For a presentation next week, I’d like to have some preliminary data about my research question in the heading of this post. Do you use Fowler’s Modern English Usage? So here come some specific questions:

If you use Fower, what do you use the book for? To consult it on doubtful issues of usage? To win annoying arguments at dinner about who is right and who isn’t about a particular usage question? (This is what one of my earlier informants once told me …) For research? For other reasons? If so, please specify.

If you do use Fowler, which edition do you consult? I myself own various editions of Modern English Usage, mostly from second-hand bookshops, where I couldn’t resist picking up a copy that went for only a pound or a euro. And even though we recently moved house (and had to cut down on shelf space) I decided to keep them all.

Would you be willing to discuss Fowler with me privately to help me get an insight into why people use Fowler, what you use the book for, and how useful you thought the advice was?

It is particularly your stories I’m interested in! They would be extremely valuable to me for my research. So please respond!