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Review
"'Wise and thoughtful... just what all journalists need.' Joan Bakewell; 'Valuably insists on the writing of good English... It's a very good idea. It might sell like that other punctuation book.' Tom Paulin"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"'This stuff matters. Rules do not limit; they liberate' John Humphrys"
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 60 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
While it sounds dry and obvious to say that this is the guide to grammar and word usage for the newspaper The Guardian, that is what this is.
However, the result is far far more compelling and enjoyable than the description. This book is like a mad cross between the 'Grammar is important' ethos of Eats Shoots and Leaves and the random fun of Schott's Miscellany and is better than either.
While I could continue to describe the contents of the book, citing my favourite entries, whatever I say is going to sound boring. Trust me, if you enjoy language you will enjoy this book a lot (not alot).
However, the result is far far more compelling and enjoyable than the description. This book is like a mad cross between the 'Grammar is important' ethos of Eats Shoots and Leaves and the random fun of Schott's Miscellany and is better than either.
While I could continue to describe the contents of the book, citing my favourite entries, whatever I say is going to sound boring. Trust me, if you enjoy language you will enjoy this book a lot (not alot).
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'm almost scared to write a review of Guardian Style (or guardianstyle, a title style which they should abandon because it's no longer very stylish), or indeed of anything else, having perused it and scored about a 20% failure rate on all those bleeding obvious traps I thought I'd so cleverly avoided over the years, and that only the ill-educated could possibly continue to get wrong. It combines 1950s schoolmarm (I'm sure that must be unacceptable for all kinds of reasons), Stephen Pinker's beloved language mavens, some amusing and rather touchingly resigned pieces on usage that is just too complicated for most of us and which we should therefore abandon to professional philosophers (`begging the question' is a good example), and an assorted pile of linguistic and spelling horrors that have slimed under the door and into the everyday writing of most smart alecs, including myself (cusp, immaculate conception - how could we have got that so wrong for so long? - epicentre, lay waste ...). The list of cliches (no accent please) is bound to include several that you thought were nothing of the sort - actually rather clever, really - and the glib, sloppy, pompous and woolly are sought out and their necks shaken vigorously.
Sadly, it seems as if the motley Guardian writing crew never seems to learn these lessons (which is always encouraging for us amateurs), but surely this is an area where technology could be the salvation of the daily corrections column: shouldn't all copy be automatically fed through the style guide, to emerge wholesome, non-judgmental, comma-perfect and with everyone's titles, in all their gruesome complexity, fully consistent?
By turns it charmed, intrigued and frightened me. Keep it by you to slyly consult when you get that feeling you've just written something that's not quite right, which should happen more often once you've read it through. And for those who think that Guardian Style is the newspaper equivalent of military intelligence etc, I suggest trying to get through the first 20 pages of the current Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition, no less) to sample its unremitting head-banging neutral tedium and misery, numbered paragraphs and all. I almost guarantee you won't make it, and then you can be truly grateful for this delicious slim volume of serious language fun.
Sadly, it seems as if the motley Guardian writing crew never seems to learn these lessons (which is always encouraging for us amateurs), but surely this is an area where technology could be the salvation of the daily corrections column: shouldn't all copy be automatically fed through the style guide, to emerge wholesome, non-judgmental, comma-perfect and with everyone's titles, in all their gruesome complexity, fully consistent?
By turns it charmed, intrigued and frightened me. Keep it by you to slyly consult when you get that feeling you've just written something that's not quite right, which should happen more often once you've read it through. And for those who think that Guardian Style is the newspaper equivalent of military intelligence etc, I suggest trying to get through the first 20 pages of the current Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition, no less) to sample its unremitting head-banging neutral tedium and misery, numbered paragraphs and all. I almost guarantee you won't make it, and then you can be truly grateful for this delicious slim volume of serious language fun.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
For a foreigner or an English stududent, in order to better your skills, I recomend to use this book. It is a good, and at some points funny, way to deep inside the Enlish language. In addition, I will personally start the university in Manchester, and I am originally from Spain. That could be a disadvantage but not for me nor my interests because with this book, I will make my understanding of the language with more accuracy.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Absorbing reading
Although this was bought as a gift I had a chance to look in it and became totally absorbed. Very interesting alphabetical section on grammar as well as the rest of the book, also... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Rikki Pearshouse
Very Interesting to know how it all works
I have been reading the Guardian for about 25 years.So to read and understand
somewhat how the hacks give us the best information in the best style this is a great read. Read more
somewhat how the hacks give us the best information in the best style this is a great read. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Jazz Man
Do Guardian journalists heed the advice in this style guide?
I always like to contrast media style guides with the actual practice of journalists.
Style guides, as it were, are a mark of aspiration. Read more
Style guides, as it were, are a mark of aspiration. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Beatrice Jane Bray
Essential. Especially for Daily Mail journalists!
An honest, readable directory of how to write well. The Guardian encourages accurate writing, and gives excellent advice on abbreviations, spelling, punctuation and other... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2009 by Nickel
badly written
If you have ever wondered why the writing in the Guardian is often so appalling, here is your answer. Read more
Published on 12 April 2008 by D. Westlake
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