the Arts and the Crafts of Writers  by L.A. Preschel.

This essay was originally written for Clued-in the newsletter of the Central Jersey Chapter of Sisters in Crime. I reprint here because ... no other reason than I want to. 

When I first became involved in writing fiction (at the age of 50), an editor/friend noticed that I was grammatically challenged. My excuse is that from 2nd to 4th grade in the Bronx school system, they experimented with a new way to teach reading. I never learned phonetics and I never was taught grammar. 

My friend who edited my first attempt at fiction (a vampire manuscript that sucked my life's blood, but will never see the light of day?) physically brought me to Barnes & Nobles and pointed me to "the little book," The Elements of Styleby Strunk & White. She felt this was a rite of passage involving editors and writers since the middle of the twentieth century. 

Report/author Charles Osgood is quoted on the cover of the little bookthusly, "... still a little book, small enough and important enough to carry in your pocket, as I carry mine." 

I have had several editors since my initiation rite into authorship. Everyone has said to me at one time or another, "Where is your Strunk and White. You have no idea how to punctuate English." And sadly, they are right, but my French is even worse. I keep the little book near me, and if I have a grammatical question, I look at it. Often, I have no idea that I have mis-punctuated. I guess that is what editors were created for.  

In the forward to the fourth edition of Strunk & White, p. x, Roger Angell wrote concerning the rules and concepts within the little book: "How simple they look, set down here in White's last chapter: 'Write in a way that comes naturally.' 'Revise and rewrite.' 'Do not explain too much,' and the rest; above all, the cleansing, clarion 'Be clear.' 

Strunk & Whiteis a great reference for writers. As evidence, I offer its section headings: 

1. Elementary Rules of Usage; it contains eleven simple rules with examples. 

2. Elementary Principles of Composition: 10 more rules to help a writer communicate to the reader. It instructs while not being condescending or complex. It has more examples.  

3. A Few Matters of Form: he details the usage or avoidance of colloquialisms, exclamations, headings, hyphens, numerals, formatting, quotations, references, etc.

4. Words and Expressions commonly misused: i.e. affect vs. effect, etc.   

5. An Approach to Style: a discussion of how an author goes about maximizing his or her impact on the reader. He emphasizes story telling is communicating an event clearly and concisely without the reader's attention or interest being broken, and without the author interposing their image/ego between the reader and the story. The reader must readily absorb the story without being distracted or losing interest. If the reader is willing to put down your manuscript, you have failed as a writer.   

The history of the little bookis interesting as well. William Strunk Jr. was a professor at Cornell in 1919 and taught English. E.B. White - the future author of Charlotte's Web- took his classes. They developed a friendship. Strunk's self-published the little book. It was universally known on campus, but unknown elsewhere. Being a self-published author, we should consider him ahead of the curve, a trendsetter, but he had no public relations department, and no internet presence. The little bookwas not yet a universally praised text. It wasn't carried by Amazon prime or Mississippi regular. That's a stream of thought joke, sorry.  

E.B. White, Strunk's student, went on to write for The New York Times, and eventually his writing and his looks caught the eye of Katherine Sergeant Angell. She wrote for the New Yorker, as well as being the fiction editor for that magazine. She convinced her boss, Chief Editor Harold Ross that he should hire E.B. as a staff writer. 

The notoriously shy White was seduced by the New Yorker, and Katherine, who became his wife after she divorced her first husband, Ernest Angell. With the marriage to Katherine, E.B. became the step-father of the above-mentioned Roger Angell - a famous sportswriter who also worked for the New Yorker under Chief Editor William Shawn. Roger eventually became the fiction editor at the New Yorker- almost like incest or a soap opera, As the World Press Turns? 

In 1959, with Mr. Strunk no longer living, Macmillian obtained the rights to the little book from Oliver Strunk, but the text needed revision and updating. Mr. White took on the job having previously written an article for the New Yorker(1957) concerning the little bookand it value. It had been revised in 1935 by Edward A. Tenney in association with William Strunk Jr., and so the third and fourth editions were revised by E.B. White. However, the New Yorkermagazine seems to have had a large part in making this wonderful text (sold for under $10) known to writers and educators across America. I recommend it for your literary library.           

The Elements of Style, the fourth edition. Strunk, William Jr. & White, E.B., 2000, 1979. Pearson Boston, et al.  (previous edition 1959, 1972 Macmillian Publishing Co. Inc. New York, N.Y. 

ISBN 10: 0-205-31342-6.          ISBN 13: 978-0-205-31342-6.