Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" has been read by high school and college students for decades, but in its pages are lessons that are valuable to anyone at any age who writes. Listed below are the rules the book sets out for good composition.

• Choose a Suitable Design and Hold to It. Planning must be a deliberate prelude to writing. Foresee or determine the shape of what is to come and pursue that shape.
  
  
• Make the Paragraph the Unit of Composition. Large blocks of print can look formidable to readers. But breaking them up too much can look like ad print. Moderation and order are the main considerations.
  
  
• Use the Active Voice. It is generally more direct and vigorous than the passive.
  
  
• Put Statements in Positive Form. Avoid tame colorless language. Use the word "not" as a means of denial or in antithesis, not as a means of evasion.
  
  
• Use Definite, Specific, Concrete Language. The surest way to arouse a reader's attention is by being specific. Use words that call pictures to mind.
  
  
• Omit Needless Words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words. A paragraph should contain no unnecessary sentences.
  
  
• Avoid a Succession of Loose Sentences. In particular this means sentences made up of two clauses. The style can become monotonous for the reader.
  
  
• Express Coordinate Ideas in Similar Form. Parallel construction allows readers to more readily recognize likeness of content and function.
  
  
• Keep Related Words Together. The position of words in a sentence in the principle means of shoeing their relationship. Brings words together that are related in thought.
  
  
• In Summaries, Keep One Tense. Don't switch back and forth. Choose one and hold to it.
  
  
• Place the Emphatic Words at the End of the Sentence. The proper place in the sentence for the word or group of words that the writer desires to make most prominent is usually at the end.