on style

Once again I'm trying to allay my guilt of never having read through "The Elements of Style," widely regarded as a masterpiece on grammar. I know I will enjoy it and be glad I did it. I just never manage to finish.

It's clear E.B. White would have been a kindred spirit. Here he's talking about Strunk, his professor, who started the book.

"He despised the expression 'student body,' which he termed gruesome, and made a special trip downtown to the alumni news office one day to protest the expression and suggest that 'studentry' be substituted -- a coinage of his own, which he felt was similar to 'citizenry.' I am told that the news editor was so charmed by the visit, if not by the word, that he ordered the student body buried, never to rise again."

However, it will also be interesting to compare the book with AP style. Just within the first few pages I've found a contradiction.

Strunk insists: "Form the possessive singular of nouns by assing 's. Follow this rule whatever the final consonant."

AP disagrees. (1998 version here.)

(Singular common nouns ending in s) "Add 's unless the next word begins with s."
(Singular proper names ending in s) "Use only an apostrophe."

On a completely different note, this past week I took up tracing my co-workers' genealogies. They give me the names of their grandparents or great-grandparents born before 1930, and I see what I can find in the U.S. It's much fun! I am now taking more volunteers, as I've run out of willing co-workers. Just e-mail me. It's good practice if I decide to do freelance genealogizing one day.