Elements of Style 2017 Richard De A’Morelli Spectrum Ink Publishing “Tomorrow’s Great Authors & Classics Today” Elements of Style 2017 Copyright © 2016 by Spectrum Ink Publishing Published simultaneously in Canada & the United States First Edition: November 1, 2016 All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any means including photocopying, recording, taping or digital reproduction. This content may not be posted on any blog or website without the publisher’s express knowledge and written consent, except for brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher hereby disclaims all such views and statements. ISBN numbers: 978-1-988236-26-1 ~ mobi 978-1-988236-27-8 ~ epub 978-1-988236-28-5 ~ paperback 978-1-988236-31-5 ~ paperback (large print) Spectrum Ink Canada Vancouver, British Columbia Spectrum Ink USA San Luis Obispo, California Online: http://vu.org/books/ What This Book Will Do for You This book presents a comprehensive roundup of grammar, style, and punctuation rules for writers and others who must edit and proofread reports, term papers, and other documents. It is inspired by and loosely based on Strunk’s Elements of Style, a classic published in 1918 and still widely used today. Strunk’s book is brief , and some of the rules he discusses are out-of-date; but a more serious shortcoming is that technology and the rise of self-publishing have brought a deluge of new grammar and style rules writers and editors must learn. Elements of Style 2017 greatly expands on Strunk’s short primer and includes nearly more than 250 pages of up-to-date grammar, style, and punctuation rules for modern writers, with easy-to-follow examples. Concise writing is essential in today’s competitive world. Your manuscripts and other documents must be free of grammar and punctuation errors. But you cannot self-edit your work unless you recognize these errors when you see them. The rules presented in this book will help you to identify these mistakes and will guide you through the creative process of writing, revising, self-editing, and proofreading. This style guide may be useful to a wide range of readers in various settings: ● Writers of all skill levels will discover quick and pain-free ways to recognize and fix grammar, style, and punctuation errors in their manuscripts. ● Students can use these rules to improve the clarity and flow of term papers, book reports, essays, and other homework. ● Teachers can use this book to help students understand grammar, style, and punctuation rules without the tears. ● Employees can follow these style guidelines to produce well-written reports, manuals, brochures, and other materials in the workplace. Good writing offers compelling rewards. If you are an author, a cleanly edited manuscript may bring an acceptance letter from an agent or publisher; or if you self-publish on Amazon, it could bring positive reviews and sales. For students, an impressed instructor could mean an A grade; and in the workplace, an impressed supervisor could mean a pay raise, a promotion, or a successful business venture. Choose any chapter of this book, read and follow the straightforward advice, and you will see an overnight improvement in your writing. Read a chapter a day, and in a few weeks, you will be amazed by the polished quality of your final draft. You can become an awesome writer. Learn how to improve your grammar and style, and take your writing to the next level! About the Author Richard De A'Morelli published his first magazine feature article at age fourteen and signed a multi-book contract with a traditional publisher at eighteen. Since then, he has published 15 nonfiction books on writing and inspirational topics, three novels under pseudonyms, and more than 500 by-lined newspaper and magazine articles. Richard has produced and taught online courses on creative and technical writing, Web design, Javascript programming, and motivational topics at Virtual University. He also taught journalism, writing, and self-help courses in traditional classrooms at Los Angeles Valley College and Learning Tree University in Southern California. Beyond freelance writing, Richard has 30+ years of experience as a professional editor. He was a by-lined editorial staff member to the late bestselling author Irving Wallace, and he has held management-level editorial positions with numerous book and magazine publishers. Richard resides on California’s scenic Central Coast where he freelances full-time as a writer, editor, and software developer. Home http://my.vu.org/writers/richard Facebook http://facebook.com/writer2 Facebook Page.....http://facebook.com/jedi.editor Google+ http://google.com/+RichardDeamorelli Other Spectrum Ink Books by the Author ● You Can Change Your Life ● As a Man Thinks Visit us for details at http://vu.org/books/ Acknowledgements The content in this book is comprised of the author’s original material