The Style of the Essay :: Writing Writers Education Essays

The Style of the Essay anterior to reading Strunk and Whites The Elements of Style and Williams Style, I was infra the assumption that everyone had their own writing behavior. Once I had read the textual matters and listened to the schoolroom discussions I realized that I didnt really know what style was when it came to writing. We as writers must all follow rules and guidelines for writing in vow for the reader to understand what we are trying to get across. Without these rules and guidelines we probably wouldnt be able to understand what the author is trying to express. I moot that the word style has been thrown around so much that I never really understood its true meaning. Before going save lets briefly look at the authors backgrounds. The Authors of The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, spend a penny similar backgrounds. William Strunk Jr. was a professor at Cornell University, an Ivy conference school on the east coast. E.B. White was a stud ent of Strunks in 1919 and also a professional writer. While enrolled in Stunks class White and the rest of the students were required to purchase a precise text book that Strunk had written to be used as a reference for writing. Thirty-eight years later White revise the text book by adding passages about the power of words and clear feel of thoughts and feelings (87 Stunk and White). Both authors are now deceased. Joseph M. Williams attainally an English professor and linguist still alive as of October 2003, is the author of Style Toward Clarity and Grace. Style, was primarily published in 1981 as a text book and has been revised to reflect the changing times (ix Williams). Strunk and Whites Elements of Style tends to steering more on rules of accuracy, brevity and clarity etc. They offer some good and bad examples of these rules and write more for an educated White Anglo-Saxon Male in the early to mid 1900s. Professor Strunk wrote the rules in the form of direct orders Sergeant Strunk as E.B. White has called him focuses on the fundamentals the rules of usance and principles of composition most commonly violated (xiv Stunk and White). Williams explains the styles of writing more in depth than Strunk and White.