"Elements of Style" by Strunk and White has a lot of good pointers that every writer can take in order to improve his/her writing. The two rules that the article mentioned, Be clear, and Omit needless words, are great. By following these rules, the reader can see straight through to the writer's point. There will be no chance to misconstrue the writer's words and no need to go back and re-read a sentence or even a whole paragraph.
The reason we write is to get our ideas across to the reader, while at the same time not leaving them with ambiguity, unless of curse it's on purpose. Therefore, the way we write matters. In order for language to be effective, it has to be universal and by following a guide like "Elements of Style", we preserve the basic rules. While there is slang in every language and a growing number of text messages being sent daily, the basic principles of the language are still there. In fact, texting follows the two rules, Be clear and Omit needles words pretty well.
For whatever the reason: short on time, short on space, or just plain lazy; when we text someone, we get straight to the point. It is almost like cavemen talk; meet me at library? or, where you at?. It may not be grammatically correct, but it gets the writer's idea across to the next person and we all understand. Now, I am not saying that we should implement this type of language into our everyday conversation or even into our own writing, but I think that in a way we follow "Elements of Style" everyday without even thinking about it. It shouldn't be to hard then to transfer these rules into our own writing.
It will be interesting to see how the texting craze changes writing won't it? So far, people appear to be able to distinguish when then get straight to the point and when they can't. I wonder, however, if etiquette and a sense of manners will go down the tubes because of texting - takes too much space and time to type in please doesn't it?
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