The Elements of Style: Chapter 4

Chapter four of The Elements of Style covers over 20 words and expressions that are commonly misspelled, such as "all right," and misused, such as "aggravate" versus "irritate" and "allusion" versus "illusion."

Out of the words and expressions presented in this chapter, the two that I most relate to, since I always use (or misuse, according to the book) and misspell are: "all right" and "and/or."

According to the book, "all right" is "idiomatic in familiar speech as a detached phrase in the sense "Agreed," or "Go ahead," or "O.K." [and is] properly written as two words —all right." I have a tendency to misspell this phrase as "alright," because I've seen it spelt that way so many times and just picked up on spelling it that way. From now on I will try to spell the phrase correctly.

"And/or" is "a device, or shortcut, that damages a sentence and often leads to confusion or ambiguity" (Strunk & White 40), and based on this definition that the book gives, I constantly damage my sentence by using this device or shortcut. Chapter four provides an example of a way that a writer can properly write a sentence that he or she would ordinarily use an "and/or" in:

Wrong: "First of all, would an honor system successfully cut down on the amount of stealing and/or cheating?"

Right: "First of all, would an honor system reduce the incidence of stealing or cheating or both?"

Personally, I find the "right" example to be more confusing than the "wrong" one, but according to The Elements of Style, it is less ambiguous and confusing. I will try to cut down on my "and/or" usage, even though I believe the phrase can sometimes be used in sentences in an unambiguous or confusing way.

The Elements of Style: Chapter 3

Chapter three of The Elements of Style covers: colloquialisms (slang words or phrases), exclamations, headings, hyphens, margins, numerals, parentheses, quotations, references, syllabication, and titles.

I found the excerpt about the use of colloquialisms or slang words/phrases interesting. I have always thought that using such language was not acceptable in proper writing, but this chapter encourages writers to use it. However, the chapter says to "not draw attention to it by enclosing it in quotation marks [because it] put[s] on airs, as though you were invited the reader to join you in a select society of those who know better" (Strunk & White). I think I will try to incorporate colloquialisms or slang words/phrases into a future writing of mine to see how it goes.

The Elements of Style: Chapter 2

Chapter two of The Elements of Style  covers eleven rules on the structure of written work: choosing a structural suitable design, making paragraphs the units of composition, using an active voice instead of passive, putting statements in positive form, excluding needless words, avoiding a multiple loose sentences within a paragraph, expressing coordinate ideas in similar forms, keeping related words together, maintaining one tense in summaries, placing the emphatic words of a sentence at the end, and using definite, specific, concrete language. Just like chapter one, this chapter also provides correct and incorrect examples that pertain to the rules.

I found the rule on keeping related words together interesting and beneficial. Sometimes I sometimes find myself wording sentences in strange ways and I know that it can lead to confusion and ambiguity. In order for a writer to fix this problem, they must "bring together the words and groups of words that are related in thought and keep apart those that are not so related" (Strunk & White 28), and this is something I will try to keep in mind in the future.

The Elements of Style: Chapter 1

Chapter one of The Elements of Style provides eleven rules of English usage, which include: four rules for comma usage, using apostrophes to form the possessive singular of nouns, colon usage, using dashes to distinguish an abrupt break or interruption, noun and verb agreement, making sure not to break sentences into two, using proper cases of nouns, and making sure that a particular phrase at the beginning of a sentence refers to the grammatical subject. The chapter also provides correct and incorrect examples pertaining to each rule.

Although I already learned everything that this chapter explains (in other words, I didn't learn anything new), I do  occasionally find myself making mistakes when I write that do not follow the rules in this chapter. In the future, I will try to pay closer attention while I write and keep the eleven rules provided in this chapter in mind.