GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION GUIDES SURVEY
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Publishing
SIG
GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION GUIDES SURVEY |
Following are the responses from Publishing SIG and Writing SIG member to a question Martha Filipic posed in October 2003 regarding grammar and punctuation guides.
Hi ACE Editors and Writers,
Early last week, I asked for your favorite grammar and punctuation guides. The response was overwhelming!
Here are your responses, for the good of the group(s). Plus, here's one I recently discovered (it will be on my Christmas list):
Gramatically Correct: The Writer's Essential Guide to Punctuation, Spelling, Style and Usage, by Anne Stilman, Writer's Digest Books, 1997.
Thanks for all of your input! Happy reading....
Martha
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From: Meg Ashman
I have found (for myself and for others) the following to be very useful: "The Gregg Reference Manual" (9th edition) by William A. Sabin, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2003.
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From: Jane Honeycutt
I love the Elements of Style by Strunk and White and American Usage and Style: The Consensus by Roy Copperud. All of Edwin Newman's books are great, too.
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From: Micki Nelson
'the little brown handbook' is great :)
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From: Dale Evans
I like Line by Line, How to Improve Your Own Writing by Claire Kehrwald Cook, Modern Language Assoc., 1985, published by Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.
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From: Laura Hoelscher
I don't know that I could legitimately call this site a favorite because it contains short "Grammar Articles" I've written for Ag Comm's electronic newsletter on communications, "On Target." But check it out, and see if you think it's worth citing: http://www.agcom.purdue.edu/AgCom/library/traps.html
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From: Mary Ann Reese
My favorite books on punctuation/grammar are:
1) The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition, by William Strunk Jr., and E.B. White. The book is small and concise, examples (way TO do it and way NOT TO do it) are excellent. I also use this to tutor foreign students or US students in prep for their college English exams.
2) The Associated Press Style Guide
3) Chicago Manual of Style.
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From: Tom Knecht
A reference that's hard to beat, especially in the field of print publishing (not journalism), is the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), published by the University of Chicago Press. It is very complete and well indexed. Some people don't like it because it sometimes gives more than one answer to a given question, but that's because in many cases there are no "right" answers to questions of mechanics and styles. The sciences do things one way, the humanities do them another, and the CMS tries to present the alternatives and let the reader choose. The CMS is available in most larger bookstores that have a reference section.
For grammar and construction, Hodge's Harbrace Handbook (apparently a new incarnation of the Harbrace College Handbook of yore) is also complete, authoritative, and very well indexed. It's published by Hartcourt College Publishers.
For word usage, a very valuable resource is The Careful Wirter, by Theodore M. Bernstein, published by Atheneum in New York. Last time I checked I could not find this book in print, but I didn't look very hard. Libraries often have copies, and it is a wonderful guide, answering questions of usage in everyday, sensible terms -- questions like when to use "that" and "which," how not to use the word "hopefully," and why you should say "different from" rather than "different than."
And then, of course, indispensable for people who write for the news media and some of the less formal magazines, is the Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, from Perseus Publishing.
Finally, this thought.
A 39-year veteran of the publishing business, Adrian Janes (whom I succeeded as head of the Office of Publications at the University of Illinois) once observed to me that after all those years of editing he had come to the conclusion that there were very few hard and fast rules, beyond some very basic ones, like subjects and verbs ought to agree in number. The rest was mostly a matter of opinion.
His comment has led me to take a softer line on such things as rules about commas and capitalization, which vary with the publisher. Instead of slavish adherence to one set of rules or another (which are sometimes conflicting), I opted for clarity (so the reader can get the point), logic (so the reader doesn't become confused), and consistency (so the reader doesn't think the author or editor is careless or stupid).
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From: Kathy Reiser
I can’t offer much in terms of exciting new resources on punctuation and grammar . . . but if you haven’t yet checked out http://www.visualthesaurus.com/desktop/index.jsp, it is well worth a look!
I really can’t describe Visual Thesaurus, other than to say that it’s a word book for people who are more comfortable with pictures (and spatial relationships) than with words.
That said, Visual Thesaurus is also a treat for those of us who delight in studying shades of meaning and the relationships among words.
If you want to take the program for a test drive, click on ONLINE EDITION at the top of the page . . . and then in the upper left corner of the screen, type in a word. (For example, if you type the word TOP, you will see all of the nouns and verbs that are synonyms for TOP . . . and then you can click on any of those to further refine the search.)
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From: Laura Probyn
My colleague Francie Todd and I have given programs like this to staff members and other groups on several occasions. We have a hard copy that is three pages long that lists a number of references, from online writing labs to books to dictionaries and the like. Would you like me to fax it to you?
