All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

the elements of style

statico on 2005-02-28T14:45:24

I recently received The Elements of Style as a gift. It's exactly what I've been looking for -- I'd call it, "English: This Missing Manual."

In my "English" courses throughout high school or college, I've only been taught how to be an opinionated expert on reading comprehension. Why don't they use this book?

One of the best-written books in the English lang

davebaker on 2005-02-28T15:43:26

You're right! It's a classic. You generally don't see it except in journalism and similar writing classes, though.

E. B. White is the same author who did Charlotte the Pig and so much wonderful work for The New Yorker magazine.

Isn't that the book that says "Avoid needless words (period)" ?

Re:One of the best-written books in the English la

statico on 2005-02-28T15:47:51

Yep :)

Re:One of the best-written books in the English la

lachoy on 2005-02-28T16:51:04

That's "Charlotte's Web", which along with "Trumpet of the Swan" and "Stuart Little" are children's literature classics.

Charlotte the Pig?

davebaker on 2005-02-28T17:59:47

Sheesh. Segfault at my end.

Maybe I was thinking of Freddy the Pig -- the series by Walter Brooks -- I loved those as a kid!

The anti marketing-speak

dug on 2005-02-28T15:51:43

When I worked for a dot-com I often fantasized about binding several copies [1] together and using the bundle to spank the marketing department.

1. Strunk and White took their own advice when writing "Elements of Style", which left a single copy too thin to use as a paddle.

The Secret Manual of Editors

chromatic on 2005-02-28T18:40:04

If every author I worked with read the book and did what it said, my job would be so much simpler. Also, if I didn't have to deal with terrible, horrible HTML output from word processors....