Strunk and White
Strunk and White
[Hairbun, with glasses, sits behind a desk typing on a computer. A line goes from the keyboard indicating that the text above is the one she types. Behind her stand Cueball with a book in his hand, and a man with male-pattern baldness holding up a smoking pipe.]
Dear Internet, We, the current editors of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style , must—with great reluctance— clarify a point of orthography:
"Strunk & White" should be used for the style manual and "Strunk/White" for the erotic fan fiction pairing.
E.B. White is mentioned again in the later comics, 2162: Literary Opinions and 1087: Cirith Ungol .

The 1918 writing style guide The Elements of Style , by Cornell University professor William Strunk Jr. and New Yorker writer E.B. White (perhaps better known as the author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little ), is commonly referred to as " Strunk & White ". In this comic, the current editors of Strunk & White are clarifying a matter of style pertaining to the style guide, an instance of meta humor , a recurring theme in xkcd .
Erotic fan fiction is a genre of writing in which fans make up erotic stories involving characters from non-erotic stories. " Slash fiction " is a subgenre that pairs characters of the same sex: These pairings are denoted by using the "/" to separate the paired characters, hence the name "slash fiction". This convention is generally thought to originate with the Kirk/Spock pairing in Star Trek fan fiction, wherein "K/S" was used for such romantic or erotic works of fan fiction, while "K&S" was used for non-romantic works. This comic imagines a similar distinction being necessary for " Strunk & White " vs. "Strunk/White".
The title text comments that authors of Strunk/White fan fiction will most likely have read The Elements of Style , which makes them better writers.
[Hairbun, with glasses, sits behind a desk typing on a computer. A line goes from the keyboard indicating that the text above is the one she types. Behind her stand Cueball with a book in his hand, and a man with male-pattern baldness holding up a smoking pipe.]
Dear Internet, We, the current editors of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style , must—with great reluctance— clarify a point of orthography:
"Strunk & White" should be used for the style manual and "Strunk/White" for the erotic fan fiction pairing.
E.B. White is mentioned again in the later comics, 2162: Literary Opinions and 1087: Cirith Ungol .
