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Title: A Dictionary of Modern American Usage by Bryan A. Garner ISBN: 0-19-507853-5 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: December, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $37.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.47 (19 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A dictionary you can actually read for pleasure
Comment: As the title of this review suggests, Bryan Garner's "A Dictionary of Modern American Usage" is as enjoyable as it is helpful. Garner's wrote this book in order to provide writers, the very people who are changing language on a daily basis, with an informed judgment of the best usage of the English language. His goal in this case is to avoid the ideological debate between Descriptivists (those who believe that language is valid as it is used) and Prescritivists (those who develop rules for best practices of language usage). Instead, Garner provides a concise, practical, and often witty definition of when to use certain words and of general rules for forming words.
While Garner clearly has his own opinions about what constitutes good English usage, he is hardly dogmatic. For example, Garner points out that “self-depreciating” is the correct term for a person who puts his/herself down while “self-deprecating” is not. However, he is quick to acknowledge that numerous database searches on Nexus, Lexus and other textual repositories confirm that the incorrect term is used more frequently than the correct one. Garner concludes that like it or not, “self-deprecating” is becoming the acceptable usage.
Garner's wit is apparent in areas like his definition of "suicide victim". He classifies this as an oxymoron that expresses a prejudicial view against taking one's own life.
This book is an indispensable read for any professional writer or lover of language. Even if you are not concerned with those things, you will probably still find this work enjoyable for its pragmatic approach, its intelligence, and the tremendous clarity it imparts. It is the only dictionary I can think of that is as lively and entertaining as it is informative.
Rating: 5
Summary: The NECESSARY One
Comment: Brian A. Garners', A Dictionary of Modern American Usage is the one most necessary book of its type I've found for writers, teachers - especially English and Writing teachers - and all those who think themselves educated. Keep your Fowler's, Flesch, and Strunk & White, of course, But READ this, employ it.
Every serious student needs this book. Why? Because this book is far better than any other I've found to clarify, discern, and guide the foundational thinking behind one's written words.
Mr. Garner is, if not a philosopher, an honest, discerning, and well-rounded thinker. He brings into clear focus many of the problems of writing effectively in English.
Is this the sort of book that seems too opaque and technical for your needs? Just read his argument in the Preface. You can become a better thinker, a better writer, a better person with the use of this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: A worthy heir to Fowler
Comment: For three generations, a single book dominated the market as the authoritative reference in matters of grammar, style, and usage in the English language: "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage" by H.W. Fowler, first published in 1926, ably revised by Sir Ernest Gowers in 1965, and now in its third edition (published 1996). But by the century's last quarter, the modern English language -- particularly its American dialect -- had begun outgrowing Fowler, and several newer guides began competing with it. The third (1996) edition of Fowler was a disappointment, and left the field without a clear leading authority.
That gap was filled in 1998, when Bryan A. Garner wrote "A Dictionary of Modern American Usage" (published by the Oxford University Press, which also published Fowler). Finally, someone had written a book that matched Fowler -- not only in its erudition, but also in its accessible style, and even its wry sense of humor. And Garner's book had the advantages of being written both in modern times for a modern audience, and in the United States by an American author about American English. The book is a gem, and as authoritative a reference as you will find in this field in the last several decades (and probably the next several too).
"DMAU" went into a second edition in 2003, under the title "Garner's Modern American Usage," renamed after its author in view of the acclaim that the first edition earned. A new edition was appearing after only five years because, as Garner explains in the second edition, "changing usage isn't really the primary basis for a new edition of a usage guide: it's really a question of having had five more years for research." The second edition builds upon the first: the first edition was a dictionary of words in usage, rather than words about usage, and therefore assumed that the reader possessed a certain working knowledge of basic grammatical terms and concepts. For example, the first edition didn't define such basic terms as "sentence," "phrase," "clause," "word," or "part of speech." The second edition appends a glossary that defines many such basic concepts, in addition to many new or expanded entries in the dictionary itself.
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Title: Garner's Modern American Usage by Bryan A. Garner ISBN: 0195161912 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage by Bryan A. Garner ISBN: 0195142365 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law by Norm Goldstein, Associated Press ISBN: 0738207403 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 02 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title: The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition by University of Chicago Press Staff ISBN: 0226104036 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $55.00 |
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Title: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage by Merriam-Webster ISBN: 0877791325 Publisher: Merriam-Webster, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 November, 1994 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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