Classic and Contemporary
Posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 2:51 PMTwo books that equal a complete guide to better copy.
By Peter P. Jacobi
Let this serve as a re-introduction to a classic and an invitation to
become familiar with a flamboyant, worthy-of-your-attention
contemporaneous response.
The classic: The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B.
White (4th edition, Longman).
The response: Spunk & Bite, A Writer's Guide to Bold, Contemporary
Style, by Arthur Plotnik (Random House).
A Complete Guide
Separately, each provides a multitude of useful hints to make you
stronger, as writers and editors. Together, they're as complete a guide
to better copy as you're likely to find. And, in totality, they're
really not contradictory, despite Plotnik's stance that Elements is
"geriatric." He may argue with one or another of the rules that dominate
Strunk and White's short and informative handbook, but he also validates
them by using his predecessors' wisdoms as a springboard for his own
musings. He simply begs for the addition of "ambience" in the use of
language, as supplement to "correctness," which he judges is the
principal lesson imparted in Elements.
Rhetoric
Plotnik also points out that Strunk, White's English teacher at Cornell,
determined that "the best writers sometimes disregard the rules of
rhetoric. When they do so, however," he continued, "the readers will
usually find in the sentence some compensating merit, attained at the
cost of the violation." And White would later admit, this years after he
added his thoughts to the Strunk original (a compressive text that he
used to hand out to his students): "I felt uneasy at posing as an expert
on rhetoric, when the truth is I write by ear, always with difficulty
and seldom with any exact notion of what is taking place under the hood."
Read the Classic Again
You would do yourself good as writer or editor by reading or re-reading
The Elements of Style. You will remind yourself to "omit needless
words;" to aim for "definite, specific, concrete language;" to "avoid a
succession of loose sentences;" to "choose a suitable design and hold to
it;" to "write in a way that comes naturally;" to "write with nouns and
verbs;" to not "explain too much;" to "make sure the reader knows who is
speaking;" to "be clear," and to "not take shortcuts at the cost of
clarity."
By sifting through the pages, you will come upon this passage, as part
of White's summation: "Style takes its final shape more from attitudes
of mind than from principles of composition, for, as an elderly
practitioner once remarked, 'Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of
grammar.'
This moral observation would have no place in a rule book were it not
that style is the writer, and therefore what you are, rather than what
you know, will at last determine your style. If you write, you must
believe -- in the truth and worth of the scrawl, in the ability of the
reader to receive and decode the message. No one can write decently who
is distrustful of the reader's intelligence, or whose attitude is
patronizing."
Locution, Freshness, Diction
Plotnik's emphasis is on "locution" ("a particular mode of speech -- the
use of a word, the turning of a phrase in some stylistic manner"). It is
on "freshness" ("Readers love surprise. They love it when a sentence
heads one way and jerks another. They love the boing of a
jack-in-the-box word. They adore images that trot by like a unicorn in
pajamas."). He addresses diction (for writers "always purposeful, always
a costume donned for one effect or another"). He spends a chapter on the
thesaurus, how to find a good one, how to use it (and not use it).
Attribution gets a chapter, too, focused sharply on attribution and the
verb "said." Plotnik counsels flexibility: yes, "said" is probably the
most useful way to attach a quote or piece of dialogue to its speaker,
but he is accepting of other verbs, depending on situation and
appropriateness.
Leads and Closings
He gets around to leads ("'I promise that something will stimulate you
if you continue reading.' Do your opening sentences make that promise?
Do they wow to scratch the reader's eternal itch for sensation?"). And
to closings, too, he gets (he urges a "three-point landing").
Punctuation and Grammar
Like Strunk and White, Plotnik deals with matters of punctuation and
grammar: hyphens, semicolons, sentence fragments, and the shape of
sentences ("Like the protagonist of a moral tale, a sentence sets out in
earnest pursuit of truth and beauty. But soon it finds itself set upon
by corruptive elements, which must be vanquished before the glorious end
punctuation is attained.").
Two Books That Complement Each Other
Plotnik strays occasionally into the hyperbolic, but Spunk & Bite in
execution matches the book's title. It complements The Elements of
Style, even when in contradiction. I'd therefore recommend the
combination for acquaintance and re-acquaintance.
Peter P. Jacobi is a Professor Emeritus at Indiana University. He is
a writing and editing consultant for numerous associations and
magazines, speech coach, and workshop leader for various institutions
and corporations. He can be reached at 812-334-0063.
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