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The Elephants of Style : A Trunkload of Tips on the Big Issues and Gray Areas of Contemporary American English

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Author : Bill Walsh
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780071422680
Edition : 1
ISBN : 0071422684
Label : McGraw-Hill
Manufacturer : McGraw-Hill
Number of pages : 238
Publication date : 2004-03-12
Publisher : McGraw-Hill
Title : The Elephants of Style : A Trunkload of Tips on the Big Issues and Gray Areas of Contemporary American English
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Studio : McGraw-Hill

Editorial reviews

Product Description
Advice on good writing from everybody's favorite editorial curmudgeon

Persnickety, cantankerous, opinionated, entertaining, hilarious, wise...these are a few of the adjectives reviewers used to describe good-writing maven Bill Walsh's previous book, Lapsing Into a Comma. Now, picking up where he left off in Lapsing, Walsh addresses the dozen or so biggest issues that every writer or editor must master. He also offers a trunkload of good advice on the many little things that add up to good writing. Featuring all the elements that made Lapsing such a fun read, including Walsh's trademark acerbic wit and fascinating digressions on language and its discontents, The Elephants of Style provides:

Tips on how to tame the "elephants of style"--the most important, frequently confused elements of good writing
More of Walsh's popular "Curmudgeon's Stylebook"--includes entries such as Snarky Specificity, Metaphors, Near and Far, Actually is the New Like, and other uses and misuses of language
Expert advice for writers and editors on how to work together for best results

Customer reviews

review by: Richard J. O'Brien date: 2008-12-28 rating:

The First Church of Walsh
Elephants of Style, the play on the title of Strunk and White's famous book aside, is an essential for any writer as well as any one who cares about where the English language is headed.

One really can't go wrong with a book from Bill Walsh. I wish I could say at least one thing negatively about this book, but I can't.

If you haven't purchased this book do so soon. There was so much I learned here and even now I'm not following one rule that Walsh suggests, but I am a creature of habit and old habits, as they say, die hard. There I did it. Now, purchase Bill Walsh's book and see what I'm talking about.

See also Walsh's Lapsing Into a Comma : A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--and How to Avoid Them. You will be glad you did.

review by: Bookish Brazilian Bloke date: 2008-12-12 rating:

Not for elephantary readers
Although I don't agree one hundred percent with Mr Walsh--and I am sure he would be glad to know that I don't--his book deserves top marking for its thoroughness. The book is full of witticisms that make it a good read and almost convince us that Bill Walsh is always right, even though his arguments are always very well fundamented. But as for me, I will continue saying that I have "a healthy diet" instead of "a healthful one", and pronouncing "short-lived" with a short "i" instead of a long one.

review by: Diva Reader date: 2006-03-11 rating:

Grammar with a funny bone
Almost nothing is as boring as learning the rules of grammar.
The Elephants of Style, however, makes the subject humorous and easier to both read and learn about. The author uses great(and often funny ) examples to teach students about everything from parts of speech to plagarism. I would recommend this book to college freshman, English teachers, or anyone struggling with grammar.
Of course, grammar may never lose the title of "boringest of them all," but at least there is a little humor at the end of the tunnel.

review by: date: 2004-08-01 rating:

Always Useful, Sometimes Funny
By Bill Marsano. What a jolly season for word-lovers this is, what with Lynn Truss's "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" and this book by Bill Walsh coming along neck-and-neck and cheek-by-jowl. Walsh, who is the copy chief of the Washington Post, has written a far broader work than Truss's, with punctuation just one of the things covered (and usually very well covered). There's also grammar here and more important there is style.

The author of such a book sets himself up, always. Many readers will assume or claim that he's preaching perfection and will therefore fall upon tiny errors yelling nyah-nyah in spiteful disvalidation of his whole work, of his very right to speak at all. Sorry but, admirable as it may be, prefection eludes and always will (Lynn Truss's first error is in her subtitle!). Mark Twain said, of perfection in English grammar, "the thing just can't be done." So let's be willing to give a little, and even accept the odd contradiction.

That done, we find a pretty useful guide. It's mostly newspaper-oriented, but it's still a help to the ordinary writer and ordinary person struggling to commit a sentence and finding between the opening capital and the closing period a morass of weird plurals, nightmare collectives, number-of-the-verb, stylistic conventions, punctuational deadfalls and a lot of other horrors that make not ending with a preposition a treat (which taboo is, by the way, nonsense, as Walsh neatly explains). Walsh deals with most problems briskly and helpfully, and if you keep this book ever close to your heart it won't be long before you can toss off elegant vanity plates, bumperstickers and ransom notes without so much as a by-your-leave. And you will begin to enjoy doing so, because you won't be scared out of your wits half the time. (Most people dread writing as they dread public speaking.)

I am generally dubious of copy editors; I consider them a species of vermin that should be hunted for sport. But I will go a long way with Walsh because he clearly thinks about the language and tries to make intelligent, workable decisions that help reader and writer alike. (Most copy editors simply trot out their pet peeves and hobby-horses, salt with ignorance and prejudice, and then damage the writer's copy, the hideous effects invisible until the crime appears in print.)

I will unyieldingly dispute with him on two points, however. First, (free-lance) writers should absolutely not waste any time studying client magazines to learn their style. Magazines routinely pay writers poorly and abuse them in general; if they want their stylebooks followed, let the editors do some work for a change. (Editors don't have jobs. They have lunch.) Second, what's this foolishness about a ship being referred to as "it"?

That's an example of what offends me most about copy editors: their char-woman's mentality. Always trying to neaten up; emptying the ashtray every time the ash hits the glass; making you move so they can plump up the pillows. Busy, busy, busy! The net result of all this is damage to a language of which varioty is its chiefest glory. Referring to ships as feminine is a tradition many centuries old: it goes back to the Romans; it is established and understood; it is not to be dismissed by some petty tyrant with an itchy pencil. Maybe it's a question of political correctness. Maybe someone is pained because it excludes an entire sex (the male, I believe). Frankly I'm disinclined to believe that this will cause little boys everywhere to be discouranged from becoming ocean liners, but copy editors might very well fall for that.--Bill Marsano is a professional writer and editor.

review by: barry_in_ny date: 2004-04-29 rating:

The next Bill Safire?
Visiting the front lines of the grammar and usage wars with Bill Walsh is a pleasure for writers and readers alike. Like his previous work, Lapsing Into a Comma, this entertaining and enlightening book shows Walsh has got a great ear and a great sense of humor.

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