Also, here are the four main references that we give folks:
- The Elements of Style, William Strunk & E.B. White
- On Writing Well, William Zinsser
- Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, Norm Goldstein,
editor
- Guide to Grammar and Writing, Hosted by Capital Community College,
Hartford Connecticut
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From: Mary Brashier
AP Stylebook, USUALLY. Except I always use the Harvard comma (red, white, and blue) (unless I'm editing a journal article for a periodical that doesn't). And it pains me to cap Web and Internet, but AP says do it so I do.
Gregg Reference Manual, 9th ed is out now, William A. Sabin. McGraw-Hill. It may be a secretary's reference but I've come to like it very much.
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From: Andrea Dailey
Did you see the CASE Currents article "Shelving the Books" in the October 01 issue? It lists some online resources (you probably already know about them) -- refdesk.com ... yourdictionary.com ... the Grammar Slammer at englishplus.com/grammar ... bartleby.com -->reference -->Strunk, William Jr. (the last for The Elements of Style). I can usually make do with the Chicago Manual, but that's probably quite a lot for a "lay" person to work with.
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From: Gloria Holcombe
I like When Words Collide, A Media Writer's Guide to Grammar and Style by Lauren Kessler and Duncan McDonald from the University of Oregon.
It has clear explanations of word choices like initiate/instigate. Some clients think they know more than the editor, so it's nice to pull out this book and clearly show them why you changed their copy.
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From: Andy Duncan
Pretty sure you have these favorites:
The Elemenets of Style, William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White, the MacMillan Company, New York, 1959
The Word (an Associated Press Guide to Good News Writing), Rene J. Cappon, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020, 1982
The Chicago Manual of Style
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From: Pamela Kan-rice
I love Lapsing into a Comma. I can't remember who wrote it, but it's entertaining reading. Most of all, I like it because he generally comes to the same conclusions on style that I have.
Okay, these days there's no excuse for not knowing an author. Here's the info from Amazon.
Lapsing Into a Comma : A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--and How to Avoid Them by Bill Walsh (Paperback) List price $14.95
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From: Jack Sperback
A few I have bookmarked... The first is Columbia Journalism Review...not so much punct & grammar; more big picture stuff.: http://www.cjr.org/tools/
A good local resource is http://www.wilbers.com/index.htm
Our U of M style manual has sections on punctuation & language: http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/style/home.html
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From: John Wallize
I don't have any references, but you're welcome to use a little stunt
I used to use to illustrate the
importance of punctuation. I'd write on the board the following:
The student said the instructor is an idiot.
Then I insert commas:
The student, said the instructor, is an idiot.
A little difference!
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From: Pat Petzel (forwarded from Lynn Snyder, associate editor of Buckeye
Farm News/Our Ohio)
One that I like is called Copy Editor, it's a newsletter and subscribers can also access a Web site: www.copyeditor.com
Not sure if the Web site is open to nonsubscribers or not.
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From: Susie Bullock
I have two great ones that actually came with my writing text. The other I found on my own. They are both Web-based with lots of good quizzes following the lecture/readings. I definitely am interested in the compiled list.
I'd love to get some of your resources, if you have any, emphasizing the importance of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and writing skills, in general. Here you go:
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From: Glenda Freeman
Some of my favorites:
Books:
The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition
The Rhinehart Handbook for Writers
The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers
Merriam Webster’s English Usage Dictionary
The Handbook of Good English (Edward D Johnson)
A Writer’s Reference (Diana Hacker)
Words Into Type
Web Sites:
Merriam-Webster Online: http://www.m-w.com/
Also Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online (subscription only): http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/
Easily Confused Words: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0200807.html
U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/stylemanual/browse.html
Grammar Resources from U.C. Berkeley: http://slc.berkeley.edu/nns/l2writing/gramstyle/grammar.htm
Columbia Journalism Review Language Corner: http://www.cjr.org/tools/lc/
A little of everything: http://www.libraryspot.com/
From The Editorial Eye: http://www.eeicommunications.com/eye/
Richard Lederer’s Verbivore: http://pw1.netcom.com/~rlederer/index.htm
The Slot for Copyeditors: http://www.theslot.com/
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From Linda Kiesel
My favorite is the "American Heritage® Book of English Usage: A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English" published by the Houghton Mifflin Company (1996), which I access through <http://www.bartleby.com/64/>. (Bartleby.com is the online publisher.) It takes some effort to use, but I find it’s worth it for the tone and the extended discussion.
You might check out the entry on that/which at <http://www.bartleby.com/64/pages/page39.html> to see whether it works for you.
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