Strunk & White, Part 1

In William Strunk and E.B. White’s, The Elements of Style, I found many answers to rules that I question each and every time I write a paper. This book should be given to every high school student as a graduation present. In fact, my oldest daughter is graduating in two weeks. She might be horrified to find a copy of this book wrapped up as a gift, but I think she would be happy when she wrote her first paper in September.

There are a lot of grammar and style rules that you learn at a young age that aren’t used often and don’t, consequently, stick with you. I honestly don’t remember ever learning the proper rule for “who” and “whom.” If I did, it was back in junior high—back when they called middle school junior high. All in all, the first chapter of the book is a nice refresher course in grammar and is a good idea to read at least once a semester. Sometimes you know the rules, but they evade you when you are in the heart of a writing project. I found that the first three chapters of Shrunk and White were the most helpful and up-to-date.

Strunk and White discusses syllabication as a writing rule—the rule of when to divide a word at the end of a line (Strunk 38). Most writing is now done in some sort of word-processing format, and the program that you use generally will divide the words for you. Rarely would there ever be a need to use this rule. I also was intrigued by the following found under “Misused Words and Expressions:”
Care less. The dismissive “I couldn’t care less” is often
used with the shortened “not” mistakenly (and mysteriously)
omitted: “I could care less.” The error destroys the meaning of
the sentence and is careless indeed. (Strunk 42)

I have always used “I could care less.” I believe that, through time, this phrase has come to mean exactly what “I couldn’t care less” meant originally.

One other “misused” word, which I found the author’s perspective quite awkward on, was the one for the word “data.” The book suggests that instead of saying, “the data is,” you should say, “these data are” (Strunk 44). If I was talking about a collection of data, I would treat the word as if it was a singular item, even if it was comprised of many things.

It is my opinion that there are a lot of instances in this book where these “rules” about word usage are up for individual interpretation and where they are just the author’s preference. Language evolves with cultural changes. Some grammar that was not “proper” twenty-five years ago is now acceptable. Grammar rules change. I know that, in my lifetime, I have seen the comma come and go at least three times, before and, in a series of three or more terms.