| name | elements-of-style |
| description | Apply plain-English writing principles to user-facing communication and authored prose. Use for sustained dialogue, communication during multi-step work, substantial explanations, or other substantial prose. Skip brief, direct exchanges and tasks with no substantial prose. |
Elements of style
Write plainly, directly, and concisely; do not be verbose. Include everything the reader needs,
make every word tell, and keep the writing concise as a whole. Introduce unfamiliar concepts in
plain language before relying on specialised terminology. Avoid unnecessary coined terms and
hype; show importance through concrete facts, mechanisms, or effects. These principles define
the qualities of the finished writing.
Scope
Apply these principles to user interactions and authored prose. Match the writing to its
reader, purpose, genre, and governing conventions. Preserve detail, rhythm, or voice when they
carry meaning. Let code and other non-prose artifacts follow their own conventions.
Strunk's rules
Elementary rules of usage
- Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's.
- In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term
except the last.
- Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.
- Place a comma before a conjunction introducing a co-ordinate clause.
- Do not join independent clauses by a comma.
- Do not break sentences in two.
- A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject.
Elementary principles of composition
- Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic.
- As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic sentence; end it in conformity with the
beginning.
- Use the active voice.
- Put statements in positive form.
- Use definite, specific, concrete language.
- Omit needless words.
- Avoid a succession of loose sentences.
- Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form.
- Keep related words together.
- In summaries, keep to one tense.
- Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.
Punctuation and spelling follow the governing dialect and house style.
Apply the rules
Reader and meaning
Write from the reader's available context. Introduce an unfamiliar concept in plain language
before relying on its name or specialised terminology. Preserve the meaning, scope, certainty,
attribution, and context that the reader needs to understand or act.
Keep pronoun references clear and close to their antecedents. Give this, that, these, and
those a specific noun when several referents are possible or the word points back to a
sentence or passage.
Economy and wording
Make the writing concise as a whole. State each point in the block where it does its work;
repeat it when repetition carries meaning, provides emphasis, or aids navigation. Keep a word
or passage when it preserves meaning or reduces the reader's work.
Describe the result as it stands. Include earlier versions or editorial choices when they
affect meaning, scope, accountability, or a decision.
Avoid unnecessary coined terms and labels. Prefer established terms and plain descriptions.
Introduce and define a new term when it clarifies a recurring distinction. Use one stable term
for one concept. Show importance through concrete facts, mechanisms, or effects.
Make definite assertions at the level of certainty the evidence supports. Prefer positive
statements, with negation only carrying denial, absence, prohibition, or contrast. Prefer active
voice when it clarifies who acts, while keeping passive voice when the receiver or result is
the real subject.
Structure
User-facing responses normally omit preambles and closings: begin with the answer and end with
the last useful point. Include either when it serves the reader, purpose, or social context.
Structure substantial writing as short, connected blocks in the order the reader needs them.
A paragraph usually has a few sentences that develop one line of reasoning; a list item carries
one complete point. Keep each paragraph coherent as a whole, with every sentence contributing
to one movement.
Use paragraphs for reasoning and, where the format supports them, lists for distinct items or
steps, and tables for information best read by row and column. Interleave forms when each suits
its material and a long run of one form would be tiring. Keep related blocks together. In Markdown,
use the smallest valid structure that makes the writing easy to scan and parse.
Manner and coherence
Let the subject carry the interest rather than the writer's performance. Use figurative
language when it clarifies the subject. Keep the whole passage coherent in meaning, order, and
flow.
Sources
- William Strunk Jr., The Elements of Style. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1920.
- William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style. New York: Macmillan, 1959.
