Strunk & White vs. Williams

Williams book was a much more difficult read than Strunk & White but I feel Williams was a more appropriate writing guide for college students than S&W. Keeping in mind that I have the third version of S&W, I feel the book is a helpful refresher of some basic grammatical rules, but it is somewhat outdated. I think Williams gives a perfect comparison of the two books in his opening statement when he says that his book explains how to write more clearly. I think S&W more or less tells us to write more clearly. It doesn't explain how to write more clearly as well as Williams book does.

Williams book is longer and therefore gives an impression that it will be more in depth. When looking at the main chapters in each book, even the titles are more clear and descriptive in Willaims than in S&W. The third edition of S&W has five chapters with titles such as Elementary Rules of Usage and A Few Matters of Form. Willaims has ten chapters and the titles are simple and self explanatory -- Clarity, Concision, and Length. While I'm able to understand what each of the chapters of both books covers because I read them, at first glance, Williams titles are more clear.

At first, I thought I'd like S&W's book better because it seemed short and to the point. After reading both books, I like Williams book, even though it was a tougher read. It offers more helpful writing guidelines for a college student in upper level english courses. I liked the chapters on coherence and concision the best. Concision offered great point about redundancy. This is one area where I get discouraged when reading. I have an early American Lit course as well and find it frustrating when the author uses useless words. His point is much better understood if redundant pairs, modifiers and categories are omitted. I also thought the section on "Not the Negative" as helpful. It's so much easier and better understood when just one word is used instead of 3 or more.