The Elements of Style" is 50 years old, meaning several generations of writers and would-be writers have used it, abused it, ignored it, embraced it, pooh-poohed it, rediscovered it and, alas, forgotten all about it.

Barely 100 pages of writing prescriptions and prohibitions, the seemingly timeless book was written by educator William Strunk Jr. and noted essayist E.B. White. It has sold more than 10 million copies, and many buyers know it simply as "Strunk and White."

The publishing house Pearson Education Inc. has just released the 50th anniversary edition of the book. The blurbs from successful writers and editors take up the first three pages.

Locally and throughout the English-speaking world, the book is both beloved as a reliable primer and discounted as dated and too rigid.

It is used as a guide in several college courses, including by some in the University Writing Program at the University of California, Davis, and a variety of government, journalism and psychology courses at California State University, Sacramento.

"It captures a good deal of both common sense and standard usage that nowadays a lot of the students don't get exposed to," said Larry Meyers, a CSUS psychology professor who uses it in his Psychology 102, a course about advanced research design and data analysis. "It's a classic book."

"Like few other books, it manages to use its own advice in its prose," said Seth Forrest, a lecturer in the University Writing Program at UC Davis. "It's really great for students who are starting out, some of whom will try to be complicated for the sake of trying to sound smart."

In fact, "The Elements of Style" preaches clarity, precision and simplicity. It does not promote fancy writing and big words.

"Rich, ornate prose is hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and sometimes nauseating," the book states in Chapter 5.

"Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute," it advises later in the same chapter.

While most experienced writers and editors agree "The Elements of Style" provides plenty of useful advice, some contend it goes too far in offering clear-cut do's and don'ts.

Published in 1959, the book came about when a publisher asked White to revise and expand upon the work of Strunk, an English professor at Cornell University who had privately published his writing guide for his students.

"White came out at a time when a lot of people were seeking a sense of order. He felt there were rights and wrongs; he was a prescriptivist," said Chicago-based author Arthur Plotnik, whose 2005 "Spunk & Bite" argues for a more lively and appealing style of writing.

"What's lacking is an endorsement of the freedom that White himself enjoyed. He took risks, he used figures of speech, he broke all the rules at one time or another. But he advised others to go very quietly into the stream of English and not to take chances. … This bible is inhibiting. It doesn't allow you to write with the freedom you need today to compete with all the messages that are swamping us."

Asked if he was concerned about criticizing such a publishing mainstay, Plotnik laughed and said: "I approached it gingerly, knowing it is blasphemy for millions of people. Here and there in a blog, I've been attacked as an antichrist."

Marc Bertonasco, a CSUS emeritus professor and co- author of "Prose Style," a popular college writing text, also sees "The Elements of Style" as too restrictive.

"Oh, it had influence on me, no question. It was the pioneer in what is unofficially called the new style – clear, straightforward writing aiming at efficiency. It's a reaction to bureaucratese," he said.

"But I'm a classical rhetorician, and my position is this: No style is better than any other."

William Zinsser, author of "On Writing Well," which has sold 1.3 million copies since 1976, said clear-cut rules are important. He planned his book as an expansion of the ideas laid out by Strunk and White.

"I realized his book was a book of pointers and admonitions – do this and don't do that. What the book did not do was describe how to apply those wonderful principles," said Zinsser, 86, who still teaches and writes near his Manhattan home.

"White's style and my style, though seemingly effortless, is the result of extraordinarily hard effort. All the grammar and syntax is in place. You don't get lost. Everything is clear. It's an attempt to sound like yourself by being available as a person rather than hide behind literary constructions or pomposity."

Proponents or detractors aside, "The Elements of Style" continues to sell – and that's what really matters, says Joseph Opiela, senior vice president and publisher at Pearson.

His first encounter with the book remains a vivid memory.

"In sophomore year in high school, my English teacher held it up in front of the class and said, 'This is the bible for writing.' Those are words I'll never forget," Opiela said.

Call The Bee's Blair Anthony Robertson, (916) 321-1099.