AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: some new elements in "The Elements of Style."
'He noticed a large stain right in the center of the rug.' |
AA: The artist Maira Kalman based colorful and often whimsical illustrations on examples used in the book. She also worked with the young composer Nico Muhly to turn the examples into songs. The songs were performed recently in the Main Reading Room of the New York Public Library.
RS: We'll play some of the music later. But first we talk to Jack Hart, who calls himself "an old journalism school professor." He's the writing coach at the Oregonian newspaper in Portland. And he is a big fan of "The Elements of Style."
"It really reflected the way American English had evolved through the second half of the nineteenth century and captured the sense that -- for the first time, I think really -- English was being regarded as a way to express rather than to impress. We were moving away from the really flowery Victorian English to a much more clear, direct way of expressing ourselves.
"One of the students in his courses at Cornell was a young man named E.B. White. [He] went on, became one of the best-known writers at the New Yorker magazine, maybe best known in this country for some of his children's books like 'Charlotte's Web.'
'Well, Susan, this is a fine mess you are in.' |
AA: "Well, just the other day I was trying to figure out should we use lie or lay in a particular sentence. How do you remember it, or do you keep going back to your 'Elements of Style'?"
JACK HART: "Actually I'm at a hospital today for a medical procedure and the nurses keep telling me to 'Lay down on the table.' And I keep saying 'No, no, no! It should be lie down on the table,' because I remember my Strunk and White.
"But I think more important here are the principles of clarity and gracefulness in writing that White, who was an especially clear and witty and graceful writer himself, added in the Chapter Five of 'Elements of Style,' that he added in the published version."
RS: "And what does that entail?"
'Illusion. See allusion.' |
"I think 'The Elements of Style,' the book, has probably been more influential than any other source when it comes to influencing the way we write. There are ten million copies of this book in print. It gathers dust on millions of bookshelves, but is actively used by millions of people as well. Another quarter-million are produced every year. We're now moving into the fifth edition of the book, this new illustrated edition, so it's everywhere."
RS: "Does it change with every edition?"
'Somebody else's umbrella.' |
AA: Jack Hart is a managing editor and the writing coach at the Oregonian newspaper in Portland. He's also the author of a book due out next summer called "A Writer's Coach."
RS: Now here is a little of that musical adaptation of "The Elements of Style."
(MUSIC)
AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.
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Illustrations provided by Penguin Press; copyright Maira Kalman, 2005