April marks the 50th anniversary of Strunk & White. I know a lot of writers swear by it, but is it really the best grammar advice that you can get? One journalist certainly doesn’t think so. Read this article for a fascinating discussion on why the classic – well, sucks. As someone who read S&W and found some of the advice contradictory, it was nice to hear I’m not the only one.
If you haven’t had a chance to check out the Agent for a Day “contest” at Nathan Bransford’s blog, you should. 50 queries were posted throughout the day, and people have a whole week to read through and follow the rules of the contest. I read through the queries yesterday. Some of them I could see why people weren’t interested, others left me wondering why people didn’t pick them up. This is why you need to pick the right agents to query. It made me excited about the query I’ll someday write for my WiP.
Well, I don’t want to take up too much time today on zee blog. I got some NIH grants to finish budgeting and a chapter to edit.
6 comments:
I have a copy of Strunk & White from J-School, but have never really used it. I swear by my AP Style Guide, use Bremner's Words on Words as a backup and Google everything else.
The blog link you sent me yesterday and referred to today was really interesting. I read a few of the queries, but couldn't possibly do all 50. It became frustrating reading other people's comments because I disagreed with what they liked or didn't.
We get author queries at work from people who want to write magazine articles. 95% of them are entirely stupid, but we have to take them all seriously because every once in a while we'll get something worthwhile.
GMTA! I swear I didn't read your blog about the Strunk/White or Nathan's link, but did the contest on my own.
As with the passive voice of the Strunk/White article, I'm still arguing the case for the adverb! :)
~Missye
LOL that's ok, Missye. Ironic, though, ain't it?!
I have a copy of S&W, but have never been able to get through it. Have you ever read Spunk and Bite? It's by an editor that had much the same opinion as the article link. Its got some great information, and it's fun to read.
@ Windsong - I've never read it, but it's going on my list now. I'm always looking for book recommendations of any sort.
It's the first style guide that I've ever come across that's actually enjoyable to read. :) There's a reason why I never made it through S&W. ;)
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