The Elements of Style by Strunk and White is one of the most famous, recommended, and useful books on writing.
William Zinsser, in his excellent book On Writing Well, says Strunk and White’s book should be an annual read for any aspiring writer.
I’ve been particularly enjoying the ‘Approaches to Style’ chapter—where there are simple suggestions to affect a better style, but no hard rules.
I’ve summarised 7 of my favourite below.
1. Write in a way that comes naturally. Write like how you speak.
2. Work from a suitable design. Great writers plan.
3. Write with nouns and verbs. Don’t use adjectives nor adverbs in writing — they’re OK in speech though.
4. Revise and re-write. No writer’s first draft is any good.
5. Avoid the use of qualifiers. Our writing will be much better if we exclude ‘rather’, ‘very’, ‘little’, and ‘pretty’ altogether.
6. Be clear. Any fool can make something complex.
7. Do not take shortcuts at the cost of clarity. Avoid acronyms. Write things out in full.