Dreyer’s English: An Totally Appropriate Information to Readability and Fashion by Benjamin Dreyer
I’m no fan of stylebooks basically. A lot of them do extra hurt than good to high quality writing. (Just like the terrible Strunk and White.)
However right here’s an excellent one. It’s filled with good writing recommendation from a seasoned copy editor who has only some chips on his shoulder.
Proper at the start, Dreyer makes it clear that model guidelines exist solely to make your writing higher. To not uphold the sniffy peeves of English academics and grammar fanatics. And, immediately, he dispatched a handful of “nonrules” — that’s, generally enforced guidelines which might be “unhelpful pointlessly constricting, feckless, and ineffective.” He provides us permission to break these nonrules:
- By no means Start a Sentence with “And” or “However.”
- By no means Cut up an Infinitive.
- By no means Finish a Sentence with a Preposition.
- Contractions Aren’t Allowed in Formal Writing.
- The Passive Voice Is to Be Averted.
- Sentence Fragments. They’re Unhealthy.
- A Particular person Should Be a “Who.”
- “None” Is Singular and, Dammit, Solely Singular.
- “Whether or not” Should By no means Be Accompanied by “Or Not.”
- By no means Introduce a Checklist with “Like.”
There’s no telling how a lot writing has been rendered lifeless as a result of somebody believed these nonrules should be adopted. In the event you consider any of them — or in case you have a colleague with a pink pen who believes — cease it proper now!
(I ought to admit right here that I consider in one of many above nonrules. Not telling which. I do know it’s only a peeve of mine, however it should by no means cross my desk. If I encounter it in your writing, I’ll endeavor to go away it alone, assuming the writing is nice in any other case!)
The e-book is definitely worth the value for the above checklist alone, however there’s much more. Primarily well-reasoned ideas on why you may select one phrase, phrase, or punctation over one other. (Together with this gem: Solely godless savages eschew the collection comma.) It’s written in a human, non-sniffy tone that can make you just like the writer, and it’s usually laugh-out-loud humorous. How usually do you discover that in a stylebook?
In the event you’re a author, otherwise you cope with different folks’s writing, get this e-book. It should assist!
Accessible at Amazon: Dreyer’s English: An Totally Appropriate Information to Readability and Fashion.
(This put up first appeared on September 11, 2019.)
