Comparing Strunk and White with Williams

As I reflected back on my reaction to Strunk and White I was reminded of some tips they gave about style that I felt I could benefit from. One in particular was rule #6 Do not overwrite, which relates directly to what Williams discusses in Chapter 6 and 7 when he emphasizes getting to the point right away in your writing and paying attention to the clarity of the writing as well. The authors are all saying the same thing that simplicity is key in guaranteeing that the audience understands your message. After reading Williams, I'm able to see that clarity in writing is so important because at times I thought Strunk and White were easier to read, at other times I felt as though I could follow Williams more easily. Nonetheless, clarity and simplicity are definitely two qualities in writing that both books stressed as being most important!

I think one of the main reasons I’m now siding a bit more with Williams is because I felt relaxed while reading his book and the number of examples he gives are helpful in that you can actually apply the knowledge he is giving you in these writing samples. While some of his ideas were on the complex side and required me to look over a second time, I felt as though I was learning more than I did with Strunk and White because so many of their ideas were ones that I was already familiar with. Also, and this is an obvious point, I think that Williams’ book is more modern and applicable to today’s writing styles whereas some of Strunk and White’s “rules” are obsolete today. I thought that Williams was more effective, too, in that he was more thorough about elements of style. Each of his chapters pertains to a specific and significant element of style, and he really takes the time to discuss them thoroughly. Strunk and White’s book is about half the size of Williams’ and obviously does not dig as deep into the various elements, which is a weakness of the text.

On the other hand, Strunk and White still make great comments about commonly misused words and grammar rules that I found helpful, especially for writers who struggle with grammatical aspects of writing. Basically, I found that Strunk and White offered a great deal of information about the basics of style, some of which is timeless and that writers will always be able to benefit from. In addition, the book was easy to read and took no time at all to go through, which is something that many readers will appreciate.

One criticism I have of Williams is his use of brackets in Chapter 9 about Elegance. He uses them so often and they are simply distracting. Perhaps to readers who are more visual learners than I am, this style could be helpful, but to me it was a bit irritating and unnecessary. I prefer Strunk and White’s columns that they use to compare correct and incorrect examples of usage because they are more clear to me.