The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) - Hardcover

Garner, Bryan A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022618885X ISBN 13: 9780226188850

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2016

Synopsis

Few people can write on the English language with the authority of Bryan A. Garner. The author of The Chicago Manual of Style’s popular “Grammar and Usage” chapter, Garner explains the vagaries of English with absolute precision and utmost clarity. With The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation, he has written the definitive guide for writers who want their prose to be both memorable and correct.

Throughout the book Garner describes standard literary English—the forms that mark writers and speakers as educated users of the language. He also offers historical context for understanding the development of these forms. The section on grammar explains how the canonical parts of speech came to be identified, while the section on syntax covers the nuances of sentence patterns as well as both traditional sentence diagramming and transformational grammar. The usage section provides an unprecedented trove of empirical evidence in the form of Google Ngrams, diagrams that illustrate the changing prevalence of specific terms over decades and even centuries of English literature. Garner also treats punctuation and word formation, and concludes the book with an exhaustive glossary of grammatical terms and a bibliography of suggested further reading and references.

The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation is a magisterial work, the culmination of Garner’s lifelong study of the English language. The result is a landmark resource that will offer clear guidelines to students, writers, and editors alike.

About this title

About the Author

Bryan A. Garner is president of LawProse, Inc. and Distinguished Research Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University. He is the author of the "Grammar and Usage" chapter of The Chicago Manual of Style and editor in chief of Black’s Law Dictionary. His many books on language and law include Garner’s Modern English Usage and Legal Writing in Plain English, the latter from the University of Chicago Press.

Review

“[A manual] for those of us laboring to produce expository prose: nonfiction books, journalistic articles, memorandums, business letters. The conservatism of his advice pushes you to consider audience and occasion, so that you will understand when to follow convention and when you can safely break it. When someone offers you good advice, you would do well to take it.” (John E. McIntyre Baltimore Sun)

"The Chicago Guide is not what I expected, but it is what I had hoped for. There are a lot of grammar books available and a lot of sharply focused books on specific items . . . but there aren’t many, if any, that are comprehensive and accessible. The Chicago Guide certainly is accessible and comprehensive."

(An American Editor)

“This grammar book doesn’t shoot and leave. It stays with you.” (Hamodia)

“Writers, copy editors, and students seeking advice or explanations of the conventions of standard literary English will find definitive, clearly expressed rulings in The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation. . . . Essential." (Choice)

“Garner’s guide is well-organized, logical, comprehensive, up-to-date, and comes alongside the reader in his or her search for clear as well as correct language (the second is not always the first).” (Reference Reviews)

“At last, everything I had long been looking for in a single volume presented logically and explained adequately in terms that any interested reader can not only follow but also make his or her own with a little due diligence and old-fashioned intellectual elbow grease.” (Thomas R. Claire Publishing Research Quarterly)

“A grammar companion such as this one to CMS and an authoritative dictionary would establish language authority across company texts. Therefore, this work is highly recommended.” (Technical Communication)

“A thoroughgoing, clear explication of the traditional categories of grammar, expanded from his summary in The Chicago Manual of Style and a fit companion to Garner’s Modern English Usage.” (John E. McIntyre, author of The Old Editor Says)

“Garner is the greatest writer on grammar and usage that this country has ever produced.  This book will be an instant classic.” (David Yerkes, Columbia University)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 022618885X
• ISBN 13: 9780226188850
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 552