William Strunk, Jr.

“ He may have no minute prophetic knowledge of the future, but he knows when intervention is necessary and when he may safely trust Hamlet to attain revenge without further admonition. So far as his words throw light upon the nature of Hamlet's task, upon Hamlet's character, upon the efficiency with which Hamlet performs his task, they have an authority, and must have been intended by Shakespeare to have an authority, which gives them precedence over all the other data afforded by the play. Like Hamlet, we may say, "It is an honest ghost," and "take the ghost's word for a thousand pound." ”

“ It is of course equally correct to write the above as two sentences each, replacing the semicolons by periods.
If a conjunction is inserted, the proper mark is a comma (Rule 4) .
Note that if the second clause is preceded by an adverb, such as accordingly, besides, so, then, therefore, or thus, and not by a conjunction, the semicolon is still required.
In general, however, it is best, in writing, to avoid using so in this manner; there is danger that the writer who uses it at all may use it too often. ”

“ The ghost, therefore, may be regarded, within reasonable limitations, as sharing this infallibility. He has passed beyond the possibility of mortal errors of judgement; he has sources of knowledge in which mortals have no part. He returns to earth from purgatory, not from heaven, for that would be incongruous with his demand for revenge; not from hell, for that would be incompatible with Hamlet's duty to obey him. ”

“ My aim has been to emphasize the importance of the words and actions of the ghost as the necessary point of departure for all interpretation of the play, and within due limits, as the final authority in such interpretation. An examination of these words and actions enables us in large measure to discriminate between the conclusions derived from other data. We are enabled to conclude with certainty that Hamlet essentially is not in madness, but mad in craft; that he is not temperamentally unfit for the task assigned him, but a fit instrument of revenge ”

“ The best way to see a country, unless you are pressed for time, is to travel on foot.
This rule is difficult to apply; it is frequently hard to decide whether a single word, such as however, or a brief phrase, is or is not parenthetic. If the interruption to the flow of the sentence is but slight, the writer may safely omit the commas. But whether the interruption be slight or considerable, he must never insert one comma and omit the other. ”

“ Many a tame sentence of description or exposition can be made lively and emphatic by substituting a transitive in the active voice for some such perfunctory expression as there is, or could be heard.
As a rule, avoid making one passive depend directly upon another.
In both the examples above, before correction, the word properly related to the second passive is made the subject of the first.
A common fault is to use as the subject of a passive construction a noun which expresses the entire action, leaving to the verb no function beyond that of completing the sentence. ”

“ If there is room at the end of a line for one or more syllables of a word, but not for the whole word, divide the word, unless this involves cutting off only a single letter, or cutting off only two letters of a long word. No hard and fast rule for all words can be laid down. ”

“ The word people is not to be used with words of number, in place of persons. If of "six people" five went away, how many "people" would be left?
Phase. Means a stage of transition or development: "the phases of the moon;" "the last phase." Not to be used for aspect or topic.
Possess. Not to be used as a mere substitute for have or own.
Respective, respectively. These words may usually be omitted with advantage.
In some kinds of formal writing, as in geometrical proofs, it may be necessary to use respectively, but it should not appear in writing on ordinary subjects. ”

“ Further, Horatio is comparatively taciturn; he largely keeps his opinions to himself. Barring his seeming disapproval of Hamlet's way with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, his tardy remonstrance in the scene at Ophelia's grave, and his attempt to dissuade Hamlet from the fencing-match, Horatio seems to be ready to acquiesce in any opinion or action of Hamlet, once the story of the ghost has been repeated to him. It would be difficult to maintain that he is intended to be Shakespeare's mouthpiece. None of the human characters in the play sees the action steadily and sees it whole. ”

“ A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject. The word walking refers to the subject of the sentence, not to the woman. If the writer wishes to make it refer to the woman, he must recast the sentence:
Participial phrases preceded by a conjunction or by a preposition, nouns in apposition, adjectives, and adjective phrases come under the same rule if they begin the sentence.
Sentences violating this rule are often ludicrous. ”

