This 95-year-old advice is worth even more today
As a teacher who helps first-year college students get better acquainted with English, I notice how people use words to convey messages.
Today I spotted this sign in an insurance agency window:
No soliciting permitted at this establishment.
Must be they were trying to fill the sheet of paper the message was printed on. After all, a simple "no soliciting" would have done the trick.
In The Elements of Style, Strunk and White zeroed in on this topic way back in 1918: "Omit needless words," they wrote. It was good advice 95 years ago, but it might be even more important in our message-saturated, short-attention-span age.