Rules of good writing (2007)

Most writing articles (including this one) are rehashes of Strunk & White. One exception is "Style: Toward Clarity and Grace", which provides a new, higher-level way of understanding writing and how to make it better. I highly recommend that book if you're looking for something more advanced than the standard advice.

Agreed, and rehashing Strunk & White sucks because Strunk & White wasn’t a great guide in the first place. Strunk & White boiled down the advice to aphorisms and you have to kind of understand what good writing is before you read it. The aphorisms don’t make sense if you don’t already understand them.

Meanwhile, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace gives concrete advice, examples, and exercises.

+1 for Style: TCAG

It's one of the few books that approaches the topic in a systematic, structured way. Not a rehash of platitudes like "try and be concise".

I know I need to "omit needless words". What I don't know is which words are "needless". Style answers that with linguistics and cognitive psychology.