'Elements of Style' now required reading for St. Joseph school

Associated Press

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- There's no "LOL" -- computer message-speak for "laughing out loud" -- in this book.

"U" is a letter, not a pronoun.

In St. Joseph's public high schools, instructors aren't "JK" -- just kidding -- about the bad writing habits students pick up from instant messaging, telephone text messaging and computer chat rooms. So they have enlisted the help of grammar heavyweights William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White -- or, more properly, of their reference work, "The Elements of Style."

"It's a good thing to read," said Cassie Collins, a junior at Benton High School. "It teaches you how to write a proper sentence, which is really important -- especially right now because I don't want to worry about making mistakes when filling out a college application."

The practice started with Laura Nelson, the school district's communications arts coordinator and a language arts teacher at Central High School.

Two years ago, at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Nelson's professor advised her to read Strunk and White. She passed that advice on to her honors English class last year, requiring students to memorize 20 of the book's 22 rules of writing.

"We were able to have an ongoing conversation about writing all year," Nelson said. "We needed something to get us on the same page, and Strunk and White did it."

That also helped students improve their scores on the English portion of the ACT college entrance exam.

One student saw her score improve from 14 to 21 after studying Strunk and White. Another's score went up from 31 to 35.

"I've taken five ACT practice tests with the kids," Nelson said. "That test is so heavy on the first 20 rules of Strunk and White."

"Strunk and White is one way to incorporate grammar back into instruction," said Rick German, principal at Benton High School.

Information from St. Joseph News-Press