Comparing S&W with Williams

William’s book is comparable to Strunk and White in that it covers many of the same concepts. The difference lies in their presentation. Strunk and White offer rules, while Williams offers principles. Williams goes into much more depth and uses many more examples whereas ‘Elements of Style’ is very cut and dry. In my previous blog assignment I discussed Strunk and White’s rule about the active voice. Strunk and White say to always use the active voice and never the passive voice while Williams says you can use the passive voice; you just have to know when it will work. Williams only briefly touches on the ‘However’ rule, but I think he feels the same way. Using ‘however’ too much can be redundant. Strunk and White suggest “nevertheless” and I feel this is a good alternative. The “omit needless words” rule is explained much more clearly in Williams’ book. Williams explains what/when/where words can be omitted and why you should consider omitting them. Strunk and White simply tell their readers to omit them.
I think the advice offered by Williams is much more useful but, at the same time, much more difficult to comprehend. Strunk and White is nice because of its quaintness and direct nature but doesn’t go into much detail as to why the rules are the way they are. Therefore, Strunk and White’s advice is useful but not as effective as Williams whose advice is both useful and effective in its application.