The Elements of Style

Transcriber's Notes:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation.
BY WILLIAM STRUNK, Jr.
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1918, 1919, BY WILLIAM STRUNK, JR.
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC.
THE MAPLE PRESS YORK PA
The numbers of the sections may be used as references in correcting manuscript.
It is an old observation that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric. When they do so, however, the reader will usually find in the sentence some compensating merit, attained at the cost of the violation. Unless he is certain of doing as well, he will probably do best to follow the rules. After he has learned, by their guidance, to write plain English adequate for everyday uses, let him look, for the secrets of style, to the study of the masters of literature.
Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,
Charles's friend