Source identified
“As to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.”
Voice: Epigraph / fictional source voice · Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar
The mock rule is comic in its bluntness but also functions as concise writing advice: unnecessary modifiers can weaken direct expression when the writer is unsure they earn their place.
Source note: Pudd’nhead Wilson, Chapter XI epigraph; the sentence follows the three-part author compliment in the Calendar sequence.
Source identified
“Must get the scraper removed, or else I shall get into a scrape. I don’t often make jokes.”
Voice: Fictional narrator · Charles Pooter
The deliberately weak pun is followed by Pooter’s proud announcement that he rarely jokes, making his satisfaction with the line more comic than the wordplay itself.
Source note: The Diary of a Nobody, April 4 entry; Pooter comments after Gowing trips over the troublesome doorstep scraper.
Source identified
“I have drifted along hopelessly for a hundred pages of manuscript without knowing where to commence.”
Twain makes comic use of the writer’s structural problem: abundant material can still leave a narrator unsure where a supposedly orderly account should begin.
Source note: The Innocents Abroad, Rome section immediately before Twain jokes that the surest way to stop writing about Rome is simply to stop.
Source identified
“Omit needless words.”
Conciseness is treated as removal of words that do no useful work, not as a demand that every sentence be short or stripped of necessary detail.
Source note: The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 13, Project Gutenberg #37134; the surrounding paragraph explicitly says detail need not be eliminated.
Source identified
“Use the active voice.”
The rule favors direct sentence construction when it makes agency clearer, while the surrounding discussion still allows passive voice when context requires it.
Source note: The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 10, Project Gutenberg #37134; Strunk immediately qualifies the rule by noting legitimate uses of passive construction.
Source identified
“Vigorous writing is concise.”
Strunk links force with economy: prose becomes stronger when each word contributes to the sentence rather than merely increasing its length.
Source note: The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 13, Project Gutenberg #37134; this sentence introduces the explanation of “Omit needless words.”