The Elements of Style

By William Strunk Jr., professor of English at Cornell University. The complete original text, free to read.

Strunk wrote this short handbook for his own students in 1918 and printed it privately. It set out, in a few dozen pages, the rules of usage and composition he saw broken most often. One of his students, E. B. White, revised and expanded it in 1959; that later "Strunk and White" edition is still in copyright. What you find here is Strunk's own book, which is in the public domain.

Some of its advice has aged, and some of its examples are a century old. Much of it is as useful as ever: use the active voice, put statements in positive form, omit needless words. Under each rule we have added a short note on what it means in today's terms and how current style guides treat it.

Contents

1. I. Introductory
2. II. Elementary Rules of Usage
   1. 1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's.
   2. 2. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last.
   3. 3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.
   4. 4. Place a comma before a conjunction introducing a co-ordinate clause.
   5. 5. Do not join independent clauses by a comma.
   6. 6. Do not break sentences in two.
   7. 7. A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject.
3. III. Elementary Principles of Composition
   1. 8. Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic.
   2. 9. As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic sentence, end it in conformity with the beginning.
   3. 10. Use the active voice.
   4. 11. Put statements in positive form.
   5. 12. Use definite, specific, concrete language.
   6. 13. Omit needless words.
   7. 14. Avoid a succession of loose sentences:
   8. 15. Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form.
   9. 16. Keep related words together.
   10. 17. In summaries, keep to one tense.
   11. 18. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.
4. IV. A Few Matters of Form
5. V. Words and Expressions Commonly Misused
6. VI. Spelling
7. VII. Exercises on Chapters II and III

This edition follows the text of the 1920 printing by Harcourt, Brace and Howe (copyright 1918, 1919, 1920), which is in the public domain in the United States. Spelling and punctuation are Strunk's, with a few printer's errors corrected; dashes are set as spaced hyphens. Examples that Strunk printed in two columns appear as "before" and "after" pairs. The notes under each rule are ours.