He rarely read from his footnotes, which are copious and useful and also funny, one good reason to get both the book and the audio.

I could follow it! And it was interesting. I was amazed Dreyer could read this text aloud and make sense, filled as it is with examples he needs to capitalize or spell a certain way. It is simply perverse and counterintuitive that reading a style book on writing would be amusing.ĭreyer’s delivery is dry, dry as a bone, so-o-o dry that I would be laughing aloud, missing his next entry, as he lined up all the stupid stuff we write-the adverbs, extra adjectives, and the ‘very unique’ emphasizers. However, when I had the chance to listen to Dreyer reading the book, published by Penguin Random House Audio, I was entranced and delighted. When I first heard Terry Gross interviewing Dreyer on NPR’s Fresh Air, I thought he was trying too hard to make amusing something that can be utterly stultifying. Chock-full of advice, insider wisdom, and fun facts on the rules (and non-rules) of English, this book will prove invaluable to everyone who wants to shore up their writing skills, mandatory for people who spend their time editing and shaping other people's prose, and-perhaps best of all-an utter treat for anyone who simply revels in language. People are sharing their writing more than ever-on blogs, on Twitter-and this book lays out, clearly and comprehensibly, everything writers can do to keep readers focused on the real reason writers write: to communicate their ideas clearly and effectively.

(Hint: If you can plausibly add 'by zombies' to the end of a sentence, it's passive.) Dreyer offers lessons on the ins and outs of punctuation and grammar, including how to navigate the words he calls 'the confusables,' like tricky homophones the myriad ways to use (and misuse) a comma and how to recognize-though not necessarily do away with-the passive voice. Doctorow, and Frank Rich, into a useful guide not just for writers but for everyone who wants to put their best foot forward in writing prose. A witty, informative guide to writing 'good English' from Random House's longtime copy chief and one of Twitter's leading enforcers of proper grammar-a twenty-first-century Elements of StyleĪs authoritative as it is amusing, this book distills everything Benjamin Dreyer has learned from the hundreds of books he has copyedited, including works by Elizabeth Strout, E.

Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer