Here pullum ignores one of the great charms of strunk and white. White was married to katherine angell, the first fiction editor of the new yorker. Random house, strunk and white, and others already have given their approval to split infinitives. Also strunk and white the elements of style is a small pocket sized reference, whilst pullums the cambridge grammar of the english language is a 1764 page brick. A test to decide whether adverbs and adjectives deserve to. The elements of style is an american english writing style guide in numerous editions. Tenney revised it as the elements and practice of composition 1935. This book is only 77 pages and it manages, succinctly, precisely and elegantly to convey the essence of good writing. Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. This article is about split infinitives enjoy your reading. Elements is beloved by literati, authors, english teachers, supreme court justices. How to craft wickedly effective prose, constance hale provides a pluggedin, cuttingedge alternative to the must prescriptions of strunk and white.
You can find any amount of evidence that the antisplit infinitive movement is relatively modern and a kind. If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the. And the prejudice against the split infinitive is just a piece of silliness. White greatly enlarged and revised the book for publication by.
In 1957, at the new yorker, the style guide reached the attention of e. Cornell university english professor william strunk, jr. The strunk and white rap grammar girl quick and dirty tips. Simply download the grammar ebook understanding the parts of speech. Now, strunk and white as its commonly called is quite strict about some of its rules. This is professor strunks advice regarding this rule. Elsewhere, the same authors observe that more than unusual stress on the adverb can justify splitting the infinitive. Bad passive voice advice from strunk and white the. Many experts have tried to lift the splitinfinitive ban. In many cases splitting the infinitive is not the best way to write the sentence. Some infinitives seem to improve on being split, just as a stick of round stovewood does, strunk and white advised, offering the example i cannot bring myself to really like the fellow.
All rules or suggestions which common usage mostly lets slip these days. Splitting infinitives, ending with prepositions, and. You can find any amount of evidence that the anti split infinitive movement is relatively modern and a kind. White did well to accept macmillans suggestion that he should revise and. April 22, 2009 was the 50th birthday of the writing classic elements of style from the star tribune, minnesota. If you talk to anyone who takes the rules of grammar and usage seriously, the names strunk and white are bound to come up. The book covers only a small portion of the field of english style, but the experience of its writer has been. The elements of style henceforth, elements is a slender book of advice on usage. For another side to the split infinitive, see chapter v, reminder 14. Random house, strunk and white, and others already have given their approval to split. This year marks the 50th anniversary of strunk and whites muchloved the elements of style. The elements of style by strunk and white introduction.
I have positive impressions of strunk and white from school, but i havent actually looked at it much in recent years. Since clarity is the usual reason for splitting, this advice means merely that you can split them whenever you need to. In my own defense, i havent looked at the book in years. The piece takes backhanded shots at the books guidance on style. Strunk s original version never even mentioned split infinitives. Strunk and white continues to update their book, even though both of them are dead.
Battles over such radical items as split infinitive and words like finalize, jeopardize, donor are analyzed. The split infinitive is another trick of rhetoric in which the ear must be quicker than the handbook. And the main case for the banthat latin infinitives are just one wordis hardly persuasive. It details the many grammar books that were influential in their own period including the back story to the venerated strunk and white. Charles harrington elster, in the san diego uniontribun e. If you have read strunk and white, elements of style, reread it every two years. Upon its release, charles poor, writing for the new york times, called it a splendid trophy for all who are interested in reading and writing. A split infinitive is when other words creep into the middle of an english infinitive. These three bits of writing advice, from experts stephen king, ben yagoda and the team of strunk and white, arent just their. Not only is the prep osition acceptable at the end, sometimes.
White greatly enlarged and revised the book for publication by macmillan in 1959. The elements of style, the little book that was originally selfpublished by professor william strunk, jr. Tenney later revised it for publication as the elements and practice of composition 1935. One additional word on marks bedtime reading ruminations, which are on their own a magnificent brief for the prosecution concerning the charges against e. Strunk and whites elements of style is still the same book it was when it was originally conceived, as it has not changed or evolved, despite the way our. The elements of style william strunk, elwyn brooks white. When a graceful alternative exists, avoid the construction. The most important rule of style in strunk and whites elements of style is number, omit needless words. Unlike those above, the sentence cannot be split into two independent statements. Contact me if youd like to delve deeper into the subject. The most common writing problems and the best ways to avoid them at.
In 1957 the style guide reached the attention of e. White his dry wit, his clear, beautiful sentences, his dying pigs and i figured his book on. The elements of style was listed as one of the 100 best and most influential books written in english since 1923 by time in its 2011 list. Laurie hertzel reports, my first copy of strunk and white was a small blue paperback that i bought at kreimans bookstore in duluth when i was in high school. Forget strunk and whites rulescognitive science is a surer basis for clear and cogent writing, according to this iconoclastic guide from bestselling harvard psycholinguist pinker the language i. And the main case for the banthat latin infinitives are. But this is oxford after all, publisher of the venerable unabridged oxford english dictionarythe hallowed 20volume, 8pound, 21,730page o. Macmillan and company subsequently commissioned white to revise the elements for a 1959 edition strunk had died in 1946. Splitting infinitives, ending with prepositions, and beginning with but. I knew that some people had issues with the little book to put it diplomatically but i always wrote that off as a matter of personal taste. Pullums article in the chronicle of higher education april 17, 2009. The following is a lightly edited concatenation of some emails i wrote several years ago, in response to 50 years of stupid grammar advice, geoffrey k. Fowler classic on language translates to paper the. Here you will find an openminded, exuberant approach to style that is intelligent and refreshing.
Strunk and white suck but zinsser is excellent strunk and whites the elements of style is bad for writers. White added both the above remark and the further reference, in chapter v, admitting that some infinitives seem to improve on being split. The split infinitive construction was never mentioned at all in strunk 1918, but. The most famous example is star treks to boldly go where no one has gone before. As i recently discovered, though, strunk and white got some things wrong. Strunk and whites elements of style is an acceptable beginner style guide, but is presented in an arbitrary, arrogant fashion and sometimes runs contrary to commonly accepted practice. The first writer i watched at work was my stepfather, e.
Both of those rules are derived from latin grammar, where it is impossible to end a sentence with a. The elements of style wikipedia republished wiki 2. Among his bestknown and most widely used books is the elements of style 1959, a guide to grammar and rhetoric based on a text written by one of his professors at cornell, william strunk, which white revised and expanded. The hard line formerly taken against the split infinitive has softened of late, and most modern usage guides say its all right to split an infinitive in the interest of clarity. If you own or have read strunk and whites the elements of style, then you should read this. The strunkwhite book has some lighthearted words on the subject, too. How to remove a split infinitive from a sentence skills practiced defining key concepts ensure that you can accurately identify examples of an infinitive and split infinitive. After all, famous writers have been splitting infinitives since the 14th century, as our two criticized authors acknowledge. Splitting infinitives, ending with prepositions, and beginning with but ll tackle three persistent writing myths that can get in the way of plain, clear, readable writing. Cornell university english professor william strunk jr.