I was just forwarded an email from OUP USA which announces a Back to School 2013 offer of a 65% reduction on book prices.

The list of books on offer include Fowler’s Modern English Usage, at half-price, which is good, but in a section “Expand your Vocabulary” (??).  Never mind: an interest in Fowler is stimulated, which is interesting to see from the point of view what we are doing in this project. But the advertisement does raise the question, already put before in this blog, as to who uses Fowler, and what for. So tell us, teachers:

• did you put Fowler on your students’ buying lists?
• if so, why did you choose Fowler rather than another usage guide?
• will you use Fowler in your teaching, and if so how?
• do you expect to see any effect of students consulting Fowler in their writing skills? Have you found this already?
• (does “school” mean secondary education, university education?)

And students:

• will you buy Fowler? and how do you expect to profit from it?

We would really like to know!