Post 8: What are Others Saying?

I totally agree with Jeff Gerding’s point about the Williams book: it is much more in depth than the Strunk and White book. It is crucial to use clear, concise language in your writing. Williams does devote a whole chapter to this point while Strunk and White merely say “omit needless words.” The principles that Jeff pointed out that Williams uses are much more helpful than the example that Strunk and White. Williams wrote:
1. Usually, compress what you mean into the fewest words.
2. Don’t state what your reader can easily infer. (115)
while Strunk and White only gave this example:
A period of unfavorable weather set in.
It rained every day for a week. (21)
The former is definitely much more helpful than the latter. Not only are those principles much more helpful, there are a few examples given as well. Jeff is completely right.

Allison Bondie’s view on the two books is really quite interesting. Strunk and White may be a little less explanatory but they are much less pretentious and a lot more basic, which makes them easier to understand. I love how she describes Williams as being “self referent to their (his) own greatness.” I guess there is something to be said for simplicity. I could definitely feel the pretention radiating out of the Williams book as I was reading it.

Beth Logsdon’s blog makes a good point about the shortness of Strunk and Williams as well. “It (the shortness) makes it very good for referencing,” Beth said. It would be much easier to find something in the Strunk and White book if I needed an answer quickly. In order to find something in the Williams book, I would need to take a few minuets to look for what I really needed. Strunk and White can be referenced in seconds. These differences in style may be due to the differenced in the time periods of which they were written, which is another good point that Beth brings up.

Siobhan Stevens brings up a really good point about the Williams book: it doesn’t really address punctuation at all. After reading Strunk and White, I would have thought that Williams would have addressed it more since I believe that punctuation is a very important part of writing. It helps make it clear just as much as word choice does. I disagreed with her on another point, however. I found the section in Strunk and White on misused words to be totally helpful; maybe I should be embarrassed to admit that, but I did. As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I tend to forget the correct usage of effect and affect. Nauseous and nauseated are another words set that I often confuse with one another.

It is interesting to look at other people’s blogs and see that we are all having a lot of the same thoughts about these books. It is also nice to get an outside perspective and have things be brought to my attention that I never would have thought of otherwise.