Laura Lisbeth’s “Strunk and White Set the Standard” moves to scandalously debunk and dethrone the writing handbook, The Elements of Style. Upon hearing that title uttered, I shuddered. It is a book I have wrestled with over the course of my writing career. I read this essay after Elizabeth Wardle’s which argued that there was no such thing as writing in “general”. So, if there is not writing in “general”, then why is there a book for all “in general” concerning writing?

This was a text my  high school teachers lauded as the end all be all. But, the “be all” of what? Lisbeth dubbed it an “etiquette guide”. Etiquette is a set of rules that inform one how to function in society. OK. So a guide on how one should write to function in society. No. Scratch that. Not society in general, but the prescribed society that is evaluated as “the best”. In other words, “the best way to write in English speaking societies as declared by the upper class white society”. If us as learners, teachers, and creators of writings only adhere to ONE set of rules made by some white dudes about a century ago, then us as learners, teachers and creators of writing are limiting ourselves to ONE form of expression. We are excluding other characters in this narrative.

So, we are excluding others by adhering to this hard and fast set of rules. OK, even knowing that, does following Strunk and White’s advice help us be amazing writers?

Patricia Dunn says a resounding  “no” in her piece “Teaching Grammar Improves Writing”. She points out that even when today’s society works under a “mistaken assumption that all those grammar drills turned those who did them into flawless writers” when in reality every generation has a laundry list of complaints how “kids these days don’t know how to write” (114). The presence of these rules, and the drilling of these rules does not lead to perfect writing. We have placed them on a pedestal, but they do not benefit us as writers. It is a fallacy to believe that by teaching grammar, one is teaching how to write. It is instead a tool to perpetuate oppression.