[...]... your strategies and realize your purposes "Her dresses beautifully," we said, represents an error in grammar, and "She dresses beautiful," a mistake in usage "She dresses in a beautiful manner," however, is a lapse in style The sentence breaks no rule of grammar or of usage, but it is not effective (assuming that the writer wants to stress the idea of "beauty") The structure slurs the emphasis, which should... Style is the result of strategy, the language that makes the strategy work Think of purpose, strategy, and style in terms of increasing abstractness Style is immediate and obvious It exists in the writing itself; it is the sum of the actual words, sentences, paragraphs Strategy is more abstract, felt beneath the words as the immediate ends they serve Purpose is even deeper, supporting strategy and involving... a less serious approach, or assumed a more formal relationship with the reader Style In its broadest sense "style" is the total of all the choices a writer makes concerning words and their arrangements In this sense style may be good or bad—good if the choices are appropriate to the writer 's purpose, bad if they are not More narrowly, "style" has a positive, approving sense, as when we say that someone... unusual sensibility, a witty or a wise saying, or even something silly or foolish or crass: Sincerity always hits me something like sleep I mean, if you try to get it too hard, you won't w H Auden Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural Size Virginia Woolf I hate music—especially when it 's played Shrouds... styles." On the other hand, we understand "style" to include many ways of writing, each appropriate for some purposes, less so for others There is no one style, some ideal manner of writing at which all of us should aim Style is flexible, capable of almost endless variation But one thing style is not: it is not a superficial fanciness brushed over the basic ideas Rather than the gilding, style is the... pronouncements of teachers, editors, or other authorities They are simply the way people 14 INTRODUCTION speak and write, and if enough people begin to speak and write differently, the rules change Usage Usage designates rules of a less basic and binding sort, concerning how we should use the language in certain situations These sentences, for instance, violate formal usage: She dresses beautiful She ain't... exhibit In such cases the subject is given, and the first step is chiefly a matter of research, of finding information Even the problem of organizing the information is often simplified by following a conventional plan, as with scientific papers or business letters Which is not to dismiss such writing as easy Being clear and concise is never easy (To say nothing of being interesting!) But at least the... friend so significant that he at least partially excludes the others? Because we want to "join our lives." But this desire for joining is far from "romantic"—it is selfish We want someone to share our lives in order that we do not have to endure hardships alone The writer 's purpose is not so much to tell us of what she thinks about marriage as to convince us that what she thinks is true Her purpose, then,... punctuation is cut-and-dried, much of it falls into the province of usage or style Later, in the chapter on punctuation, we'll discuss the distinctions between mechanical and stylistic uses of commas, dashes, and so on Grammar, Usage, and Style Grammar, usage, and mechanics establish the ground rules of writing, circumscribing what you are free to do Within their limits, you select various strategies and... appeals to reason in the form of argument, offering evidence or logical proof Another form of persuasion is satire, which ridicules folly or evil, sometimes subtly, sometimes crudely and coarsely Finally, persuasion may be in the form of eloquence, appealing to ideals and noble sentiments Writing that is primarily entertaining includes fiction, personal essays, sketches Such prose will receive less attention . Analysis, and Qualification 13 2 PART 4. The Sentence 14 9 18 . The Sentence: A Definition 15 1 19 . Sentence Styles 16 1 20. The Well-Written Sentence: (1) Concision 19 1 21. The Well-Written Sentence:. strategy, and style in terms of increasing abstractness. Style is immediate and obvious. It exists in the writing itself; it is the sum of the actual words, sentences, paragraphs. Strategy is. their interest for granted or suppose that it is the readers' job to follow you. It&apos ;s your job to guide them, to make their task as easy as the subject allows. Ask yourself questions about