The Elephants of Style A Trunkload of Tips on the Big Issues and Gray Areas of Contemporary American English

by Walsh, Bill

• ISBN13: 9780071422680
• ISBN10: 0071422684
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-03-25
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education

Summary

Advice on good writing from everybody's favorite editorial curmudgeon Persnickety, cantankerous, opinionated, entertaining, hilarious, wise...these are a few of the adjectives reviewers used to describe good-writing maven Bill Walsh's previous book,Lapsing Into a Comma. Now, picking up where he left off inLapsing, Walsh addresses the dozen or so biggest issues that every writer or editor must master. He also offers a trunkload of good advice on the many little things that add up to good writing. Featuring all the elements that madeLapsingsuch a fun read, including Walsh's trademark acerbic wit and fascinating digressions on language and its discontents,The Elephants of Styleprovides: Tips on how to tame the "elephants of style"--the most important, frequently confused elements of good writing More of Walsh's popular "Curmudgeon's Stylebook"--includes entries such as Snarky Specificity, Metaphors, Near and Far, Actually is the New Like, and other uses and misuses of language Expert advice for writers and editors on how to work together for best results

Author Biography

Bill Walsh (Washington, DC) is copy chief for the Washington Post Business Desk and the creator of the highly popular website The Slot: A Spot for Copyeditors.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. IX
Introduction: What We Talk About When We Talk About Style	p. XI
Remember That You're Not Using a Typewriter: Style Begins With Form and Format	p. 1
Also, Remember That You're in the United States
Letters of the Law: Common Missteps in Spelling	p. 9
What's Up?: All About Capitalization	p. 17
Everything's Generic
What's in a nAME?
What to Abbrev.? The Short and Shorter of Truncations, Acronyms and Initialisms	p. 43
Initial Reactions and Second Thoughts (IRAST)
Which One Is Right Again? A Quick Review of Problem Pairs (and Trios and ...)	p. 51
Lies Your English Teacher Told You: The Big Myths of English Usage	p. 61
Some Gray Areas: Proceed With Caution	p. 71
Agreed? Making Sure the Parts of Speech Get Along	p. 81
Cover Your S: Possessives and Plurals	p. 93
A Number of Problems: Counting on 100 Percent Correctness	p. 107
The Adventures of Curly and Stitch: The Comma, the Hyphen, the Headaches	p. 125
Flair! Elan! Panache! A Few Potshots About Style-With-a-Capital-S	p. 135
Colors Are Pretty, but How About Just Giving It to Me in Black and White?
What Is, Is: Can't Argue With That
The Spin Wins: Great Moments in Obfuscation
Madam Chairman and That Friggin' Masseuse: Taking Linguistic Evolution Like a "-man"
Writers, Typists, Thieves and Liars: Plagiarism and Its Kin	p. 157
Writing and Rewriting: A Writer-Turned-Editor Writes About Editing and Being Edited	p. 163
From From to To: Everything's Ranging
Snarky Specificity
Literal and Conservative: George Washington Wasn't Really Our Father
The Curmudgeon's Stylebook (Continued): A Web FAQ	p. 177
Bibliography	p. 225
Index	p. 227
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