I've been reading William Strunk's 1918 version of The Elements of Style on Bartleby.com this morning.
I only recently figured out that E.B. White contributed to the later editions of this book. I knew the book was called Strunk and White's Elements of Style, didn't know it was E.B. White.
E.B. White is one of my heroes.
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Back to the Elements of Style. It's fairly dry reading. I'm not sure if I'll ever be a technically adequate writer, not knowing my past participle from the present or if it might be dangling (my participle that is).
I will do my best to study that book a bit more though in hopes of improving my ability to connect to readers and not waste their or my time with unnecessary and or unclear words.
To the point quickly now.
Rule 13 of Principles of Composition "Omit Needless Words"
Yes indeed. But then I wouldn't have a blog.
There's some good stuff in Elements of Style. For my money's worth I like to read a lot and by doing so hope to observe and absorb some good writing skills (nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills, etc.,).
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Back to concise language the topic of this post.
I have been practicing some concise language for years with my wife.
She refers to me a D and I call her B.
Those are easy letters to say and quite concise.
A friend of mine at work is expecting a baby near the end of the month. He and his wife have chosen the name Elliot for the little tyke. That's a good name, plus he could always go by E (an easy letter to say and quite concise).
Another form of concise language I've worked out with B over the years is a non-verbal sign language used when I don't want, or for some reason cannot muster up the energy, to actually say the words "yes" or "no". I respond to B's verbal language with a vertical movement of my finger to indicate yes and a horizontal movement to indicate no. This is an easy sign to remember if you relate it to the way you shake your head to indicate yes and no. It doesn't take as much effort as shaking your head and works best when you are close to someone (physically close as well as mentally...so they will put up with your silly shenanigans). You can touch their leg or arm with your finger and make the yes/no sign.
I am probably in some ways the world's laziest person. On the up side if I lose my ability to speak and write at least B will be able to understand my yes/no messages.
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Wishing you a good Thursday with all necessary elements of style.
D
