The Elements Of Style

For a mere $495, you can have what may well be the most ludicrous program to ever grace the spools of a videocassette. This multi-media package features: 1) a copy of William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White's classic $3.95 paperback The Elements of Style, 2) a bookmark, and 3) a 2-hour videocassette of Charles Osgood, sitting in a chair, reading darn near from cover to cover The Elements of Style. Professor Strunk's "little book" has been a boon to writers since its first appearance in 1919. Why? Because writers tend to get flabby as they age, and this densely compacted volume of terse and pithy grammatical thunderbolts hurled from the Strunkian heights of good sense and literary decorum, has a humbling effect --and results in less turgid prose. Strunk's classic was, is, and always will be a reference volume for writers. (Example: In Chapter IV, "Words and Expressions Commonly Misused", the text states "See allude" for the italicized entry Refer, and "See kind of for Sort of. In the video, Osgood faithfully recites these "see" references--and moves on.) In the video, grammatical examples of right and wrong, which Strunk places side by side in the book, appear on separate screens, completely defeating their intended purpose--unless you happen to have an eidetic memory. Often, the examples are followed by a visual still, so that if Abraham Lincoln appears in the sentence, he appears on the video silent, for a full eleven seconds. One might reasonably ask: who is this video for? Not for writers, who use the book primarily as a quick reference tool. Not for young people who are just starting out on the rocky road of English grammar. If a student doesn't know what a subordinate clause or a participial phrase is, tough toenails. That student will just have to waltz butt on over to a beginning grammar book. Strunk assumes that the reader is already well-versed in the basics -- and doesn't waste time defining terms. "Omit needless words!" says Strunk in characteristic truncated fashion. To that advice, let us add "Omit needless videos!" Of which, this is a prime example. Not recommended. (See CANADA'S SWEETHEART for availability.)