Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors

by Bill Bryson

Paperback, 2012

Publication

Black Swan (2012)

Original publication date

1991 (original)
2008 (new edition)
2008-05-20 (1st Amer. Ed.)

Collections

Your library, Own, Read

Tags

20th Century & Contemporary American, Books on Books - Reading - Writing, Language(s), Nonfiction, Reference

Genres

Subjects

Authorship
Editing
English language Dictionaries
English language Usage Dictionaries

Description

Language Arts. Reference. Nonfiction. HTML: 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.".… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member subbobmail
Here it is: Bill Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors. A reference work by an entertaining writer. And yes, I read the whole thing. Words fascinate me, and when people misuse or misspell them it annoys me. I do not want to be one of those people. So call me a nerd if you like, but the next
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 time you let fall a phrase like "exact replica" or "at this point in time," I will be laughing on the inside.
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4 more
LibraryThing member MichaelMac
Dictionaries in general are wonderful thieves of time. How often one gets distracted, meandering from word to word, even forgetting the reason for opening the book in the first place. Well, Bryson's Dictionary is different. Yes, it is good for reference, giving the trickier spellings, words which
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 are often confused, British and American uses and so on, but for a writer it can also be read from cover to cover for the sheer enjoyment of discovery. And it has the advantage that it can be put down at any point without losing the plot!
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LibraryThing member amaraduende
This book was so excellent. Bryson includes all variety of useful things, from definitions to the correct spelling of confusing words, to cross-references and connotations that may get a "serious" writer into trouble. Bryson bases some of his entries on opinion, but in most cases, his opinion is
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 itself based on a long and illustrious writing career as well as multiple referenced sources. In only a few cases did I disagree with his logic, and only once did I find an actual mistake Ulysses was not the leader of the Greek army).
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LibraryThing member mlake
A fun reference book for spelling, misused phrases and the like It is perfect for those times when you are not sure if you should use effect or affect - Bryson puts them together and gives the meaning of each.
LibraryThing member SESchend
Very good reference (and breezy read) for some of the more commonly hit grammatical speed bumps.

Language

English

Original language

English

ISBN

9780552773539

Physical description

464 p.; 5 inches

Pages

464

Library's rating

½

Rating

½ (60 ratings; 3.8)

More

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