Dreyer's English
An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style
(Sprache: Englisch)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A sharp, funny grammar guide they'll actually want to read, from Random House's longtime copy chief and one of Twitter's leading language gurus
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • Paste • Shelf...
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • Paste • Shelf...
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A sharp, funny grammar guide they'll actually want to read, from Random House's longtime copy chief and one of Twitter's leading language gurusNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • Paste • Shelf Awareness
"Essential (and delightful!)"-People
We all write, all the time: books, blogs, emails. Lots and lots of emails. And we all want to write better. Benjamin Dreyer is here to help.
As Random House's copy chief, Dreyer has upheld the standards of the legendary publisher for more than two decades. He is beloved by authors and editors alike-not to mention his followers on social media-for deconstructing the English language with playful erudition. Now he distills everything he has learned from the myriad books he has copyedited and overseen into a useful guide not just for writers but for everyone who wants to put their best prose foot forward.
As authoritative as it is amusing, Dreyer's English offers lessons on punctuation, from the underloved semicolon to the enigmatic en dash; the rules and nonrules of grammar, including why it's OK to begin a sentence with "And" or "But" and to confidently split an infinitive; and why it's best to avoid the doldrums of the Wan Intensifiers and Throat Clearers, including "very," "rather," "of course," and the dreaded "actually." Dreyer will let you know whether "alright" is all right (sometimes) and even help you brush up on your spelling-though, as he notes, "The problem with mnemonic devices is that I can never remember them."
And yes: "Only godless savages eschew the series comma."
Chockful of advice, insider wisdom, and fun facts, this book will prove to be invaluable to everyone who wants to shore up their writing skills, mandatory for people who spend their time editing and shaping other people's prose, and-perhaps best of all-an utter treat for anyone who simply revels in language.
Praise for Dreyer's English
"Playful, smart,
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self-conscious, and personal . . . One encounters wisdom and good sense on nearly every page of Dreyer's English."-The Wall Street Journal
"Destined to become a classic."-The Millions
"Dreyer can help you . . . with tips on punctuation and spelling. . . . Even better: He'll entertain you while he's at it."-Newsday
"Destined to become a classic."-The Millions
"Dreyer can help you . . . with tips on punctuation and spelling. . . . Even better: He'll entertain you while he's at it."-Newsday
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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: By Way of Introduction xi
part i The Stuff in the Front 1
chapter 1 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Your Prose) 3
chapter 2 Rules and Nonrules 6
chapter 3 67 Assorted Things to Do (and Not to Do) with Punctuation 20
chapter 4 1, 2, 3, Go: The Treatment of Numbers 67
chapter 5 Foreign Affairs 74
chapter 6 A Little Grammar Is a Dangerous Thing 84
chapter 7 The Realities of Fiction 102
part ii The Stuff in the Back 127
chapter 8 Notes on, Amid a List of, Frequently and/or Easily Misspelled Words 129
chapter 9 Peeves and Crotchets 147
chapter 10 The Confusables 166
chapter 11 Notes on Proper Nouns 210 x
chapter 12 The Trimmables 242
chapter 13 The Miscellany 252
OUTRO: By Way of Conclusion 267
THINGS I LIKE 269
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 271
INDEX 279
Chapter 1
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Your Prose)
Here s your first challenge:
Go a week without writing
very
rather
really
quite
in fact
And you can toss in or, that is, toss out just (not in the sense of righteous but in the sense of merely ) and so (in the extremely sense, though as conjunctions go it s pretty disposable too).
Oh yes: pretty. As in pretty tedious. Or pretty pedantic. Go ahead and kill that particular darling.
And of course. That s right out. And surely. And that said.
And actually ? Feel free to go the rest of your life without another actually.
If you can last a week without writing any of what I ve come to think of as the Wan Intensifiers and Throat Clearers I wouldn t ask you to go a week without saying them; that would render most people, especially British people, mute you will at the end of that week be a considerably better writer than you were at the beginning.
Clarification No. 1
Well, OK, go ahead and write them I don t want you tripping over your own pencil every time you compose a sentence but, having written them, go back and
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dispose of them. Every single one. No, don t leave that last one intact just because it looks cute and helpless. And if you feel that what s left is somehow missing something, figure out a better, stronger, more effective way to make your point.
Clarification No. 2
Before you get all overwrought and but-but-but, I m not saying never use them go count the very s in this book. I m merely asking you to skip them for a week. A single measly little week. Now, as a show of good faith, and to demonstrate that even the most self-indulgent of us can and should every now and then summon up a little fortitude, I hereby pledge that this is the last time you ll see the word actually in this book.
For your own part, if you can abstain from these twelve terms for a week, and if you read not a single additional word of this book if you don t so much as peek at the next page I ll be content.
Well, no.
But it sounded good.
Chapter 2
Rules and Nonrules
I have nothing against rules. They re indispensable when playing Monopoly or gin rummy, and their observance can go a long way toward improving a ride on the subway. The rule of law? Big fan.