“ The book covers only a small portion of the field of English style, but the experience of its writer has been that once past the essentials, students profit most by individual instruction based on the problems of their own work, and that each instructor has his own body of theory, which he prefers to that offered by any textbook. ”

“ An exception may be made of sentences of transition, indicating the relation between the parts of an exposition or argument.
In dialogue, each speech, even if only a single word, is a paragraph by itself; that is, a new paragraph begins with each change of speaker. The application of this rule, when dialogue and narrative are combined, is best learned from examples in well-printed works of fiction.
10. As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic sentence; end it in conformity with the beginning. Again, the object is to aid the reader. ”

“ A hackneyed word; the expressions of which it forms part can usually be replaced by something more direct and idiomatic.
Feature. Another hackneyed word; like factor it usually adds nothing to the sentence in which it occurs.
As a verb, in the advertising sense of offer as a special attraction, to be avoided.
Fix. Colloquial in America for arrange, prepare, mend. In writing restrict it to its literary senses, fasten, make firm or immovable, etc.
He is a man who. A common type of redundant expression ”

“ But a writer may err by making his sentences too uniformly compact and periodic, and an occasional loose sentence prevents the style from becoming too formal and gives the reader a certain relief. Consequently, loose sentences of the type first quoted are common in easy, unstudied writing. ”

“ Further, Shakespeare makes it clear that even by his own principle, Hamlet was wrong in not accepting his chance, for this moment of apparent repentance is precisely the moment in which the king has definitely formulated his situation, and has resolved not to act as becomes a repentant man. ”

“ Do not join independent clauses by a comma.
If two or more clauses, grammatically complete and not joined by a conjunction, are to form a single compound sentence, the proper mark of punctuation is a semicolon.
Stevenson's romances are entertaining; they are full of exciting adventures. ”

“ The principle that the proper place for what is to be made most prominent is the end applies equally to the words of a sentence, to the sentences of a paragraph, and to the paragraphs of a composition. ”

“ For the titles of literary works, scholarly usage prefers italics with capitalized initials. The usage of editors and publishers varies, some using italics with capitalized initials, others using Roman with capitalized initials and with or without quotation marks. ”

“ After the third act the ghost does not reappear. The plain inference is that intervention is no longer necessary, that Hamlet's course, reckless as it may seem, particularly to those who wish, like Goethe, to conceive of him as a tender, fragile, or flower-like creature, unfitted to take risks or confront dangers, leads directly to the fulfillment of his task. He feels himself to have the caution, the strength, the resourcefulness, the courage, and the determination to accomplish his purpose. ”

“ In both these examples, the first period should be replaced by a comma, and the following word begun with a small letter.
It is permissible to make an emphatic word or expression serve the purpose of a sentence and to punctuate it accordingly:
The writer must, however, be certain that the emphasis is warranted, and that he will not be suspected of a mere blunder in punctuation.
Rules 3, 4, 5, and 6 cover the most important principles in the punctuation of ordinary sentences; they should be so thoroughly mastered that their application becomes second nature. ”

“ In notebooks, in newspapers, in handbooks of literature, summaries of one kind or another may be indispensable, and for children in primary schools it is a useful exercise to retell a story in their own words. But in the criticism or interpretation of literature the writer should be careful to avoid dropping into summary. ”

“ The modern word is often.
One hundred and one. Retain the and in this and similar expressions, in accordance with the unvarying usage of English prose from Old English times.
One of the most. Avoid beginning essays or paragraphs with this formula, as, "One of the most interesting developments of modern science is, etc.;" "Switzerland is one of the most interesting countries of Europe." There is nothing wrong in this; it is simply threadbare and forcible-feeble.
People. The people is a political term, not to be confused with the public. From the people comes political support or opposition ”

