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Overview
From one of America's most beloved and bestselling authors, a wonderfully useful and readable guide to the problems of the English language most commonly encountered by editors and writers.What is the difference between “immanent” and “imminent”? What is the singular form of graffiti? What is the difference between “acute” and “chronic”? What is the former name of “Moldova”? What is the difference between a cardinal number and an ordinal number? One of the English language's most skilled writers answers these and many other questions and guides us all toward precise, mistake-free usage. Covering spelling, capitalization, plurals, hyphens, abbreviations, and foreign names and phrases, Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors will be an indispensable companion for all who care enough about our language not to maul, misuse, or contort it.
This dictionary is an essential guide to the wonderfully disordered thing that is the English language. As Bill Bryson notes, it will provide you with “the answers to all those points of written usage that you kind of know or ought to know but can’t quite remember.”
Synopsis
From one of America's most beloved and bestselling authors, a wonderfully useful and readable guide to the problems of the English language most commonly encountered by editors and writers.
What is the difference between “immanent” and “imminent”? What is the singular form of graffiti? What is the difference between “acute” and “chronic”? What is the former name of “Moldova”? What is the difference between a cardinal number and an ordinal number? One of the English language's most skilled writers answers these and many other questions and guides us all toward precise, mistake-free usage. Covering spelling, capitalization, plurals, hyphens, abbreviations, and foreign names and phrases, Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors will be an indispensable companion for all who care enough about our language not to maul, misuse, or contort it.
This dictionary is an essential guide to the wonderfully disordered thing that is the English language. As Bill Bryson notes, it will provide you with “the answers to all those points of written usage that you kind of know or ought to know but can’t quite remember.”
The Barnes & Noble Review
I can never remember the definition of chimera. No matter how times I've looked it up, I always forget its origin and meaning: "A wild or fanciful creation, taken from Chimera (sometimes Chimaera), a mythological beast with the head of a lion, body of a goat and tail of a serpent." Apparently Bill Bryson, author of A Walk in the Woods and A Short History of Nearly Everything, shares this etymological blind spot, because chimera is among the personal entries in Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors, "a personal collection, built up over thirty years as a writer and editor in two countries" and "intended as a quick, concise guide to the problems of English spelling and usage." First published in England by Penguin in the 1980s, Bryson's 398-page compilation has been updated and re-released, and includes definitions, guides to punctuation and grammar, and helpful conversion tables (Celsius to Fahrenheit; kilometers to miles). In short, it's equal parts The Elements of Style, Associated Press Stylebook, Webster's New World Dictionary, and general desktop encyclopedia. "[I]nevitably -- inescapably -- it reflects my own interests, experiences and blind spots," he says in the preface. Knowing that, you might be tempted to ask, "Then who needs this dictionary besides Bryson?" If you're satisfied with your collection of reference books, perhaps this addition is unnecessary. The book, after all, doesn't claim to be a definitive reference book. Then again, does such a thing exist? And what would you call such a wild, fanciful creation? --Cameron Martin
Editorials
Library Journal
The publisher information indicates that this dictionary for writers and editors is a companion volume to Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words(Broadway, 2004). In his preface, though, bestselling creative nonfiction author Bryson (A Walk in the Woods) refers to his book as an updated and new edition, implying that he has dropped the "troublesome" and gotten down to business. However you bill it, it features enough new, relevant material and allows for quick checks on a wide variety of matters: dates for political figures' terms in office, when to use lie and lay, how to make first and subsequent references for tricky names and titles, when to capitalize stilton, etc. A concise appendix puts forth lucid punctuation guidelines, and also included are lists of commonly misspelled words, temperatureconversion tables, and units of currency. While some British guidelines and spellings are noted, this is a primarily Americanized guide. BOTTOM LINE Readers can find similar information online, but Bryson's is a complete and idiosyncratic style guide for writers, journalists, and students. What sets it apart from something like an AP handbook is Bryson himself, who can give even a straightforward reference work some personality; this is a style guide with style. It will be a wellthumbed reference on any writer's desk and an indispensable volume on any library shelf. [Ebk. ISBN 9780767929110]
—Audrey Snowden