Lapsing Into a Comma : A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--and How to Avoid Them

Every author should probably have this book on their nightstands, and read a chapter every night before going to bed. That’s where my copy is now. Plus a copy of “The Elephants of Style” by the same author – Bill Walsh. This book should be every author’s “bible.”To be honest, the title of the book gave away that it is brilliant. The word play is clever but more importantly, it hints at that Bill Walsh encourages his readers TO THINK.Chapter 1 is titled,” Beyond Search and Replace, Using Your Head as Well as Your Stylebook.” Walsh warns, “Be skeptical of stylebooks.” And, he takes things from there.Walsh dedicates a lot of space to covering “He or she,” “him or her”, “his or her,” “his or hers; he also covers profanity and “physical descriptions.” This is information all of us can use.Which can be explained very quickly when reading the section, “Dirty Mind, Clean Copy, Why Every Copy Desk Could Use a 13-Year-Old Boy.[quote] “....In trying to think of a headline for a reporter’s first-person account of the wonders of his Palm hand-held computer (they’re no longer called Palm Pilots) my first idea was ‘A Man and His Palm: A Love Story.”...”Yes, this style book is funny, too. Very funny. Reading this book, you’ll think about things you never thought about. A good example: The difference between Preschool and Pre-school. pre-school is an adjective that means “before school.” And – the term pre-school-age children might also refer to newborns. Right. I knew that, so why did I use these words incorrectly, at least half a dozen times?Naturally, I also found out that I made an error in my last book (and my editor did not see it). In my book I wrote, “Presently, Johnny sang his signature song...”This was the first time, I used the word “presently” in any book (and I have written more than twenty.) Walsh advises, “PRESENTLY The traditional meaning is “in a short while.” Avoid using it as a synonym for “currently.”Can you see why you need to read this book?Finally, as a boxing fan, I want to give a shout-out to Bill Walsh for using many examples from the world of boxing. All are well-chosen (and rare).For instance, in the section “African-American” vs. “Black,’ Walsh writes, “ There is no racial difference between African-Americans and African-Canadians, so how can African-American constitute a race? I suppose you could refer to boxer Frank Bruno as an African-Briton, ...5 stars, I am a fan,Gisela Hausmann, author and blogger

Bill Walsh, the Washington Post's copy editor for national news, is an unabashed "prescriptivist" -- someone for whom, in writing, there are things that are wrong because they've always been wrong. "Even if you think it's arrogant to condemn a perfectly understandable bit of prose as 'wrong,'" he writes, "you have to answer one big question: Do you want to look stupid?"With "The Elephants of Style" you'll reduce the chance of sounding stupid, increase the likelihood that your writing will have style -- or, as Walsh puts it, FLAIR! ELAN! PANACHE! -- and have a lot of fun. "The Elephants of Style" is the rare book about writing and style that you may (as I did) read from cover to cover for sheer pleasure -- like the pleasure of learning that "the New York train station is Grand Central Terminal," but "Grand Central Station remains the correct expression for mothers yelling at their kids about running in and out of the kitchen."I'll admit it: I'm one of those lovers of English who has shelves full of books about writing and the use of our language. I regularly read Walsh's website "The Slot: A Spot for Copy Editors," and I also purchased his first book, "Lapsing Into a Comma," which also was a delight. "Lapsing" was aimed at an audience of more sophisticated word users or, as Walah says, was written for editors and writers. "Elephants of Style," he says, was written for writers and editors. It will benefit everyone, I say, from professional writers and editors to middle-school English students. I recommend it highly.

The Internet and print-on-demand technology have enabled almost everyone to become a publisher. In traditional media, professional journalists and authors have their writing cleaned up by copy editors before it is published. The average blogger does not have this luxury. In Lapsing Into a Comma, Bill Walsh shares his advice on how to handle many common problems that he has encountered as copy editor of the business section at the Washington Post.This book starts with nine chapters covering various grammatical issues followed by a stylebook with approximately 340 entries. Most publishers adopt a style guide such as the Associated Press Stylebook or the Chicago Manual of Style. Walsh frequently refers to the AP stylebook, but sometimes disagrees with it. Style is not about being a slave to fifth-grade grammar rules. It's about making informed choices and being consistent.Language rules could be a very dull topic, but Walsh writes with a highly-opinionated attitude and a sense of humor, making the book more engaging than it otherwise would be. My favorite line in the book is: "Digerati need not be illiterati."

This may go beyond what the typical office worker needs to know about style as it is heavily weighted toward newspaper writing. The author is a copy editing guy, (ok, THE copy editing guy) at the Washington Post. But there is plenty of information on common usage as well. Sometimes the errors we make (or we all have other people TELL us we are making) are just a matter of personal preference. Bill Walsh has his own strong preferences but also allows that other usages are not necessarily incorrect. (He is often at odds with the AP stylebook.) I like his approach and find that he provides excellent comparisons and reasoning for what we read and hear every day. Useful and funny too.

After reading the preview of this book as provided by Amazon UK I purchased it for a friend in Wales as a gift. I was also pleased to hear from my friend that this book had arrived in good shape and in a timely fashion.

Dad loved it. It was a birthday present.

前半は語法エッセイ、後半は「頑固者のスタイルガイド」(A Gurmudgeon’s Guide(アルファベット配列の語法辞典)となっている。一例を挙げる。たとえば、Used toの否定形はHe didn’t used to live in Phoenix.He didn’t use to live in Phoenix.はいずれが標準語法か意見が分かれるところであるが、著者によると、後者がよいという（p.121）。その理由は、I had to do itの否定形はI didn’t have to do it.(これは確立した標準語法)だから。Used to もこれに従うべきである。なるほどと思う。『ジーニアス英和辞典』第5版には、［used to の疑問形と否定形］ … He didn’t use（d） to go ..., Didn’t he use（d） to go ...? とするのがふつう.この場合, used の d を省略することが多い…とある。ネイティブスピーカーならではの意見・感想・発想が楽しめる語法書である。