What Are Others Saying?

Forcing me to read two books that I probably wouldn't have chosen to on my own, then asking me which one is more effective is probably not the best way to figure out which is best. Not saying you (prof. Krause) indeed forced me to read them, nor was that what you were even after but... I was thinking to myself on my way from class after a discussion... "I suppose since they're about the same thing it makes sense to compare them but... why?" or something of the sort. One of my classmates must have been channeling me that day 'cause in a blog they wrote:

"The question as to which book is more effective, to me, seems to be the wrong question. I think that the books swim in different waters."

I agree totally and I especially liked the analogy. Clearly they're targeted at different audiences so to say one is more effective than the other, generally speaking, wouldn't be doing the other justice. That being said, as a college student, I definitely fall into SOME audience. Whether it is an audience targeted by S&W or Williams... well, that's a good question. In the same blog, my fellow classmate also wrote:

"I think what I got from Williams will be helpful, but I don't see myself going back to it again and again. It is very dense and it was difficult to get through. For me, the primary function of Strunk & White is as a reference, or a reminder of things easily forgotten; Williams deals with the most basic level of style--clarity, cohesion, empahsis, coherence--for me, these are things that become internalized to a large extent. I think the information in Williams needs to be digested and absorbed; it doesn't make sense to me as a reference book."

Once again, right on. I'm not going to say I particularly liked one more than the other but in the event I ever needed to reference one of these reference books, it would most likely be S&W (unless I couldn't find it, it's much smaller and less yellow). In some aspects, I think I fall into the audience for both books. But seeing as how college students usually take the path of least resistance, you don't have to do much looking around in S&W, whereas Williams is a little bit more narrative and what your looking for may be hidden in the middle of a paragraph. Looks like Strunk & White come out victorious in the epic battle of more effective style book for a college senior who thinks his writing style is perfect no matter what they say (jk).