The Elements of Style

Seconded on Strunk and White, although you also need to know not to follow some of its outdated advice.

I’d like to say - Factfulness or - Sapiens or - Richard Feynman’s various writings …but the most measurable impact was probably from something like - “Strunk and white The Elements of Style” or - “How to win friends and influence people” or - “Oh! Pascal!” Or - “the dictionary” or - some specific bus timetable that enabled a pivotal moment in my life

Electromagnatic Compatibility Engineering, Henry Ott The Elements of Style, Strunk and White The Hardest (working) Man in Showbiz, Ron Jeremy

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White is a short book of "rules" about style which boil down to making every word, letter, and punctuation mark "tell." I believe it to be essential to begin writing clearly and effectively.

"Writing well" can mean two things: Putting together clear, concise, grammatically correct sentences that are pleasant to read; and organizing your content in a useful, rational way. Technical writing needs to do both, and it also needs to teach well. Teaching well doesn't always mean you're writing well, and vice versa. Teaching well means using what cognitive and learning scientists have discovered about how best to teach adults. Books like Strunk & White's Elements of Style are good resources for putting together good sentences. Fewer books teach organizing your content, and even fewer teach how to teach well.

Commenting because I don't know a great way to find this comment in the future otherwise. I have a decent learning & development stipend at my job, and I've been looking to buy some hard copies of technical writing books so I can refer to them easily during the workday. And to intimidate my enemies on Zoom, of course. So far my go-tos are "Docs for Developers" and the classic "Elements of Style", which complement each other well, covering the newest documentation strategies and the oldest nonfiction writing strategies, respectively. I'd really like to start posting reviews to my blog as I read more and build out my own library.

Good technical writing is good writing. Just learn how to write well in general. I recommend going through The Elements of Style and basically any college level writing course materials.

I keep a copy on my desk and thumb through it occasionally when I need help with my writing. Next to that book is also a copy of Williams and Colomb's Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. I've also read the USAF Tongue and Quill. There are good lessons in all 3 of these books for technical writers.

Strunk & White's The Elements of Style is a classic.

I was first put onto this book by my PhD supervisor while writing up my dissertation. Revolutionised the way I wrote English for the better.

> 1920s book on English writing style inspiring your coding style. Absolutely. It is surprising (but not really once you think about it) how applicable it is.

"The Elements of Style", by Strunk & White. 92 pages. For example, page 19: "Put statements in positive form." Code is improved if booleans are put in positive form, such as replace: if (!featureIsDisabled()) ... with: if (hasFeature()) ... You might laugh, but I see the first form all the time. Sometimes I go on a refactoring mission to remove as many negations, nots, and bangs from the code as possible.

Finally picked up Strunk and White after years of procrastination and so far it has been a tour-de-force consolidating/spelling out the knowledge I picked up along the way (ESL). I found mentally swapping out words about writing for words about programming to be fun.

Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis. Any of his nonfiction works have a style of writing that I seldom find. He has a dedication to reason and a step-by-step approach. The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E. B. White. I liked writing since I learned how to. I didn't find this book until I was 17, and it unlocked me to write in a way that better helped others. The Language Instinct, by Steven Pinker. I guess I like writing and language. Like C. S. Lewis, Steven Pinker has a way of writing about hard things that makes them easy to understand, even enjoyable. The subject matter is also news to most people, I think, who don't appreciate just how much that language is built in to the human mind from conception.

The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis The Mac Is Not a Typewriter by Robin Williams Getting Real by 37 Signals

Elements of Style, also referred to as "Strunk and White" is a gem of a style guide. It can be read every few years to get back on track.

Strunk and White. I put my email and phone number in the inside cover. Only for good friends. Have gotten contacts from people I haven't seen in 10 years.

Is there a more correct book that is similarly concise and similarly well-written? I would love to read it, if so. Edit: I found this blog post that lists some alternatives http://thewritingresource.net/2011/09/22/forget-everything-s... (http://thewritingresource.net/2011/09/22/forget-everything-strunk-white-told-you/) About half of the titles are punny or plays on words, which I'm somewhat suspicious of (even though I like puns). And, all are at least twice the size of Strunk and White. I understand that some subjects are bigger than a ~100 page book can cover, but despite having spent a lot of my life writing (and having published a book), I've never been able to plod through a big grammar book. I can read Elements of Style in an afternoon without feeling like it's a chore. As noted in some of the reviews, if it's wrong it's not worth even that much effort. But, I never thought it was predominantly wrong or predominantly misleading. And, it usually reminds me about one or more of my negative writing habits, and I correct it for a while until I forget again.

