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The Elements of Style (Rules of Usage (Add "'s" to form …
The Elements of Style
Rules of Usage
Add "'s" to form
possessive nouns
Regardless of what the
final consonant is
Rewrite the sentence
to avoid "
s's
"
"Moses's Laws" becomes "the laws of Moses"
"Isis's Ttemple" becomes "The temple of Isis"
Pronominal possessives
have no apostrophe
Examples
Its
"Its" is the possessive form, "it's" is short for "it is"
Theirs
Yours
Ours
Hers
Pronominal possessives ==
Possessive pronoun
Denotes owndership
Examples
Charles's friend
Burn's poems
The witch's malice
Use a comma after each
item in a list expect the last
Examples
Red, white, and blue
Gold, silver, or copper
Referred to as "serial comma"
When to
use parenthesis
Favour ", ... ," over "( ... )"
Use when clause is adding
information i.e. is non-restrictive
Examples
The audience, which had at first been indifferent, because more and more interested
In 1769, when Napoleon was born, Corsica had but recently been acquired by France
Clauses introduced by
Which
When
Where
Do not join independent
causes with a comma
Independent clauses are
not joined by a conjunction
Conjunctions are:
And
But
As
For
Or
Nor
While
Instead use a "
;
"
Examples
Mary Shelley's works are
entertaining; they are full of engaging ideas
It is nearly half past five; we
cannot reach town before dark
Could also split
into two sentences
Semi-colon often adds more "punch"
Semi-colon indicates a tighter
relationship between the two clauses
Do not break
sentences into two
Favour commas and semi-colons
Usage of colons
When introducing
A list
Should not separate a verb from its
complement or a preposition from its object
A complement is a verb that follows either
Subject
Brandon is a gifted athlete
It was he who caught the winning touchdown Friday night
Action verb
Marie walked to school
Louis thought about the math problem
Prepositions are the
words that indicate location
The puppy is
on
the floor
The puppy is
beside
the phone.
Exmples
Wrong:
Your dedicated whittler requires: a knife, piece of wood, and a back porch
Correct:
Your dedicated whittler requires three props: a knife, a piece of wood, and a back porch
An appositive
A noun or noun-phrase
that modifies another noun
General examples
During the dinner conversation, Clifford,
the messiest eater at the table
, spewed mashed potatoes like an erupting volcano.
My 486 computer,
a modern-day dinosaur
, chews floppy disks as noisily as my brother does peanut brittle
Example
But even so, there was a directness and dispatch about animal burial: there was no stopover in the undertaker's foul parlour, no wrath or spray
An amplification
Example
But even so, there was a directness and dispatch about animal burial: there was no stopover in the undertaker's foul parlour, no wrath or spray
An illustrative quotation
Colons indicate a close relationship
between what proceeds and succeeds the colon
Usage of dashes
To announce a
long appositive
A noun or noun-phrase
that modifies another noun
To introduce a summary
Number of the subject
determines whether the
verb is singular or plural
Words that intervene between the subject and verb do not affect the number of the verb
Singular verbs
Becomes
Catches
Goes
Gets
Sings
Plural verbs
Become
Catch
Get
Go
Sing
Examples
Wrong:
The bittersweet flavour of youth - its trails, its joys, its adventures, its challenges -
are
not soon forgotten
Correct:
The bittersweet flavour of youth - its trails, its joys, its adventures, its challenges -
is
not soon forgotten
Use the proper case of pronoun
A participial phrase at the
beginning of a sentence must
refer to the grammatical subject
What is a participial phrase?
