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One professor says that Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose “is far and away the best how-to-write book I’ve ever read. It puts Strunk & White and everyone else in the shade.”

A new edition was recently released and includes “a structured course of exercises for learning to write.”

The authors illustrate the difference between “plain style” and “classic style” with the following sentences:

“The truth is pure and simple” is plain style.

“The truth is rarely pure, and never simple” is classic style.

The plain version contains many elements of classic style without being classic; the classic version contains all of the plain version without being plain.

They explain:

The concept of classic style assumes that plain style already exists. The classic version introduces a refinement, a qualification, a meditation on the plain version that makes it classic.

Classic style takes the attitude that it is superior to plain style because classic style presents intelligence as it should be presented: as a sparkling display, not weighed down by grinding earnestness.

The classic writer wants to be distinguished from others because she assumes that truth, though potentially available to all, is not the common property of common people, and that it is not to be perceived or expressed through common means unrefined.

The classic writer sees common sense as only an approximation which, left untested and unrefined, can turn out to be false.

The plain writer wants to be common because she assumes that truth is the common property of common people, directly perceived and expressed through common means. For the plain writer, common sense is truth.

Unlike plain style, classic style is aristocratic, which is not to say artificially restricted, since anyone can become an aristocrat by learning classic style. Anyone who wants to can attain classic style, but classic style views itself as an intellectual achievement, not a natural endowment.

You can read the first chapter of this book online. The book’s website is classicprose.com.

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