IreneMy three favourite grammar and style texts
August 5th 2008 03:36
I have quite a few books on writing and grammar, but these are the ones I call my favourites.
The Chicago Manual of Style
The University of Chicago Press has published the "Chicago" or" CMS" since 1906, and the style guide is currently in its 15th edition. I use this frequently for work, and often as reference for personal writing too. The CMS is ideal for professional writers, proofreaders, editors, and others who work with documentation. At over 800 pages, it's a hefty tome, but tyou can also register for the online version.
The CMS covers aspects of publishing and documentation from copyright law to typographic concerns, and contains useful sections on grammar and usage as well. But the real meat of the book pertains to scholarly writing; thus, it devotes chapters to topics such as how to use esoteric terms, e.g., mathematics, technology, foreign languages, and quotations; providing citations; using names of places, political offices, and other organizations correctly; how to use elements such as tables, graphs, illustrations, and other elements in a written document; and considerations for electronic media. In other words, the CMS is a mighty and comprehensive resource.
Despite its origins in academia, the CMS is useful for writers and communicators in practically any field. I checked my copy (which was sitting on my desk at work--I'm a technical writer) and noted that while most of the book is well thumbed-through, the chapters that I last marked with sticky notes are Grammar and Usage, Punctuation, Numbers, and Abbreviations.
The Elements of Style - William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White
William Strunk was an editor and academic at Cornell University, and E. B. White (best known today for his classics Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan) his student. Strunk published his Elements of Style privately for many years until his death in the 1940s. Afterward, White updated and revised the book, and it became known as the "Strunk & White".
Because of its background, the Strunk & White is aimed primarily at college/university students, and thus provides standards more appropriate for academic and professional (non-creative) writing than, say, an epic poem in iambic pentameter. Like the CMS, however, its usefulness is not limited to its original readership. The Strunk & White is a slight book, but dense for its size; it contains elementary rules for composition, but as the title suggests, maintaining a good style is at its core.
Style, according to Strunk & White, is not purple prose or writing that proclaims, "Look, I'm writing! Wheee!" A good style is clear, succinct, and correct. Some of the rules and reminders for style might seem obvious, but how often does one actually adhere to them? Take the following reminders (from the final chapter in the book, "An Approach to Style"):
"Write in a way that comes naturally."
In other words, write in your own voice, without imitating another's.
"Write with nouns and verbs."
In school, the parts of a sentence you learn about first are nouns and verbs, not adjectives and adverbs. The rigor of writing comes from its nouns and verbs, not their modifiers.
"Prefer the standard to the offbeat."
That is, don't (over)use jargon, slang, or other catchphrases with a limited shelf-life.
Strunk & White is so enduring that there's even an Illustrated Elements of Style (illustrated by Maira Kalman), as well as a song cycle by avant-garde composer Nico Muhly. Here's an NPR story, with audio samples.
The Deluxe Transitive Vampire - Karen Elizabeth Gordon
Gordon is a pop grammarian, which means that her books (she also wrote The Well-Tempered Sentence and The Disheveled Dictionary) are aimed largely at the language lover rather than the writing professional (not that the two are mutually exclusive!). Strunk & White and the CMS are prescriptive texts--meaning that they codify and enforce rules for grammar and usage. But I find that Deluxe Transitive Vampire (subtitled The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed) is best treated as grammatical dim sum: I don't always want to partake of it, but I know it's delicious, and it's best consumed by the morsel.
Gordon uses mock gothic examples, as well as art, to illustrate grammar rules. Vampires, gargoyles, werewolves, bats, and other nefarious creatures populate the pages of this book. The effect is rather like a schoolmarm by way of Edward Gorey, with a hint of Ann Radcliffe. Here are some of Gordon's examples of past tense:
"She moped in the bedroom. I moped in my boudoir.
I moped for five days straight without touching my gruel.
She fumbled with her string of pearls."
Some might question the point of writing a grammar book in this fashion. Well, Gordon wants to make grammar interesting--entertaining, even. In my eyes, that's a noble endeavour.
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