William Strunk, Jr.

“ It is an old observation that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric. When they do so, however, the reader will usually find in the sentence some compensating merit, attained at the cost of the violation. Unless he is certain of doing as well, he will probably do best to follow the rules. After he has learned, by their guidance, to write plain English adequate for everyday uses, let him look, for the secrets of style, to the study of the masters of literature. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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) ”