Elements of Style: 11 Composition Principles

Review writing against Strunk & White's 11 elementary principles of composition from Chapter II.

Instructions

Analyze the provided text for structural and compositional issues. Provide specific examples with before/after suggestions where improvements are needed.

Output Format

Text Under Review: [title or brief description]

Composition Review

Detailed Findings

Principle 3: Active Voice

Passive voice found:

Principle 4: Positive Form

Negative constructions found:

Principle 6: Omit Needless Words

Wordy phrases found:

Principle 8: Parallel Form

Non-parallel constructions:

Principle Reference

1. Choose a suitable design and stick to it — Plan your structure. Know whether you're building a tent or a cathedral. The design may change, but have one.

2. Make the paragraph the unit of composition — Each paragraph should develop one topic. Begin with a topic sentence; end with emphasis. Don't chop into single sentences or let paragraphs run too long.

3. Use the active voice — "The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive." Write "I shall always remember my first visit" not "My first visit will always be remembered by me."

4. Put statements in positive form — Say what is, not what isn't. "He usually came late" is stronger than "He was not very often on time." Avoid not un- constructions.

5. Use definite, specific, concrete language — Prefer the specific to the general, the definite to the vague, the concrete to the abstract. "A period of unfavorable weather set in" → "It rained every day for a week."

6. Omit needless words — "Vigorous writing is concise." Every word should tell. Common offenders:

   • "the question as to whether" → "whether"
   • "there is no doubt but that" → "no doubt" / "doubtless"
   • "the fact that" → often deletable
   • "who is" / "which was" → often deletable

7. Avoid a succession of loose sentences — Don't string together clauses with "and," "but," "so." Vary sentence structure. Use subordination.

8. Express coordinate ideas in parallel form — Similar content deserves similar form. "The French, the Italians, Spanish, and Portuguese" → "The French, the Italians, the Spanish, and the Portuguese."

9. Keep related words together — Place modifiers near what they modify. "He only found two mistakes" → "He found only two mistakes."

10. In summaries, keep to one tense — When summarizing a work, use present tense throughout. Don't shift between present and past.

11. Place the emphatic words at the end — The end of a sentence is its most prominent position. Build toward the key word. "Humanity has hardly advanced in fortitude since that time, though it has advanced in many other ways" → weak ending. Revise for emphasis.

Summary

Overall Structure: [Well-organized/Needs Work/Disorganized]

Word Economy: [Tight/Some bloat/Verbose]

Top 3 Improvements:

1. [Most impactful structural change]
2. [Second priority]
3. [Third priority]

Guidelines

• Focus on patterns rather than isolated instances
• Active voice isn't always better—passive is appropriate when the actor is unknown or unimportant
• "Omit needless words" doesn't mean "omit all words"—rhythm and clarity sometimes need extra words
• Technical writing may legitimately need longer explanations

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