Comparing Strunk and White with Williams

In my previous blog entry discussing William Strunk and E.B. White’s book, The Elements of Style, I talked about how Strunk and White explain the hard-fast rules for the use of “who” vs. “whom.” They explain how the words are used reflective of what pronoun they are referencing. There is no talk of this being an option; it is simply what is the proper usage is for the words (Strunk 11).

In Joseph William’s book, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace, he also talks about the rules for the use of “who” vs. “whom.” He gives the same rules Strunk and White, and he also gives examples of the correct usage. The difference between two books is that in William’s book, he prefaces the rules with the word “optional.” He gives examples of the misuse of the words by famous writers and acknowledges that the breaking of this rule is rarely noticed anymore (Williams 186). My favorite sentence that he writes with regard to this rule is, “Whom is a small but distinct flag of conscious correctness, especially with the whom is in fact wrong” (Williams 187). Many writers try to use the word “whom” to make something sound more formal, more grammatically correct. What usually happens is that they use it incorrectly.

Strunk & White discuss syllabication in their book (Strunk 38). I did not find any reference to this type of technical style rule in William’s book. Style: Toward Clarity and Grace does not have the detailed, hard-fast, rules that The Elements of Style has.

Strunk and White wrote a whole section of their book on “Misused Words and Expressions (Strunk 39-65). Williams does not talk much about the misuse of words. He gives a list of what he calls, “real rules” (Williams 180). However, he also writes this wonderful paragraph that sums up for me how he really feels about writing rules in general:

The facts of the matter are these: a few especially fastidious
writers and editors try to honor and enforce every rule of usage;
most careful writers observe fewer; and there are a few writers
and editors who know all the rules, but who also know that not
all of them are worth observing and enforcing, and that they should
observe other rules only on certain occasions. (Williams 178)

I found the Strunk and White book to be a better “tool” to use when you are unclear about the hard-fast rules of writing. I think that William’s book is much more realistic in letting you know how to apply the hard-fast rules to today’s writing.