For a writing technology class I was asked to read a couple of style books in order to begin investigating what writing style is. For this project we read Dianna Booher's book E-Writing and Strunk and White's The Elements of style. Reading these two books from cover to cover as one would read an novel gave me a unique perspective on style manuals. Typically these types of books are not read in this fashion, and certainly not for the purposes purposed by this class. These two books are the type that can be found in the reference section of any library or bookstore, and are used for the specific purpose of referencing to a source of knowledge. These books could also be used in other manners that will be discussed latter in this essay.

How we do use these books and why we would or wouldn't want to use these types of reference books is the main objective of this essay. I am in no way insinuating that these two books are inferior to other reference books of the same stature. In fact, by examining these two books, I hope to bring to light how reference books such as these can be misused in general, and how we might want to actually use reference books such as style manuals. I will also be examining how the concept style (in writing) can have various meanings depending on how the person using the word wants to define style.

Before I get too far into the essay I feel that it is important to give some background information on the books that I will be talking about. By explaining the two books, one is able to beginning noticing the different meanings "style" can take on within the aspect on writing. Even if two authors agree what the broad term of style stands for, they will still have differences on how style is developed and how it should be taught.

Dianna Booher is a business consult and her book is written for the business world. Booher has written thirty-seven other books on communication and is known in the fortune 500 world. Booher's book is more than just a writing a grammar book; it is a book written to teach the business enterprise how to formulate a business "style" of writing. For Booher, the first aspect of business is picking the right medium to communicate; this is something that is not even covered in Strunk and White's "style" book. Picking the right medium is something that probably wont be in most style books, but it's something important in Booher's book because she is address an audience that needs to know about this aspect of writing.

Booher addresses her audiences need of design right away in her book E-Writing. On page seven Booher tells the reader that this book is for someone who wants to learn the "culture of writing" in the business world. Booher suggests that her book will help the reader become more productive and then provides a list of things this book will do for the reader. Booher then says that the reader "can translate these outcomes any way you like in your organization" (p7).

After telling the reader how the book is going to help them, Booher begins explaining things she declares needs to be cleaned up in writing. For Booher, people either give too little information or way too much information. Booher's first order of business is to guide writers to giving the correct amount of information. This is the essential part of writing for Booher. Her thoughts on correctness for writing are guided by the powers of the business dollar.

Strunk and White were not guided by the all mighty dollar when they wrote their rules to writing. For these two individuals what you said where didn't matter. Strunk and White were more concerned about how each individual sentence was constructed. While Booher's book highlights the technology age of computers, Strunk and White's book highlights the age of realism. During this time rules were important; and they were most important to these two individuals. While Strunk and White do suggest how a writer should consider the layout of their work, it was not the most important aspect of writing.

For Strunk and White, what matters is grammar. If a writer has grammar in order then everything else will follow. This is Booher's argument for layout. Here is where can begin to understand what these style books are all about, and how they should be used in our own writing process.

Both of these books are considered style guides, and they are both in the reference section of the bookstore. Though the two books are common in their main objective, their way of achieving that objective differs. Both of these books want to teach writers how to write effectively and responsibly so that others are willing to read what they have written. They both agree that the layout of what is written and the grammar are very important issues in writing. Thus, both of these books advise on how to layout your writing and the correct use of grammar. Emphasis is the main contrast between these two books.

Dianna Booher believes that the most important aspect to writing is learning how to layout the message so it can be understood. Strunk and White argue that a message can not be understood unless it is grammatically correct. One could say that it is just a difference in time that sets these two books apart. Strunk and White's book was written in the mid-1900's and Booher's is copyrighted for 2002. We may insist that Booher is more up to modern times, but to say this is to say there aren't those who agree with Strunk and White's emphasis on grammar. To my knowledge we still test for grammar, and English Teachers still pride themselves on the correct usage of grammar.

So far I have been constipating an issue that Booher gives great attention to, and one that Strunk and White view as only minutely important. As I suggest, grammar was important for Strunk and White and is still important in writing today. Because grammar has always been an issue in writing, at least since Strunk and White, this will be a good area for me to focus on for my main objective in this essay. Booher gives just as must detail to grammar as Strunk and White do in their book. This would suggest that both of these authors agree with my statement on the importance of grammar.

