press’s Stylebook for journalists or  the Chicago Manual of Style for publishers. Until, that is, E. B. White (1899-1985), one of our great American writers and a former student of Strunk at Cornell University, transforms it, in his 1959 edition, into a true guide for writers (Elements of Style, Fourth Edition, William Strunk, Jr., E. B. White, Roger Angell [New York: Longman, 1999]).

Soon, I'll let E. B. White take us from the mechanics of clear writing to the hallmarks of good writing.