Elements of Style
I just read “The Elements of Style” by Strunk and White, it’s a remarkable work. I imagine my high school literature teacher, Professor Aldana, all the time, while I was reading the book. He was a man of few words, a huge knowledge source, and military resemblance. Professor Strunk was a man of exact words as his student describes him in the book, like Prof. Aldana. I just can’t avoid imagine him teaching me a couple of life lessons.
Back to business, the book presents twenty two rules of usage and composition:
Rules of usage
- Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding ‘s
- In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last
- Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas
- Place a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause
- Do not join independent clauses by a comma
- Do not break sentences in two
- Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce a list of particulars, an appositive, an amplification, or an illustrative quotation
- Use a dash to set off an abrupt break or interruption and to announce a long appositive or summary
- The number of the subject determines the number of the verb
- Use the proper case of pronoun
- A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject
Principles of composition
- Choose a suitable design and hold to it
- Make the paragraph the unit of composition
- Use the active voice
- Put statements in positive form
- Use definite, specific, concrete language
- Omit needless words
- Avoid a succession of loose sentences
- Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form
- Keep related words together
- In summaries, keep to one tense
- Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end
All these rules apply to technical writing, although they don’t limit to it. After read the book, I understand more about how to write and how to prune a paper out of needless words and stuff that wouldn’t help the reader. It is a worth reading, and I think that is a must read for a grad student.
The last chapter focuses on style; it is a good set of advices for new writers. I liked some of its reminders:
- Write with nouns and verbs
- Revise and rewrite
- Do not overwrite (I need to work on this one)
- Do not overstate
- Do not explain to much
- Do not construct awkward adverbs
- Be clear
- Do not inject opinion
As I state, every person whom write in English should read it. It gives one a brief, but exact, view of the general writing style. And remember:
Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar. — E. B. White
Further reading:
The Chicago Manual of Style.
to crop the image to the bounding box. 
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