Legend has it that
William Strunk Jr. was a
terror in the
classroom. He taught a
composition class at
Cornell University, from which the classic
Elements of Style emerged, and he was fond of tormenting his
students by publicly pointing out the inadequacies of their
writing.
As frightening as he was, his class was very popular, and was held in one of Cornell's largest lecture halls. Whenever Strunk walked into the room, it fell silent -- nobody wanting to stand out and be picked on.
He came in to start his lecture one day, armed with a sheaf of papers, as usual. He strode to the lectern, shuffled his papers around, gazed at his students over his spectacles, cleared his throat.
"Omit needless words," the professor intoned.
He gathered his papers and left.