remixed with updated and revised content drawn from various sources including: The Elements of Style (William Strunk Jr.); Practical Grammar and Composition (Thomas Wood); U.S. Government Printing Style Manual (2008 ed.); Punctuation: A Primer (Frederick W. Hamilton); How to Speak and Write Correctly (Joseph Devlin); Guide to the Marking Assignments (Ian Johnston); and Wikipedia. Cover photo elements are licensed from Adobe Stock Photos. This book makes frequent references to the Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition) and AP Stylebook for writers of American English; and Oxford Style Guide for writers of British English. Examples of stylistic differences are given throughout the book. This volume is not intended as a substitute for any of these comprehensive style guides. It may be used as a learning tool and a quick-reference alternative, but if you are a publisher or editor, you should rely on the latest version of the style guide applicable to your projects. Dedication This book is dedicated to my wife Barbara with love and appreciation for putting up with my quirky personality for the past twenty years. Table of Contents PART I: GRAMMAR & STYLE RULES Chapter 1: Grammar and Style for the 21st Century Chapter 2: Unlock the Magic of Your Words Chapter 3: Choosing Words, Building Sentences Chapter 4: Grammar Rules Have Changed Chapter 5: Action Words and Active Voice Chapter 6: Nouns—People, Places, Things Chapter 7: Getting Personal with Pronouns Chapter 8: Adjectives and Adverbs Chapter 9: Trademarks and Service Marks Chapter 10: Modern Acronyms PART II: PUNCTUATION RULES Chapter 11: A Brief History of Punctuation Chapter 12: Taking Control of Comma Chaos Chapter 13: Making Sense of Semicolons Chapter 14: The Colon—Not Quite a Period Chapter 15: The Power of the Period Chapter 16: Question Marks Chapter 17: Exclamation Points Chapter 18: Dashes and Hyphens Chapter 19: Ellipses Chapter 20: Quotation Marks Chapter 21: Apostrophes and Possessives Chapter 22: Parentheses and Brackets PART III: CAPITALIZATION RULES Chapter 23: Capitalization Made Easy Chapter 24: Titles of Books, Artwork, etc. Conclusion Appendix A: Internet Acronyms More Books by Spectrum Ink PART I GRAMMAR & STYLE RULES - Chapter 1 st Grammar and Style for the 21 Century Y ears ago, when my first magazine article was published shortly after my fourteenth birthday and I set my heart on writing as my life’s goal, there weren't many resources for aspiring writers. Amazon.com was decades off in the future. We purchased paperbacks from the local bookstore, subscribed to Writer’s Digest magazine, and borrowed the paltry handful of books offered by the public library. I owned several dictionaries, a thesaurus, some paperbacks on writing and vocabulary, a high school grammar textbook, and a thin book with a cloth cover and faded pages: The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. It was an indispensable reference that I reached for often when writing and editing my early books and articles. It has been nearly a century since Strunk's book was published. Today, it is a classic, used by many college students, writers, and even some editors as a quick reference. Some of the grammar rules outlined in the book are as true today as they were a century ago. But as the years have passed, one by one, these rules have become outdated. Another shortcoming is that many grammar and style rules which contemporary writers should follow today are missing from his book. Last summer, I set out to update Elements of Style, intending to delete the obsolete rules and add some new ones. As I worked through the project, I thought: “Wait, maybe I should add this...and this...and this.” As the weeks went by, my supposedly quick update exploded into 250 pages packed with updated grammar and style rules. So, while this present volume was inspired by and is loosely based on Prof. Strunk’s grammar book, I have included a wealth of material from other sources, cited in the Acknowledgements, and I mixed in my own original material as well. Most people in this age of technology and instant self-publishing are writers, although many don’t view themselves in that light. Some are aspiring novelists, others are published authors or bloggers; and millions are writers by virtue of the fact that they are called upon to write content for work, school, or leisure activities. Many of these reluctant wordsmiths get a glazed look when English grammar rules come up in discussion. Just the mention of the words “grammar” and “style” confuse some, and few know the difference. Simply put, grammar is concerned with how words are used and put together to form sentences and paragraphs. Style refers to an additional set of rules some writers, and all professional editors, follow to edit and proofread book manuscripts and other documents. A knowledge of grammar is important because it will