Category Archives: usage guide

Taggart vs. Pinker: and the winner is …

I’d really like to be able to find out how well “our” usage guides, those in the HUGE database that is, have been selling over the years. This is confidential information, I was recently told by the firm handling the estate of … Continue reading

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Early usage guide writer a talkshow host

Hardly any news if the information can be readily found on the Internet, but for me it was: Bergen Evans (1904-1978), the author of A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage (1957) together with his sister Cornelia , hosted a talkshow on language. I … Continue reading

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Stilman, Burt, Cutts, Howard: who are they?

I’ve just finished going through the list of usage guide writers in HUGE, and there are several, in addition to Sayce and Batko, that I just haven’t been able to find any information on. The sources I tried are the … Continue reading

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Who is Kay Sayce? Who is Ann Batko?

I’m trying to find out who Kay Sayce is. I know she (he?) is the author of a usage guide called What not to write: A guide to the dos and dont’s of good English (2006). The book is included … Continue reading

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Bryson in Hungary and China

WorldCat is a wonderful resource for our kind of work (though not always entirely reliable …). I looked up Bryson’s Troublesome Words (1984), one of “our” usage guides, to find out how popular the book was. I was trying to follow … Continue reading

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Jack Lynch on (correct) usage

Reading Jack Lynch’s The Lexicographer’s Dilemma (2009), I (re)discovered his usage guide, called The English Language: A User’s Guide, originally published in 2008. I then also found his very useful alphabetically arranged website (called Guide to Grammar and Style), filled with usage advice: … Continue reading

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How many English usage guides are there?

This is an important question in the context of this project, but it will be one that I have come to decide is impossible to answer. Unfortunately, and (perhaps, for some) frustratingly so. One important tool (or so I thought originally) … Continue reading

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Question for Bryan Garner

Bryan Garner’s Dictionary of Modern American Usage contains a lengthy list of works dealing with English usage, studies as well as usage guides. Very useful for our project! There is one item which I can’t quite classify offhand as belonging to either … Continue reading

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Rosaline Masson: first female (British) usage guide writer?

Our list of usage guides, which we drew up as a basis for the HUGE database, includes various female authors, and more of them the further we get to modern times. The first woman on our list is Rosaline Masson, whose Use … Continue reading

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Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen

Editors and language advice seem to go hand in hand. When in doubt about language matters, who better to consult than those whose job description includes improving style, formatting, and proofreading.  Mary Norris of The New Yorker has joined the … Continue reading

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