In the English world one important aspect of grammar is verb agreement. As we learn to write, we become more conscious of the usage of verbs in our sentences. We are told that verbs must agree with the rest of the sentence. For Strunk and White verb agr4emet is so important that format can not be considered until a writer learns about verb agreement. In their book Strunk and White place this important element of writing in the beginning of heir book entitled Elementary rules of usage. A reader doesn't need to venture to far into Strunk and White's book to learn about the rules of verbs. On page ten there are examples of how one would make verbs agree with the rest of the sentence. There are also examples of how verb agreement is commonly misused.

IN reading Booher's book, verb agreement can not be found in the beginning chapters. For Dianna Booher verb agreement is important, but its not the most important aspect of writing. Booher suggests that a writer must first learn how to layout their ideas for a given audience. After a writer has leaned Booher's MADE format they will be able to concentrate on the formalities of grammar.

Verb agreement is addressed in chapter five of E-Writing under the title Edit for Grammar. This title suggest something different then Elementary Rules of Usage. Editing is something that is done to make a paper better after the thoughts and structure have already been established. Elementary rules of usage suggests that grammar is a part of structure.

It is my suggestion that Booher considers grammar as something that we have all learned and may just need a little help with; while Strunk and White beehives that we don't know grammar well enough to call ourselves writers. Most English Teachers would probably agree with Strunk and White, that we need to learn grammar to become efficient writers. If you are in agreement with Strunk and White you might enjoy his straight forward approach to grammar. Even those who don't exactly agree with Strunk and Whites thoughts on grammar may be inclined to turn to one of these books for guidance in grammar. What I would like to suggest is that these book be used specifically for that reason - as a guide and nothing more.

What is typical of writers is to turn to one of these books as the authority on grammar and not bend on what they have read. As readers we see something listed in one of these books and burn it into our memory banks as a rule forged in stone. The problem with this is that most of the rules are not forged in stone. They may seem to be rules set by some grammar god but in reality the authors of these books translate what they have been taught during their grammar lessons, and in return we use these as our teaching guidelines.

Verb agreement is a good example of how this system works. We all agree that the verb should agree with the rest of the sentence, but how to make this happen is another argument altogether. Depending on your school of thought, there could be several answers to the same grammatical problem. Both of these books have examples of how to make verbs agree with the subject. I would also argue that both of these books have the same amount of merit to their name. In their respective chapters they give examples of how to pluralize a verb and how to determine when a subject is plural. For the most part they agree with each other as one would expect. Where the confusion comes in is where these two authorities don't agree with one another. This noncompliance does happen with the word "none." In E-Writing Booher tells the reader that the word "none" is a plural word and should receive a plural verb. In Strunk and Whites book they tell the reader that the word "none" comes from "not one."

What is interesting in this case is that Booher comes out and says that anyone who believes what Strunk and White believe is plain wrong. My question who is right, or are they both right. I would guess that they are both right depending on the person you talk to about the issue. How can this be so? There is no grammar guru to turn to in cases like this one, and these two books are not grammar gurus though they would like you to think they were.

If you were to ask an English Instructor they might side with Strunk and White because Strunk and White sides on the favor of those in education. Their book is written with the student in mind. They don't want the reader to think there may be another way to look at writing style. For Strunk and White, and others like them, style beginnings with grammar. Without grammar as a the foundation there can be no style of writing. For people in the business world, they may tend to agree with Booher because she would agree with the people of the business world. Her book is not generate for the student. Booher's book is made specifically for business, therefore her answers to questions are going to be ones that can be used in the business world. In short, we tend to believe those whom we see as being within the same playing field or genre as ourselves. Style and how it's developed greatly depends on what that style is intended to do. The example that I gave with the verb agreement is just a small sample of how an issue can be misconstrued. Read which ever guide will help you in becoming the type of writer you want to be, but remember these are only for reference; not for laws to live by.