According to the St. Louis Dispatch, this "excellent book, which should go off to college with every freshman, is recognized as the best book of its kind we have." It should be the ". . . daily companion of anyone who writes for a living and, for that matter, anyone who writes at all" (Greensboro Daily New). "No book in shorter space, with fewer words, will help any writer more than this persistent little volume" (The Boston Globe).
A masterpiece in the art of clear and concise writing, and an exemplar of the principles it explains.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Not just for writers!:
I was thinking about starting an editing business out of my home, so I purchased this with that in mind. Well, I never did get around to editing, but I still read and re-read this book -- many times. In fact, both my adult children bought copies for themselves. One was in college at the time, the other just enjoyed the book enough to want a copy for herself. This is a great book that would make a fantastic gift for a high-schooler, or someone in college, as well as the linguist in your life. My... more info
Useful and concise:
I bought this book as one of the textbooks for a class. It is a pocket size book, and as an international graduate student I find it very useful, specially because English is not my mother language and I have to write many papers for different classes and scientific articles.
How to Write - The Fundamentals:
With all of the great reviews posted about The Elements of Style, it is a difficult to add anything that hasn't been said before. The Elements of a Style is a great book that will help improve your writing - regardless of how well you write at present. This book is one that writers will want to keep handy. One of the few drawbacks of The Elements is that it may make people self conscious about all of the mistakes that they have been making in their writing. A bigger problem, as many reviewers have... more info
Not the best edition:
This is not the best edition of the book. It seemed to be a more accurate representation of the original writing but The Elements of Style 4th Edition is a better educational book. The Elements of Style (4th Edition)
