The Accidents of Style Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly [Paperback]

Fasten your seat belt for a crash course in careful usage.... Just like automobile accidents, accidents of style occur all over the English-speaking world, in print and on the Internet, thousands of times every day. They range from minor fender benders, such as confusingtheirandthere,to serious smashups, such as misusingsensualforsensuousor writingloathewhen you meanloath.

Charles Harrington Elster shows you how to navigate the hairpin turns of grammar, diction, spelling, and punctuation with an entertaining driver's manual covering 350 common word hazards and infractions, arranged in order of complexity for writers of all levels. Elster illustrates these surprisingly common accidents with quotations from numerous print and online publications, many of them highly regarded---which perhaps should make us feel better: If the horrendous redundancycloseproximityand the odious constructionwhat it is, ishave appeared inThe New York Times,maybe our own accidents will be forgiven. But that shouldn't keep us from aspiring to accident-free writing and speaking.

If you want to get on the road to writing well,The Accidents of Stylewill help you drive home what you want to say.

Charles Harrington Elster is a nationally recognized authority on language. He is the orthoepist for Wordnik.com and the author ofVerbal Advantageand many other books. His articles have appeared inThe New York Times Magazine,The Boston Globe,andTheWall Street Journal. He lives in San Diego, California.

Charles Elster shines a bright light on 350 major potholes, pitfalls, and pratfalls that pock the road of writing. His sage advice on how to avoid writing badly points the reader in the direction of a smoother journey toward writing well. Richard Lederer, author of Anguished English and The Write Way

This book is perfect for people who want to take theirlƒÁ