“ The time of irresolution and delay is past. His words to Horatio, "The interim is mine" (v. ii. 73) are those of a man confident of his mastery of the situation. If he holds a blunted foil in one hand, he holds an unbated dagger in the other. He twice refuses the poisoned cup. He is no longer the hesitating and meditative Hamlet of the second and third acts, but a Hamlet who in a school of bitter experience has learned how to overcome his own weaknesses, and has thus fitted himself for the task of overcoming his enemy. The supernatural judgment of the ghost was not at fault. ”

“ If the writer finds that he has written a series of sentences of the type described, he should recast enough of them to remove the monotony, replacing them by simple sentences, by sentences of two clauses joined by a semicolon, by periodic sentences of two clauses, by sentences, loose or periodic, of three clauses—whichever best represent the real relations of the thought. ”

“ A common inaccuracy is the use of the plural pronoun when the antecedent is a distributive expression such as each, each one, everybody, every one, many a man, which, though implying more than one person, requires the pronoun to be in the singular. ”

“ All three examples show the weakness inherent in the word not. Consciously or unconsciously, the reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not; he wishes to be told what is. Hence, as a rule, it is better to express a negative in positive form. ”

“ Can he deceive others, or be himself deceived? The answer is best found by examining Shakespeare's practice with regard to similar beings in other plays. We find that in Richard III, in Julius Cæsar, in Macbeth, in Cymbeline, in The Winter's Tale (the oracle) , the supernatural beings, however diverse their nature, are alike in certain respects. They have sources of information denied to mortals. They are free from the encumbrances of mortal frailty, and so far as they take upon themselves the responsibility of speech and action, they possess virtual infallibility. ”

“ The two sentences might be rewritten:
As the early records of the city have disappeared, the story of its first years can no longer be reconstructed.
Although the situation is perilous, there is still one chance of escape. ”

“ It is, however, correct to say, "The signers of the petition were less than a hundred," where the round number, a hundred, is something like a collective noun, and less is thought of as meaning a less quantity or amount. ”

“ The ghost's reappearance should be sufficient evidence that Hamlet's conduct has not been blameless. The repetition of a supernatural command, in Hamlet's case as in that of the prophet Jonah, is proof positive that the person commanded has been remiss. The ghost's words, "I come to whet thy almost blunted purpose," are incompatible with any belief that Hamlet is a "man of action," deferring his revenge only for reasons of necessity. ”

“ Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language. ”

“ The writer's colleagues in the Department of English in Cornell University have greatly helped him in the preparation of his manuscript. Mr. George McLane Wood has kindly consented to the inclusion under Rule 10 of some material from his Suggestions to Authors. ”

“ Hamlet holds a unique position among Shakespeare's plays by reason of the challenge which it has offered to interpretation. As a whole and in its details the play has been the subject of more discussion than any other of its author's works. The judgments passed upon Hamlet's conduct have been of the most diverse kind, and correspondingly diverse theories have been formulated to account for his delay in carrying out his task, or to disprove that such delay exists. ”

“ F. Howard Collins, Author and Printer (Henry Frowde) ; Chicago University Press, Manual of Style; T. L. De Vinne Correct Composition (The Century Company) ; Horace Hart, Rules for Compositors and Printers (Oxford University Press) ”

“ More commonly the opening sentence simply indicates by its subject with what the paragraph is to be principally concerned.
The brief paragraphs of animated narrative, however, are often without even this semblance of a topic sentence. The break between them serves the purpose of a rhetorical pause, throwing into prominence some detail of the action.
11. Use the active voice. The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive:
This is much better than
The latter sentence is less direct, less bold, and less concise. ”

“ It may be pointed out that he knows the circumstances of his murder, though he was asleep when it was committed. Though there would have been no propriety in making him omniscient and omnipotent, he is, so far as concerns his own aims, all-sufficient both in knowledge and in judgement. ”