The Elements of Style

I need the Elements of Style by William Stunk Jr. and E.B. White.

It's available for free online or in paperback. The Washington Post has a nice write up from earlier this month; it's a must read for everyone.

"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."

Chapter 3 part 13, The Elements of Style.

"...every word tell" resonated with me. No surprise, they taught Elements of Style in freshman studies way back when.