He was a memorable man, friendly and funny. Under the remembered sting of his kindly lash, I have been trying to omit needless words since 1919, and although there are still many words that cry for omission and the huge task will never be accomplished, it is exciting to me to reread the masterly Strunkian elaboration of this noble theme. It goes:
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no
unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the
same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a
machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer
make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects
only in outline, but that every word tell.
And his original Rule 11 was "Make definite assertions." That was
Will all over. He scorned the vague, the tame, the colourless, the
irresolute. He felt it worse to be irresolute than to be wrong. I
remember a day in class when he leaned out forward, in his
characteristic pose-the pose of a man about to impart a secret-and
croaked, "If you don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud! If
you don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud!"
7. Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce a list of particulars, an appositive, an amplification, or an illustrative quotation.
A colon tells the reader that what follows is closely related to the
preceding clause. The colon has more effect than the comma, less power
to separate than the semicolon, and more formality than the dash. It
usually follows an independent clause and should not separate a verb
from its complement or a preposition from its object."
15. Put statements in positive form.
Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colourless, hesitating, noncommittal language. Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion.
He was not very often on time
vs
He came late
The 'Taming of the Shrew' is rather weak in spots. Shakespeare does
not portray Katherine as a very admirable character, not does Bianca
remain long in memory as an important character in Shakespeare's
works.
vs
The women in 'The Taming of the Shrew' are unattractive. Katherine is
disagreeable, Bianca is insignificant.