The English language, though, is not so easily ruled and regulated. It developed without codification, sucking up new constructions and vocabulary every time some foreigner set foot on the British Isles to say nothing of the mischief we Americans have wreaked on it these last few centurie
Clarification No. 2
Before you get all overwrought and but-but-but, I m not saying never use them go count the very s in this book. I m merely asking you to skip them for a week. A single measly little week. Now, as a show of good faith, and to demonstrate that even the most self-indulgent of us can and should every now and then summon up a little fortitude, I hereby pledge that this is the last time you ll see the word actually in this book.
For your own part, if you can abstain from these twelve terms for a week, and if you read not a single additional word of this book if you don t so much as peek at the next page I ll be content.
Well, no.
But it sounded good.
Chapter 2
Rules and Nonrules
I have nothing against rules. They re indispensable when playing Monopoly or gin rummy, and their observance can go a long way toward improving a ride on the subway. The rule of law? Big fan.
The English language, though, is not so easily ruled and regulated. It developed without codification, sucking up new constructions and vocabulary every time some foreigner set foot on the British Isles to say nothing of the mischief we Americans have wreaked on it these last few centurie
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Autoren-Porträt von Benjamin Dreyer
Benjamin Dreyer
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Benjamin Dreyer
- 2020, 320 Seiten, Masse: 13 x 20 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Random House Trade Paperbacks
- ISBN-10: 0812985710
- ISBN-13: 9780812985719
- Erscheinungsdatum: 22.08.2020
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Interwoven with cultural history and lively self-revelation, this bracing manual will up your game even if all you re writing is emails. People (Book of the Week)Call it the hedonic appeal. Dreyer beckons readers by showing that his rules make prose pleasurable. . . . His book is in love with the toothsomeness of language. Its sentences capture writing s physicality. Katy Waldman, The New Yorker
Brimming with wit and revelatory wisdom, this style manual-cum-linguistic jubilee from Random House s copy chief . . . entertains as it enlightens. O: The Oprah Magazine
Random House copy chief and managing editor Benjamin Dreyer is a fixture in the publishing industry and on Twitter for his authoritative yet approachable take on style and grammar. Now he is a Random House author himself. . . . Dreyer s English [is] a helpful, funny style guide replete with supporting references from literature and popular culture. New York
An utterly delightful book to read, Dreyer s English will stand among the classics on how to use the English language properly. Elizabeth Strout
A mind-blower sure to jumpstart any writing project, just by exposing you, the writer, to Dreyer s astonishing level of sentence-awareness. George Saunders
Farewell, Strunk and White. Benjamin Dreyer s brilliant, pithy, incandescently intelligent book is to contemporary writing what Geoffrey Chaucer s poetry was to medieval English: a gift that broadens and deepens the art and the science of literature by illustrating that convention should not stand in the way of creativity, so long as that creativity is expressed with clarity and with conviction. Jon Meacham
It is Benjamin Dreyer s intense love for the English language and his passion for the subject that make the experience of reading Dreyer s English such a pleasure, almost regardless of the invaluable and practical purpose his book serves
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in such dark and confusing times for grammar and meaning. Ayelet Waldman & Michael Chabon
If Oscar Wilde had wanted to be helpful as well as brilliant, if E. B. White and Noël Coward had had a wonderful little boy who grew up to cherish and model clarity, the result would be Benjamin Dreyer and his frankly perfect book. Anyone who writes anything should have a copy by their computer, and perhaps another on the nightstand, just for pleasure. Amy Bloom
Dreyer s English is essential to anyone who cares about language. It s as smart and funny as Dreyer is himself. He makes you smile and makes you smarter at the same time. Lyle Lovett
Like Dreyer himself, this book reassures as it teaches. The reader never feels spoken down to, as in so many other style guides, but is instead lifted up, inspired to communicate with more clarity and zing. I ll be buying this for friends. Brian Koppelman, co-creator and showrunner of Billions
This work is that rare writing handbook that writers might actually want to read straight through, rather than simply consult. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
If Oscar Wilde had wanted to be helpful as well as brilliant, if E. B. White and Noël Coward had had a wonderful little boy who grew up to cherish and model clarity, the result would be Benjamin Dreyer and his frankly perfect book. Anyone who writes anything should have a copy by their computer, and perhaps another on the nightstand, just for pleasure. Amy Bloom
Dreyer s English is essential to anyone who cares about language. It s as smart and funny as Dreyer is himself. He makes you smile and makes you smarter at the same time. Lyle Lovett
Like Dreyer himself, this book reassures as it teaches. The reader never feels spoken down to, as in so many other style guides, but is instead lifted up, inspired to communicate with more clarity and zing. I ll be buying this for friends. Brian Koppelman, co-creator and showrunner of Billions
This work is that rare writing handbook that writers might actually want to read straight through, rather than simply consult. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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