Comparing Strunk & White with Williams

I preferred Williams’ Style Toward Clarity and Grace because unlike Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, Williams actually gives tips on how to improve your writing. Elements of Style was a good reference tool because it listed commonly misused words and phrases as well as basic grammatical rules. However, further into the book, Strunk and White tell the reader what not to do (i.e. writing in the passive voice, being too wordy, empty phrases) without directly telling the reader how to fix the problems. Also, in reading Elements of Style I felt like my own personal writing style was being attacked while “standard”, clear and concise writing was preferred. While I felt attacked and defensive, I didn’t understand why my writing style was considered so inferior. I think that individual writing style distinguishes one reader from the next and I didn’t like being told to follow the standard. Doing so seemed to mean ignoring my own style of writing and replacing it with what someone else preferred. Since I felt so defensive, it was difficult to take anything away from reading Elements of Style other than basic reminders of grammatical rules and criticisms of how I write but with no help in improving it.

Thankfully, Williams’ Style Toward Clarity and Grace was a great improvement from Elements of Style. Williams explained the benefits of clear and concise writing as well as how to do it. There are many examples in the book that show an “incorrect” passage, describe what’s wrong with it, and then alter it to make it better. Reading over the many examples and justifications for revision taught me a lot more than simply being told I was wrong and needed to stop.

In Chapter 6, I really liked the discussion of the “POINT.” We have done the same exercises in several of my literature classes to find a thesis or the best sum-it-all-up sentence in a paragraph. The exercises in the book also helped me too see how without a strong “POINT” sentence, a paragraph seems week and unfocused. When I revise my Writing Technology paper, I’ll definitely go through to find a “POINT” in each paragraph.

Another section of Style Towards Clarity and Grace that I found helpful was in Chapter 7 when Williams discusses redundant pairs and modifiers, meaningless modifiers and pompous diction. He describes how they are empty tools used as fillers and then broke down each category to show how the phrases could be said more simply, often in one word. I had always thought it was best to avoid using “because” and “since” and “and” repeatedly, but I can see how using longer phrases adds unnecessary length to a sentence, can break up the rhythmic flow, and even confuse the reader.

What I liked best about Williams’ book, however, was the final chapter on elegance. Something I had feared in reading Strunk and White’s and then Williams’ books was that the authors were telling me not write like them. I like wordy prose but I understand now that there is a place for that type of writing (which is not in concise, persuasive writing) but also that there is a method to “elegant” writing. Elegant writing doesn’t mean using the fillers and prose carelessly, but mastering clarity and conciseness first and then bringing personal style and elegance to a piece of writing.