Customer Reviews

The Elements of Style (Original Edition)

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

First of all, great book. Been writing professionally for 20 years, and I still use this book occasionally.

WARNING on REVIEWS: Amazon is using the same customer reviews for "The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition" by Strunk and White (1999) and "The Elements of Style - the Original Edition" by Strunk (without White) (1920), re-published September 2007.

Since the republication of Strunk's original work was released in September 2007, all reviews before that date pertain to "Strunk & White." Any review after that date, unless clearly indicated, could pertain to either book.

The books are markedly different, but Amazon is using the same customer reviews for both.

There are better Kindle editions out there. This one does have linked TOC but it is layed out weirdly. For one thing, it doesn't link back to the TOC from inside the book. For another, there is one main TOC with just the chapter headings and each chapter has its own more detailed TOC. Not very useful. The words wrap nicely but would benefit from better spacing and bullet points around examples. Not bad but there are better editions.

This is the original, out-of-copyright "Elements of Style," not the updated version by Strunk and White. Very disappointed with this purchase.

The book is great, I mean it's a classic but this version looks like it came right off the photo copier of the original print for 100 years ago. It's horribly fussy and the copy spacing is poor. I suggest finding a version by a different publisher.

William Strunk's book "The Elements of Style" was recommended to me by an American friend, whose linguistic abilities I value very high. I ordered the book immediately and was surprised, when it arrived, by how thin it was. It turned out to be a compendium, which would best be memorized (I am not joking!). This American English writing style guide was written in 1918, but has not aged at all. The most important rules of American English, and the ones most commonly forgotten (like the use of Saxon Genitive of commas), are gathered here. I found the collection of frequently misspelled words very useful, too (although I though of some I could add, for example "receive", which I see misspelled more often than not). For me, the most helpful part was the discussion on brevity and omitting then unnecessary words - I still struggle with long sentences and too many adjectives and adverbs. This small volume is a must-have for anyone who wants to write correctly in English!

This edition of the Elements of Style does NOT include the material by E.B. White! For some incomprehensible reason, the publishers have stripped all of White's excellent observations, tips, and essay material out of the book.

I grew up with Strunk & White. I used it as a college teacher and tutor. I used it for decades as a professional writer. When my copy was destroyed in a fire, I sought to replace it and was entirely too careless: I simply looked for the same title ("The Elements of Style") and clicked to order it.

I would award Strunk & White five stars. Without White's material, The Elements of Style is a two-star book. This weak-tea version of "Elements" is merely adequate. If you really want insight into style, purchase Stunk & WHITE. I was careless; I want to alert other purchasers before they make the same error.

This is in my opinion the best, most straight-forward book on grammar and style. I accidentally ordered the original, which doesn't contain White's contributions. This version weighs in at 52 pages and delivers relevant advice on every one of them. There are longer, more detailed studies out there, of course. But if you want to do more writing and less thumbing through a rulebook, this is an excellent solution. Highly recommended!

I thought I was getting White & Strunk's Elements of Style. Since I didn't pay close enough attention to the exact words on the screen, I got a different book. Don't make the same mistake that I did. This is a scanned version of the original Strunk book (without White's contribution).

The Elements of Style is a short, timeless and foundational book on writing style and grammar. It is exceptionally well written and an essential writers desk reference. The authors stripped away all the fluff and kept the best of the best to help anyone write more clearly and concisely.

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The original edition is not typeset, and that makes it very distracting. You can tell which typewriter was used to do original and edited pages. The letters wave up and down, for instance, 'c's are low, and 'u's are high on some pages.

I highly recommend getting a typeset edition, if one is available.