Last updated on April 9, 2021
(2021 Update: Holy buckets, this 10-year-old post is getting a second life thanks to the PBS documentary, but the links were dead. I’ve re-upped them for the curious. — Marc)
If so, the Kansas City Star has put online an old version of its style guide, which Ernest Hemingway said were “the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing.”
Here is a short version of the rules, and here is the full version, in .pdf format. Although some of those rules are antiquated, most of those rules are very good. The first one probably had the biggest impact on Hemingway:
“Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.”
(HT: Tate Watkins.)