... formal and the informal, the regular and the offbeat, the general and the special, the orthodox and the heretical, the beginner err on the side of conservatism, on the side of established usage. ... both, and; either, or; neither, nor) join the same kinds of elements. contraction A shortened form of a word or group of words: can't for cannot; they're for they are. correlative ... reader. To Strunk's do's and don'ts he added passages about the power of words and the clear expression of thoughts and feelings. To the nuts and bolts of grammar he added a rhetorical...