The Elements of Style

I can't recommend this book highly enough! It's very very useful indeed for essays and worth reading! I like it a lot!

The book is written in great clarity and accuracy. It refreshes me the old grammar rules; it also teaches me new grammar/punctuation rules that I should never ever forget. Highly recommended this book!

'The Elements of Style' is a short book (only 95 pages) on how to write good English, particularly fiction. While I imagined that there was little I didn't already know about writing grammatically correct prose, this book showed me all my little weaknesses. It also has useful chapters on composition and how to develop a personal writer's style. I just wish the chapter on style had been longer as that was what I was looking for when I was dawn to the book's title.

I'm half-way through the book and glad that I bought it. The authors give very good guidelines on how to write clearly in the most concise manner - very useful for my work. Small, handy and great value for money.

With the growth of the internet we have many more people writing who would previously not have had a voice. As a result it is more important to go back to the basics. It is not now possible to learn correct style by copying the great and good because they generally haven't got it right.

The elementary rules of usage start with the possessive single as in the apostrophe s which is one of the most misused pieces of English.

Shops signs are the worst with every s having an apostrophe. Apple's orange's etc.

Words and expressions commonly misused would now fill a whole book.

Some of the rules may be overly prescriptive but it is better than the current free for all in the written language.

A book that should be constantly revisited. I will be looking to buy another copy, one at home and one in the office.