First Impressions...Strunk & White

This book was an easy read, as Prof. Krause stated in the syllabus. I was a bit more excited to read this book when finding out that one of the authors, E.B. White, was actually the sa me E.B. White who wrote Charlotte's Web, which is still, to this day, one of my favorite books.

I feel that the most helpful, although possibly obvious section of this book, was the first section, Elementary Rules of Usage. While I do not necessarily agree with the order of importance, if that is what was meant by the numbering of the "rules", I thought the section was a nice "refresher" on some basic rules of writing "correctly". The title of the section sums it up, in my opinion: Elementary Rules...It's been a long time since I've had an elementary grammar class and sometimes it's helpful to hear/read those basic rules all over again. As White states, the book is "a tiny thing, a barely tarnished gem. Seven rules of usage, eleven principles of composition, a few matters of form, and a list of words and expressions commonly misused..."(xii). I think the seven rules of usage, not necessarily arranged by importance, to me - is the possesive s really the MOST important rule of usage? -- is a great review of the basics for an adult who has been out of the elementary education system for some time.

I felt that the section on commonly misused words and expressions section was the most "unhelpful" and outdated -- althought it was interesting to read what someone writing in the early 1900's considered "misused". I think Strunk's opinion of these words and expressions are just that --opinions - and in today's day in age, alot of what he felt was incorrect is widely acceptable nowadays.