The C Programming Language, Kernighan and Ritchie, for its simple elegance. The Elements of Style, Strunk & White. On clear writing. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (series), Douglas Adams. So you don't take yourself too seriously.

1. The Bible. It encourages me to live in a way that's also good for others, especially when I'm feeling selfish and cynical, and it teaches me how to interact with them in a healthy way (e.g. the book of Proverbs). 2. The Elements of Style. I always enjoyed writing, but at first school taught me to write in a flowery, longwinded way. This was the book that cracked the code for me to good writing. It dispelled a lot of self-serving and ultimately self-defeating habits and paved the way to clean, helpful English. When I finally got into programming in my late twenties, I found that many of the same principles make good code. 3. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. This is like the Elements of Style but for graphs. Again, it encouraged me to cut through the hype and deliver the content as clearly and succinctly as possible --- to serve the reader, not stroke my ego.

"The Elements of Style" by Strunk & White. "The biological basis of teleological concepts" by Harry Binswanger.

Some titles I've recently read or at least have placed on my reading list. -------------------- Philosohpy Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium - Seneca Meditations - Marcus Aurelius (must read) The Republic - Plato -------------------- History Five Chimneys - Olga Lengyel The Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (must read) The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank -------------------- Fiction (particularly dystopian) 1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451 (crime/action) Child 44, The Secret Speech, Agent 6 - Tom Rob Smith -------------------- Economics Capital in the Twenty-First Century - Thomas Piketty Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty - Banerjee, Duflo Why Nations Fail - Robinson -------------------- Economics/Decision making/Psychology Undercover Economist, Freakonomics, Nudge, Thinking Fast and Slow -------------------- Random titles The Selfish Gene, Self-Reliance, The Elements of Style (about writing), Slaughterhouse-Five -------------------- Some links to inspire your reading (though you may want to checkout the websites first to get an idea of the topics they cover) http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books…

Here's another idea: Since your friend is coming out in 9 months anyway and there's so much risk involved in trying to sneak in a programming book, he should probably spend his time developing another equally useful skill: writing well. As many other successful programmers have noted (Spolsky, Yegge) and demonstrated, effective communication, especially through writing, is a very useful and necessary skill for a programmer. So, maybe you should send him just some good books on writing well. In general books, I can think of Strunk and White, On Writing (by Stephen King). But some examples of good writing about programming could also help: The Best Software Writing (edited by Spolsky) Joel on Software (the best articles from his blog) Steve Yegge's blog posts (others might disagree but I think he is an excellent writer). Paul Graham's essays raganwald's old blog - http://weblog.raganwald.com/ James Hague's blog - http://prog21.dadgum.com/ Rands in Repose - http://randsinrepose.com/

Elements of Style is full of little nuggets of good writing. Start a blog/journal to continuously practice the techniques in the book

Elements of Style, is well written and thoughtful, but it should not be taken as an prescriptive authority - as it commonly is - on grammatical minutiae. Or in other words Strunk & White, a.k.a Drunken Shite (only when discussing grammar rules!!).

'Elements of Style', Strunk & White. It has changed my life. For the last two years I have endeavoured to simplify my thoughts/ideas, so they can be communicated precisely. It's hard, painful work. That aim has recoloured my being: music; literature; art. Philip Glass. Hemingway. Mondrian. I am not the same person.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It is arguably the most useful book I've ever read, albeit with the most embarassing title. As inklesspen mentioned, Elements of Style is a must. Code Complete and the Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks. Timeless coding wisdom. For a laugh, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, or Hitchhiker's Guide. Body Language, Julius Fast. Kitschy but fascinating insights into body language. Fabric of the Cosmos, Brian Greene. Brian is a fluke of nature--a physicist who can explain things realy well! Anything by Phillip K. Dick. Sci-fi stories that make you think.

In fiction: Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart. Easily some of the best storytelling I've ever read. 1/3 comedy, 2/3 adventure, in an ancient China that never was. http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0345321383/ Homer's epics. I prefer the translation by W.H.D. Rouse, which you can find at http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0451527372/ and http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0451527364/ Heading even further back in time, I love this rendition of Gilgamesh: http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0618275649/ Even in 2000 BCE they thought the world was ancient. Lady of Mazes by Karl Schroeder has one of the best treatments of post-singularity life (and what makes life in general worth living) that I've ever read: http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0765350785/ Nonfiction: The Mythical Man-Month. A little dated (it's directed at mainframe developers and their managers) but still relevant. The Elements of Style (Strunk and White). Learn to write clearly -- it's valuable no matter what you do. Programming Erlang: Software for a Concurrent World. Easily the best programming text I've read in the last year, and it's sold me on Erlang.