The Elements of Style
by William Strunk Jr., E.B. White
1918年首次出版，到今天大部分准则依然适用。Amherst教授Ilan Stavans在《百年孤独》的讲座中提到不用的语言在相同的时间下进化的速率是不一样的，塞万提斯和莎士比亚同属15-16世纪作家，但在当代《堂吉诃德》西语版本比《暴风雨》英文版本更容易阅读。结论是英文的进化速率更快（个人猜测和英语国家吸收整个西方文明有关），然而过去一百年似乎相对停滞。语言永远在演变，是时代文化的映射。但基础语法和习惯用法似乎已经没有太大演绎的空间。
本书强调了Active verb在一句话中所起到的画龙点睛般的作用，在平日写作中少用there be，被动语态（被动语态有特定的使用场景，然而似乎被一部分人当做高大上的存在而被多鼓励使用）。尽可能多积累并使用精确的动词主动成句，这也是我当前的练习目标。
“Many a tame sentence of description or exposition can be made lively and emphatic by substituting a verb in the active voice for some such perfunctory expression as there is, or could be heard.”
- There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground.
Dead leaves covered the ground.
The sound of a guitar somewhere in the house could be heard.
Somewhere in the house a guitar hummed sleepily.The reason that he left college was that his health became impaired.
Failing health compelled him to leave college.