- 01Title page and publication details
The Elements of Style
by William Strunk Jr. · 1918 · 10 chapters · 24/7 tutor
Compact guide to clear academic prose.
10Chapters
29Lessons
55Topics
Certificate of completion included
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
Skills this course leaves you with.
- Apply core punctuation rules for clear prose
- Revise sentences to remove needless words
- Use active voice and concrete language effectively
- Organize paragraphs with topic sentences and emphasis
- Identify commonly misused words and correct them
- Improve academic writing clarity and concision
Curriculum
The full table of contents.
Every chapter, every lesson, every topic — laid out before you enroll. Click any chapter to expand it.
- Chapters
- 10
- Lessons
- 29
- Topics
- 55
- 01Copyright notices
- 01Contents of the lesson
- 01Purpose and scope of the book
- 02References, acknowledgments, and advice on style
- 01Serial comma in three-term series
- 02Possessive singular nouns with 's
- 03Parenthetic expressions set off by commas
- 01Comma before a conjunction introducing a co-ordinate clause
- 01Do not join independent clauses by a comma
- 01Do not break sentences in two
- 01Paragraph as the unit of composition
- 01Paragraphs and dialogue as units
- 02Topic sentence at the beginning and end
- 03Ways to develop a paragraph
- 01Use the active voice
- 01Put statements in positive form
- 01Definite, specific, concrete language
- 01Concise writing and needless words
- 01Avoiding monotonous loose sentences
- 02Parallel construction for co-ordinate ideas
- 03Keeping related words together
- 04Using one tense in summaries
- 01Placing emphatic words at the end of a sentence
- 01Headings and numerals
- 02Parentheses and quotations
- 03Scholarly references and syllabication
- 04Titles of literary works
- 01All right
- 02As good or better than
- 03As to whether
- 04Bid
- 05But
- 01Misused words and expressions beginning with C
- 01Folk as a collective noun
- 02Misused words: effect, etc., fact, factor, feature, fix, get
- 01Misused relative clauses and filler expressions
- 02However and interesting
- 03Kind of, less, like, and line
- 01Literal and literally
- 02Lose out and related verb forms
- 03Most, nature, and near by
- 04Oftentimes, one hundred and one, and one of the most
- 01Possessive with verbal nouns
- 02People, phase, possess, prove, respective
- 01Shall and will in future tense
- 01Use of very for emphasis
- 02While as connective and concessive
- 03Whom, worth while, and would
- 01Spelling conventions and accepted variants
- 02Words often misspelled
- 03Doubling consonants and hyphenation rules
- 01Punctuating historical and literary passages
- 01Faults in sentences 9–25
- 01Transcriber's corrections list
01How many chapters are in the Elements of Style course?
The Elements of Style course has 10 chapters, each with its own lessons and topics.
02How many lessons are in the Elements of Style course?
There are 29 lessons across the course, and you can ask your 24/7 tutor about any of them.
03Can I see what the Elements of Style course covers before I start?
Yes. The full curriculum is listed on this page, beginning with "ELEMENTS OF STYLE · WILLIAM STRUNK, J R . PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH · CORNELL UNIVERSITY NEW YORK".
04Do I get a certificate for the Elements of Style course?
Yes. Finishing the course earns a personal Cavua certificate of completion.
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