Sesquipedalian Sluggo (with liverwurst)
Sluggo, Bryan Garner, and big words.
Psst, David Brooks
I noticed ebullient twice in Brooks’s comments during PBS’s coverage of the DNC last night, each time pronounced /EB-yə-lənt/. As Garner’s Modern English Usage notes, that’s a common mispronunciation. Has David Brooks latched onto this word for use in talking and writing about Kamala Harris? If so, I hope he gets it right.
The Internets, sometimes wonderful
A flurry of visits from the Czech Republic.
From an interview with Bryan Garner
How did a teenager fall in love with books about English usage?
Me, reading
Bryan Garner asked panel members to send photographs of themselves reading entries they commented on for the now-published fifth edition of Garner’s Modern English Usage. So here, or there, I am.
The reason is not because
If “the reason is because” is far less common in writing, if it’s likely to stand out to many a reader as a known redundancy, it’s in a writer’s interest to change because to that. It doesn’t matter what Robert Frost did. Or Jane Austen.
A critical reader
I’m a member of the panel of critical readers for the forthcoming fifth edition of Garner’s Modern English Usage.
Ulp
Bryan Garner: “If your work requires writing, then your work is no better than your writing.”
SFW on the shelf
Take a look at this tweeted photograph of Bryan Garner’s bookshelves. Can you spot the book by Sally Foster Wallace, David’s mother?
Editing in Zits
Say “Thanks, Mom.”
Garner on Black and white
Bryan Garner explains why it makes sense to capitalize Black but not white.
John McWhorter’s me
If readers wonder about a sentence, if the sentence looks blatantly wrong, if the sentence displaces attention to your argument, if you feel obliged to take 1,210 words to justify that sentence, you’re doing it wrong. A wiser strategy: practice what Garner’s Modern English Usage calls preventive grammar.
E-mail, or email ?
Bryan Garner weighs in.
“Grammar-Nerd Heaven”
Mary Norris writes about Taming the Tongue in the Heyday of English Grammar (1713-1851), an exhibition of grammars from Bryan Garner’s collection.
Grammars galore
From the Grolier Club, an off- and online exhibition from the collection of Bryan Garner, Taming the Tongue: In the Heyday of English Grammar (1711–1851).
Help, help to
Which is better? It’s a rare day that I don’t have a reason to open Garner’s Modern English Usage.
Bryan Garner leaves the party
No longer a Republican.
How to start a sentence
In the ABA Journal, Bryan Garner offers some advice about how to start a sentence.
A Garner quiz
Bryan Garner offers a quiz in minimalist editing.
Misused word of the day: refute
Pay attention to the news for a while, and you’ll notice the word misused.
Trump[,] Jr.
A writer can of course make a possessive form with a comma, as The New Yorker has: Jr.,’s. I think though that a style choice that eliminates any possibilty of .,’ is the better choice.
Bryan Garner on rules and writing
On writing and rules, those to follow and those to ignore.
Gilmore Girls and phrasal verbs
“Carry on.”
Lambuth serendipity
Bryan Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day today includes a passage from The Golden Book on Writing.
GMEU app
Garner’s Modern English Usage is now available as an iOS app, beautifully designed and exceedingly useful.
Dr. Watson’s prose, however
The stuffiness of “however” suits him.
Compare with or to
Bryan Garner glosses “compare with” and “compare to .”
Garner's Usage Tip of the Day: gyro
Bryan Garner looks at gyro , gyro , and gyros . Gyroses ? No such thing.
Important-ly
Most important? Most importantly? Marry Norris v. Bryan Garner.
“Resounding words and flowery phrases”
Ellsworth Barnard: “The tendency to resort to polysyllabic vocabulary is not usually the fault of the user.”