A participle is a verb ending in -ing (present) or -ed, -en, -d, -t, -n, or -ne (past) that functions as an adjective, modifying a noun or pronoun. A participial phrase consists of a participle plus modifier(s), object(s), and/or complement(s)
Example
Walking slowly down the street,
he saw a woman accompanied by two children
"Walking" refers to "he" rather
that the woman and children
Two sides
On arriving in Chicago,
his friends met him at the station
It's his friends that are arriving
On arriving in Chicago, he was
met at the station by his friends
He is arrivaing
Place a comma before a
conjunction introducing
an independent clause
Conjunctions are:
And
But
As
For
Or
Nor
While
Examples
The early records of the city have disappeared, and the story of its first years can no longer be reconstructed
The situation is perilous, but there is still one chance of escape
If the subject is defined once and used in both clauses use a comma with "but", but not "and"
I have heard the arguments, but am still not convinced
He has had several years's experience and is throughly competent
Elementary
Principles of Composition
Choose a suitable design
and hold to it
Plan
Know where you are going
Fill in the gaps later
Write within a structure
Introduction
Body
Conclusion
Make the paragraph the
unit of composition
Treat each paragraph as a new topic
Have an introduction/transition sentence
Use the active
voice over passive voice
Be assertive
Direct
Bold
Concise
Readers trust it more
Examples
Passive:
There were a great number of dead
leaves on the ground
Active:
Dead leaves covered the ground
Results in shorter sentences
Put statements
in a positive form
Make definitive assertions
Avoid
not
Examples
Strong:
He usually came late
Weak:
He was not very often on time
Readers like to be told what is possible rather than what is not
Choose stronger words
Forgot
rather than
did not remember
Dishonest
rather then
not honest
Normally results in a shorter sentence
Avoid unnecessary conditionals or auxiliaries
Conditionals create uncertainty
Don't be timid, tell the reader how it is
Auxiliaries
Would
Should
Could
May
Might
Can
Weakens your authority
Use the
Active voice
Use definite,
specific, concrete language
Prefer the specific to the general
Prefer the definite to the vague
Prefer the concrete to the abstract
Examples
Weak:
A period of unfavourable weather set in
Strong:
It rained every day for a week
Allows the reader to more easily imagine
Omit needless words
Brevity is valued
Each word, sentence,
paragraph must earn it's keep
Examples
"
the question as to whether
" vs "
whether
"
"
there is no doubt but that
" vs "
no doubt
"
"
Her story is a strange one
" vs "
Her story is strange
"
"
the reason why is that
" vs "
because
"
Avoid
"the fact that"
"who is"
"which was"
Use the
active voice
Revise
2nd draft should be 20% smaller - Stephen King
Avoid a succession
of loose sentences
Overcome by:
Breaking down into smaller sentences
Use of semi-colons
Adding an additional clause
Boring to read
A loose sentence contains to
clauses joined by a conjunction or relative
Conjunctions:
And
But
Or
Nor
Yet
So
For
Relative:
Who
Which
That
Where
When
However use a loose sentence
to change the pace of a paragraph
Express coordinate
ideas in similar form
Allows the reader know through the structure that two ideas are connected
Example
Weak:
the French, Italians, Spanish, and Portuguese
Strong:
the French,
the
Italians,
the
Spanish, and
the
Portuguese
Correlative expressions should be
followed by the same grammatical construction
Examples
Wrong:
It was a long ceremony and very tedious
Correct:
The ceremony was
both long and tedious
Wrong:
A time not for words but action
Correct:
A time not for words but
for
action
Correlative expressions:
Both
And;
Not
But;
Not only
But also
Either
Or;
First, second, third
Keep related words together
Position of words is the principle means of showing their relationship
Confusion and ambiguity results
when words are badly placed
Poor placement:
He noticed a large stain in the rug that was right in the center
Is the stain in the center or is the rug in the center
Good placement:
He noticed a large strain right in the center of the rug
Poor placement:
You can call your mother in London and tell her about John's taking you out for dinner for just two dollars
Was the dinner two dollars or is the call two dollars
Good placement:
For just two dollars you can call your mother in London and tell her all about John's taking you out for dinner
The subject of a sentence and the principle verb should not be separated
Poor placement:
A dog, if you fail to discipline, becomes a household pest
Breaks the flow
Better placement:
Unless disciplined, a dog becomes a household pest
Modifiers should come next to the words they modify
Poor placement:
All the members were not present
Better placement:
Not all the members were present
In summaries,
keep to one tense
Place the emphatic words
at the end of the sentence
Maximum impact
Check out
this site
for meanings behind the technical term
