Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (10th Edition)

.Reviewed by C.J.SinghEven a brief browsing of Joseph Williams's STYLE: LESSONS IN CLARITY AND GRACE, would persuade most readers that it makes the much touted Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style" look, well, elementary. Simplistic. If the seductively slender "Elements" -- easily read in a day, no exercises to do -- could deliver its claim, by the end of the day there'd be millions of excellent writers. Besides, Williams shows how Strunk & White flout their own advice to "omit unnecessary words": he edits their 199-word paragraph to just 51 words (Williams, pp. 126-28). Williams shows grace in conceding that "in boiling down that original paragraph to a quarter of its original length, I've bleached out its garrulous charm."In the preface, Williams urges the reader to "go slowly" as it's "not an amiable essay to read in a sitting or two.... Do the exercises, edit someone else's writing, then some of your own written a few weeks ago, then something you wrote that day."I often assigned STYLE as the main textbook in Advanced Editorial Workshop, a ten-week course, I taught at the University of California. Each term, students rated the book as excellent. (The prerequisite to the workshop was a review course, with the main textbook "The Harbrace College Handbook." Although STYLE includes a 32-page appendix summarizing grammar and punctuation rules, most readers would be well-advised to review a standard college handbook, such as the Harbrace or Bedford. See my review of Bedford, seventh edition on Amazon.)Amazon has published numerous reviews of STYLE's various editions. The one-star reviews criticize the author's own writing in the book as lacking grace. Let's not forget that this is a text- and work-book -- so occasional pedagogic tone is to be expected. On the whole, the author's voice sounds earnest, refreshingly honest: Commenting on what's new in the recent edition: "Finally, I've also done a lot of line editing. After twenty-five years of revising this book, you'd think by this time I'd have it right, but there always seem to be sentences that make me slap my forehead, wondering how I could have written them."His expository style is clear. Two examples: Introducing the concepts of cohesion and coherence, Williams writes, "We judge sequences of sentences to be cohesive depending on how each sentence ends and the next begins. We judge a whole passage to be coherent depending on how all the sentences in a passage cumulatively begin. . . . It's easy to confuse the words cohesion and coherence because they sound alike. Think of cohesion as pairs of sentences fitting together the way two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle do. Think of coherence as seeing what all the sentences in a piece of writing add up to, the way all the pieces in a puzzle add up to the picture on the box.""You can write a long sentence but still avoid sprawl if you change relative clauses to one of three kinds of appositives, resumptive, summative, or free. You have probably never heard of these terms before, but they name stylistic devices you have read many times and so should know how to use.To create a resumptive modifier, find a key noun just before the tacked-on clause, then pause after it with a comma . . . . Then repeat the noun ... and that repeated word add a relative clause beginning with `that': 'Since mature writers often use restrictive modifers to extend a line of thought, we need a word to name what I am about to do in this sentence, a sentence that I could have ended at that comma, but extended to show you how resumptive modifiers work.'""To create a summative modifier, end a grammatically complete segment of a sentence with a comma . . . . Find a term that sums up the substance of the sentence so far . . . . Then continue with a relative clause beginning with `that': 'Economic changes have reduced Russian population growth to less than zero, a demographic event that will have serious social implications.'" And, free modifiers: "Like the other modifiers, a free modifier can appear at the end of a clause, but instead of repeating a key word or summing up what went before, it comments on the subject of the closest verb."'Free modifiers resemble resumptive and summative modifiers, letting you (i.e., the free modifier lets you) extend the line of a sentence while avoiding a train of ungainly phrases and clauses.'" In the preceding sentence, Williams simultaneously explains and exemplifies the concept of free modifiers.In the chapter titled "Elegance," Williams points out that "the device that often appears in elegant prose" is the use of resumptive and summative modifiers. An example from Joyce Carol Oates, using two resumptive modifiers: "Far from being locked inside our own skins, inside the `dungeons' of ourselves . . . our minds belong . . . to a collective `mind,' a mind in which we share . . . the inner and outer experience of existence."In the final chapter, "The Ethics of Style," Williams takes on academics who "rationalize opacity," with a ". . . claim that their prose style must be difficult because their ideas are new, they are, as a matter of simple fact, more often wrong than right. . . . Whatever can be written can usually be written more clearly, with just a little more effort."Well-crafted writing emerges only from repeated rewriting. This five-star text- and workbook teaches the exacting--and joyously rewarding--craft of rewriting. Moreover, I wholly agree with the author's observation on writing clearly and cognitive psychology: "The more clearly we write, the more clearly we see and feel and think."-- C J Singh

