Strunk and White

Strunk and White
Name	The Elements of Style
Caption	Cover of a common edition
Author	William Strunk Jr.; E. B. White (reviser)
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	English usage, composition
Publisher	Various (Cornell, Macmillan, Harcourt)
Pub date	1918; revised 1959
Pages	Varies by edition

Strunk and White is the conventional shorthand for the collaboration between William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White on a brief usage and composition manual that became widely influential in American literature, journalism, education, publishing and creative writing. First issued as a classroom guide at Cornell University and later expanded and popularized through commercial editions, the work has shaped guidance for writers across institutions like Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, and media organizations including The New Yorker, The Atlantic (magazine), The New York Times, Time (magazine), and The Washington Post. Its prescriptions entered curricula in secondary schools in the United States, university programs at Columbia University School of the Arts, and influenced style codes at houses such as Macmillan Publishers, HarperCollins, and Harcourt Brace.

Background and Origins

William Strunk Jr., a professor at Cornell University and alumnus of DePauw University and Harvard University, compiled a concise set of rules in 1918 for students in courses taught alongside colleagues and administrators at institutions including Smith College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. E. B. White, an alumnus of Cornell University who later became a staff writer for The New Yorker and an author of works like "Charlotte's Web" and "Stuart Little", encountered Strunk’s booklet and revised and expanded it while connected to publishers such as Macmillan Publishers and editors at Harper & Brothers. The collaboration intersected with wider trends in 20th-century American literature and editorial standards promoted by bodies like the Modern Language Association and style authorities such as the Chicago Manual of Style.

The Elements of Style (content and editions)

The original booklet emphasized concise guidance for composition techniques and principles of English language usage targeted to students at Cornell University. Later American editions—most notably the 1959 revision attributed to E. B. White—were published by commercial houses including Macmillan Publishers and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, and were promoted through reviews in periodicals like The New Yorker, The Atlantic (magazine), and listings in catalogs from Barnes & Noble and Waterstones. Editions have varied in length and appendices, and collectors compare bindings and typographic choices from printers such as G. P. Putnam's Sons and Random House. The book’s concise chapters and numbered rules contrast with extensive manuals like the Oxford English Dictionary and the Chicago Manual of Style while complementing reference texts such as Garner’s Modern English Usage.

Writing Principles and Style Guidelines

Central injunctions include rules of composition, principles of rhetoric and syntax, and admonitions about clarity and brevity that resonate with practices at newsrooms like The New York Times and BBC News and literary workshops at institutions like Iowa Writers' Workshop and Columbia University. Prescriptive items—many distilled into a small list of rules—address usage cases that editors at The New Yorker, The Atlantic (magazine), The Economist, and Time (magazine) confront daily, such as active versus passive voice, parallel construction, and comma use in the tradition of style guides like the AP Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style. The manual’s examples and exhortations influenced pedagogy in writing centers at University of Michigan, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley.

Reception and Influence

The book found champions among prominent writers and editors such as E. B. White himself, critics at The New Yorker, columnists at The New York Times Book Review, and novelists in the milieu of 20th-century American literature including figures associated with The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. It affected copy desks at The Atlantic (magazine), editorial styles at HarperCollins, and classroom practices across departments at Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, and Cornell University. Public intellectuals and broadcasters—figures on networks like NPR, pundits appearing on CBS News, NBC News, and commentators in The Washington Post—often cite the manual as a training tool. Its aphorisms appear in popular-writing primers by authors linked to Vintage Books, Penguin Random House, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Criticism and Controversies

Scholars in linguistics and critics from departments at University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Stanford University, and University of Chicago have debated its prescriptive stance versus descriptive approaches found in works by scholars associated with the Linguistic Society of America and reference publications like the Oxford English Dictionary. Debates have involved high-profile critics and authors whose names appear in essays in The Atlantic (magazine), The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books, and academic rebuttals published in journals associated with Modern Language Association conferences and university presses such as Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press. Controversies include disputes about rules on split infinitives, usage of the passive voice, and historical examples tied to grammarians like Noah Webster and style commentators such as H. W. Fowler.

Legacy and Cultural Impact

The manual’s concise format and memorable maxims influenced the teaching of composition at programs like Iowa Writers' Workshop and institutions such as Columbia University School of the Arts and New York University. It entered broader culture through mentions on broadcasts from NPR and in essays in The New Yorker and The New York Times, parodies in comedy shows associated with Saturday Night Live performers, and references in popular culture where editorial norms of The New Yorker or newsroom practices at The New York Times are depicted. Its lineage is traced alongside other influential texts and institutions including The Chicago Manual of Style, Oxford English Dictionary, Garner’s Modern English Usage, universities like Harvard University and Yale University, and publishers such as Macmillan Publishers and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Category:Style guides