So, before reading this style manual, it seems that I may have been misusing commas, and probably still are. Commas have always been tricky for me, something that I haven’t always been quite so sure of. This was one of the first things introduced in this book and I think that that is relevant. I think that a lot of people, of all ages, have problems with commas. “Place a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause” (Strunk pg 5). When I first read this I was like, huh? Then I started reading and this is actually some good advice that I didn’t necessarily know before reading this book.
There was a couple of things that I found a little outdated in this book, such as the rule on irregardless, I’ve never even heard this word before, so I’m guessing this was a word that was misused “back in the day”.
“Do not attempt to emphasize simple statements by using a mark of exclamation” (Strunk pg 34) This rule seemed a little strange to me because exclamation points seem to be everywhere today, after Yahoo!, that’s definitely just one word, so it shouldn’t have an exclamation point after it. I believe things have changed though because things are more emotional now and have more emotion to them.
There wasn’t many rules/advice in this book that I didn’t think I could use in my writing. I love reading style manuals to see how I can improve my writing, and the little rules always seem to help the most. Strunk and White was something that I have never read before, but I can see why it has been around for so long and has been used in many different settings. What’s even more is now we are leading into reading “Style” which has caught my attention even more!
HA! Silisa, people are bastardizing “irregardless” every day. That’s one of The Hub’s personal pet peeves. It’s kind of like unthawing something.