An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style
hardcover, 320 pages
English language
Published Jan. 29, 2019 by Random House.
I expected it to be targeted for writers, but it's more useful for editors. Second part of the book is worthless because it's just a list of typical misspellings writers produce. It's a short read and it's written in a fun style so give it a try.
As a bad writer, I like reading about mechanical things I can do to make my writing better, which means I liked this book which gave me many of them in an enjoyable and amusing style.
I didn't always agree--for example, I'd learned in school that "personal opinion" wasn't a redundancy but was meant to make a distinction from "professional opinion." At other times I thought redundancies could service as intensifiers. "A rose is a rose is a rose " says more than tautology.
The internet informs me that a "Dreyer" is one who fashioned objects on a lathe; a turner of wood or bone; a nickname derived from German `drei' meaning three. I don't get how three enters into it, or whether "enters into" is a redundancy, but I'm interested in words and so I looked it up. If you're interested in words, you'll like this book.
I'll confess I'm into pop grammar books. They're fun and catty and often helpful. Reading them is like having a writer's spa day.
Well, as far as the sub-category is measured, (at least as far as I measure it) Dreyer delivers. He leans into the role of sassy copy editor and I love him for it and I want him to be my best friend in an 80s rom-com.
The opening chapters make the entire book worth reading. They are written in a style that is charming, light-hearted, and funny while imparting useful reminders.
Then there comes a point when the guide feels like it's just a list of misused word pairs and it stops being very fun to read. I suppose the final chapters were constructive but they felt of little value.
So this is worth reading, particularly for my fellow grammar book geeks, but it isn't a masterpiece …
I'll confess I'm into pop grammar books. They're fun and catty and often helpful. Reading them is like having a writer's spa day.
Well, as far as the sub-category is measured, (at least as far as I measure it) Dreyer delivers. He leans into the role of sassy copy editor and I love him for it and I want him to be my best friend in an 80s rom-com.
The opening chapters make the entire book worth reading. They are written in a style that is charming, light-hearted, and funny while imparting useful reminders.
Then there comes a point when the guide feels like it's just a list of misused word pairs and it stops being very fun to read. I suppose the final chapters were constructive but they felt of little value.
So this is worth reading, particularly for my fellow grammar book geeks, but it isn't a masterpiece and I wouldn't re-read the thing.
The first part of Dreyer's English is both instructive and entertaining. The second part, however, um... There is a recommendation in the first part: "Get a good dictionary;" following this advice is adding more value than reading the second part with its twitter-sourced word-lists and puns that get old really fast.
