When I took my first editing job, my boss sat me down and gave me a short list of books to invest in. This was the first book on my list, and has been a permanent resident on my bookshelves for over ten years now. You may know it simply as Strunk and White. It’s been recently updated to include illustrations and you can also find a commemorative 50th anniversary edition, but I like plain old Strunk and White.
Many of the pages in my copy are highlighted, and some people may be shocked to find dog-eared pages. I’ve even got one page flagged with a sticky note. Can you guess which one? It’s the one sticky question I hear come up again and again—and which I often have to check on myself: When to use that and which.
Did I use which properly in that last sentence? Get your own Strunk and White and decide for yourself! That’s the thing with style conventions though; they exist to make writing easier to read, so it’s important for every author to be familiar with them. Does that mean anything that doesn’t comply with Strunk and White needs to be ruthlessly flogged back into shape? No, there are times you’ll decide to fly against convention, and even need to—but it’s best to know what those conventions are first.
If you’re just learning the craft of writing or editing, I highly recommend this book. Writing and editing to the style conventions in this guide will help make your prose lean and strong. You may also find this useful if you’ve managed to develop a good ear for style but have a hard time pinpointing why you think something is right or wrong. It’s possible to develop a good ear for language through voracious reading, but without knowing the why, it may be difficult to defend your position.
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