Writing is a commonly used form of communication. But what constitutes a well-written work? Joseph Williams and Gregory Colomb reveal the key to effective writing in their book entitled Style. The book compiles lessons to demonstrate the most important aspects of writing: style, clarity, and grace. The lessons are comprised of diverse examples, dissected excerpts, debunked myths, practice exercises, and comprehensive summaries of the major principles. Williams and Colomb analyze fictional, academic, and historical excerpts to demonstrate how the overall key to effective writing is balance. The first lesson focuses on balancing the complexity of both content and writing style. The primary example analyzes textbook-style writing to depict how a complex style on top of complex content hinders the writer's effectiveness and the reader's understanding. This issue relates to scientific writing, which involves technical terms and complicated details that need to be communicated to the average reader. Ways to communicate better are by using noun constructions versus gerunds and active versus passive voice to simplify the writing style. The second lesson on style tunes in to the balance of correct and formal writing. It suggests that invented rules, such as not beginning a sentence with "because", are allowed to be broken for the sake of effective communication. Too much correctness is not reader-friendly, and too much formality distracts the reader from the message due to awkward wording. However, a balance maintains the reader's interest and clearly conveys the writer's message. Williams and Colomb use the next four lessons to elaborate on how to achieve the above balances with clarity. One principle suggests using short, concrete, and familiar subjects with verbs possessing specific actions. Devices that achieve this are nominalization, active voice, characters, writer's knowledge of the topic, and revision. Revision entails three steps: diagnose, analyze, and rewrite. The process of revision and application of these devices are important in writing to express meaning. If the writer does not have a tangible understanding of his topic, then the writing will not even connect with the reader. Another principle recommends beginning sentences with familiar information then ending with the unfamiliar. This can be achieved by applying the following devices: topic sentence, transition, conjunctions, momentum, and emphasis (i.e. it-shifts). Using such devices and the revision process enhances the flow of ideas. These principles of clarity are significant in scientific writing for when technical terms or new theories need to be introduced to the reader. Clarity is what establishes the balance between the focus of the writer and that of the reader. Once clarity has been achieved, grace must be infused into the writing style to balance its texture. By texture, I am referring to a composition's length, shape, and elegance. Respectively, the next three lessons analyze these aspects with the following devices: concision, structure, and symmetry. Concision consists of using conjunctions, modifiers versus prepositional phrases, affirmative versus negative, and refraining from metadiscourse. Structure involves trimming or extending sentences, converting long subjects into introductory subordinate clauses, and transforming run-ons into simple sentences. Symmetry entails the use of diction-echoing and chiasmus. Application of these devices enhance the overall writing quality and reading experience. One of the major points of this book is that it's not about the writer approving of his work, but about the reader being able to identify with the work. And the key to effectively communicating with the reader is to achieve balance in style, clarity, and grace.

Easy to read and provides helpful suggestions on how to improve your writing. I am not a proficient writer, and this book is a nice addition to my collection.

I'm an international PhD student in neuroscience, and I've read three books to enhance my academic writing skill: Elements of Style, Stylish Academic Writing, and this one. This book is by far the most comprehensive and concrete among the three. It details not only the basics such as keeping subjects simple, but goes through more advanced techniques such as coordinating sentence and paragraph structure in a variety of ways.In comparison, Stylish Academic Writing only motivates clear writing, and lacks concrete advices and examples. Elements of Style is brief, concrete, and clear, but deals mostly with clarity, or keeping sentences short, and misses advices for building more sophisticated sentences and paragraphs. I also skimmed Revising Prose, but it seemed to talk mostly about revising a sentence, not going to a paragraph level or beyond. In short, for me, those other books were too narrow in scope.Although Williams is more detailed than the other books, the authors consistently summarize their points at the end of each chapter, so it is easy to follow. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a comprehensive guide to academic writing.

This book contains informative lessons on grammar, sentence structure, clarity, concision, etc. The only problem I had with this book is the wordiness of the authors. Sometimes the lessons are extremely repetitive, sure it helps to drill it in your brain, but that's only if you're focused enough to keep reading. If you'd like the lessons in a shorter format, buy Style: The Basics in Clarity and Grace. You get the same lessons without the fluff.

Great book on writing

長く英語を勉強してきた身として、この本に早く出会わなかったのが残念に思われるほどの名著である。すでに10版を超えているロングセラーだそうだ。中級以上の、真剣な英語学習者にとっての必携書として、自信をもって推薦したい。★を六つ献上したいくらいだ。なぜか。まず、本書は、わかりやすい文章の書き方を、いい例、悪い例を比較しながら具体的に説明している点で優れている。しかも、どうやって自分の文章を見直し、添削していくのかという方法論まで丁寧に提供している。その上、練習問題や、その解答例までついている。じっくり読み、学べば、文章作法の基本が学べることを約束する本だ。そして、長所は、わかりやすさ・丁寧さ・実用性の高さだけにとどまらない。まず文章の書き方を、体系的に幅広く論じているのが特徴だ。一つ一つのセンテンスの書き方から始まり、次に、パラグラフ単位でどう書いていくかを論じ、そして、最後に文章全体の構成にまで及ぶ。そして、筆者の議論は、単なる、言葉の使い方がどうだこうだというレベルを超えて、「人間は何をどう認識して文章からメッセージを読み取るのか」、「説得的な文章とは何か」というレベルに到達している。私はこの本から、「説得とは何か」ということを学んだ。素晴らしいことは、これを読むと、英語の書き方だけでなく、読み方も学べるということだ。難しい文章に出会ったときに、われわれ日本人としては、まず、自分の英語力のなさを反省してしまい、「もっと読解力をつけなくちゃ」などと思うものだ。しかし、この本を読んだあとでは、いわゆる悪文というものを識別できるようになるのだ。よくわからないのは自分のせいではなく、きちんとかけていない筆者が悪いのだ、という認識に立つこともできるようになる。まじめな英語学習者の諸兄に、一読・再読・三読を、強くお勧めする。

Along with quite a few other writing books, this has become a staple at my desk. I enjoyed reading it, I learned a bunch, and it's a great reference tool.

So far I like this book, even if I have not read all its pages. I don't agree with someone who says that a grammar book would be the same. I find it useful for everybody, and its principles or suggestions are ending up useful also in the other languages I know, unless I bought it to speak and write a better english.