Last year, a special issue appeared of English Today, entirly focussed on usage guides. Topics included how Fowler became “The Fowler”, taboo and purism, the birth of the usage guide, the issue of prescriptivism in a major dictionary like the Oxford English Dictionary, controverial issues concerning Strunk & White and, finally, the grocer’s apostrophe.

The issue (Volume 26, number 2, June 2010) is fully accessible if your library subscribes to English Today as an e-journal.