Vigorous Writing
Vigorous Writing
“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that a writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”
This is the famous quotation from the revered “little book”: William Strunk’s Elements of Style. In his preface to Leaves of Grass, the poet Walt Whitman similarly wrote, “The art of art, the glory of expression, and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.”
Friday, December 18, 2009