The Elements Of Style - ChokseKU: Home

Afterword
Will Strunk and E. B. White were unique collaborators.
Unlike Gilbert and Sullivan, or Woodward and Bernstein,
they worked separately and decades apart.
We have no way of knowing whether Professor Strunk
took particular notice of Elwyn Brooks White, a student of
his at Cornell University in 1919. Neither teacher nor pupil
could have realized that their names would be linked as they
now are. Nor could they have imagined that thirty-eight
years after they met, White would take this litde gem of a
textbook that Strunk had written for his students, polish it,
expand it, and transform it into a classic.
E. B. White shared Strunk's sympathy for the reader. To
Strunk's do's and don'ts he added passages about the power
of words and the clear expression of thoughts and feelings.
To the nuts and bolts of grammar he added a rhetorical
dimension.
The editors of this edition have followed in White's foot
steps, once again providing fresh examples and moderniz
ing usage where appropriate. The Elements of Style is still
a litde book, small enough and important enough to carry
in your pocket, as I carry mine. It has helped me to write
better. I believe it can do the same for you.
87
Charles Osgood