The Elements of Style, 2025

Reliable news coverage has never been more important than it is now. Journalists must remain vigilant and rigorous in the face of a second Trump Administration. To help them do so, we are releasing an updated version of Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style.” Please refer to the following examples when writing and reporting, for as long as that’s still allowed.

Use the serial comma.
In a series of three or more terms, add a comma after each term except the last. For instance:
He held office from 2017 to 2021, from 2025 to 2029, and then as a reanimated, disembodied head from 2029 to 2061.

Put statements in positive form.
Use the word “not” as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion. This sentence:
He did not think that elections were necessary.

would be better stated as:
He thought that elections were unnecessary.

Link two thoughts with a semicolon.
In other words, use a semicolon to join independent clauses. For example:
He’s not even the real President; the other, even weirder billionaire seems to be in charge.

Use commas to explain or clarify a sentence.
Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas, like this:
The best person to have access to all our money, if we never want to see any of it again, is the world’s biggest hoarder.

Eliminate unnecessarily convoluted clauses.
Note the following report:
One of the reasons he implemented tariffs and deportations was, supposedly, to strengthen the economy. Also, he claims, another reason was to stop crime.

This would be better stated as:
He decided to make the economy worse. Also, he’s a racist!

The difference between “less” and “fewer.”
Incorrect: The Democrats had fewer support than in the last election.

Correct: He won a huge mandate in an absolute landslide with less than half the votes.

“Allusion” versus “illusion.”
Incorrect: His speech was an illusion to a darker time.
Correct: He made an allusion to the claims of his supporters that he’s already made things better, which is an illusion.

“It’s” versus “its.”
Incorrect: Its the people’s house.
Correct: It’s the lobbyists’ house.

Commas and conjunctions.
Use a comma before a conjunction if it’s introducing an independent clause, like so:
Trump’s Cabinet members may be the richest people in the country, but they understand the main priority of average Americans: how to protect their vast, unending wealth.

Proper use of em dashes.
Dashes may be used to set off an interruption, as illustrated here:
His first thought upon returning to the Oval Office—if he had any thought at all—was to move the whole place to Florida.

Omit needless words.
Remember that a sentence should contain no unnecessary words or letters. Something long and meandering like this:
For the next four years, the United States will be an unpredictable, unsteady global superpower run by a fascist oligarchy, in which the people’s representatives cater to a madman’s whim.

can simply be written as:
F— him. ♦