Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style
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NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • Paste • Shelf Awareness
“Essential (and delightful!)”—People
We all write, all the time: books, blogs, emails. Lots and lots of emails. And we all want to write better. Benjamin Dreyer is here to help.
As Random House’s copy chief, Dreyer has upheld the standards of the legendary publisher for more than two decades. He is beloved by authors and editors alike—not to mention his followers on social media—for deconstructing the English language with playful erudition. Now he distills everything he has learned from the myriad books he has copyedited and overseen into a useful guide not just for writers but for everyone who wants to put their best prose foot forward.
As authoritative as it is amusing, Dreyer’s English offers lessons on punctuation, from the underloved semicolon to the enigmatic en dash; the rules and nonrules of grammar, including why it’s OK to begin a sentence with “And” or “But” and to confidently split an infinitive; and why it’s best to avoid the doldrums of the Wan Intensifiers and Throat Clearers, including “very,” “rather,” “of course,” and the dreaded “actually.” Dreyer will let you know whether “alright” is all right (sometimes) and even help you brush up on your spelling—though, as he notes, “The problem with mnemonic devices is that I can never remember them.”
And yes: “Only godless savages eschew the series comma.”
Chockful of advice, insider wisdom, and fun facts, this book will prove to be 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.
Praise for Dreyer’s English
“Playful, smart, self-conscious, and personal . . . One encounters wisdom and good sense on nearly every page of Dreyer’s English.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Destined to become a classic.”—The Millions
“Dreyer can help you . . . with tips on punctuation and spelling. . . . Even better: He’ll entertain you while he’s at it.”—Newsday
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Benjamin Dreyer. (2019). Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style. Random House Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Benjamin Dreyer. 2019. Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style. Random House Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Benjamin Dreyer, Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style. Random House Publishing Group, 2019.
MLA Citation (style guide)Benjamin Dreyer. Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style. Random House Publishing Group, 2019.
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- bioText: Benjamin Dreyer is vice president, executive managing editor and copy chief, of Random House. He began his publishing career as a freelance proofreader and copy editor. In 1993, he became a production editor at Random House, overseeing books by writers including Michael Chabon, Edmund Morris, Suzan-Lori Parks, Michael Pollan, Peter Straub, and Calvin Trillin. He has copyedited books by authors including E. L. Doctorow, David Ebershoff, Frank Rich, and Elizabeth Strout, as well as Let Me Tell You, a volume of previously uncollected work by Shirley Jackson. A graduate of Northwestern University, he lives in New York City.
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- NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A sharp, funny grammar guide they’ll actually want to read, from Random House’s longtime copy chief and one of Twitter’s leading language gurus
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • Paste • Shelf Awareness
“Essential (and delightful!)”—People
We all write, all the time: books, blogs, emails. Lots and lots of emails. And we all want to write better. Benjamin Dreyer is here to help.
As Random House’s copy chief, Dreyer has upheld the standards of the legendary publisher for more than two decades. He is beloved by authors and editors alike—not to mention his followers on social media—for deconstructing the English language with playful erudition. Now he distills everything he has learned from the myriad books he has copyedited and overseen into a useful guide not just for writers but for everyone who wants to put their best prose foot forward.
As authoritative as it is amusing, Dreyer’s English offers lessons on punctuation, from the underloved semicolon to the enigmatic en dash; the rules and nonrules of grammar, including why it’s OK to begin a sentence with “And” or “But” and to confidently split an infinitive; and why it’s best to avoid the doldrums of the Wan Intensifiers and Throat Clearers, including “very,” “rather,” “of course,” and the dreaded “actually.” Dreyer will let you know whether “alright” is all right (sometimes) and even help you brush up on your spelling—though, as he notes, “The problem with mnemonic devices is that I can never remember them.”
And yes: “Only godless savages eschew the series comma.”
Chockful of advice, insider wisdom, and fun facts, this book will prove to be 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.
Praise for Dreyer’s English
“Playful, smart, self-conscious, and personal . . . One encounters wisdom and good sense on nearly every page of Dreyer’s English.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Destined to become a classic.”—The Millions
“Dreyer can help you . . . with tips on punctuation and spelling. . . . Even better: He’ll entertain you while he’s at it.”—Newsday - gradeLevels
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- reviews
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Starred review from October 29, 2018
Dreyer, copy chief at Random House, presents a splendid book that is part manual, part memoir, and chockfull of suggestions for tightening and clarifying prose. These begin with his first challenge to writers: “Go a week without writing ‘very,’ ‘rather,’ ‘really,’ ‘quite,’ and ‘in fact.’ ” (“Feel free to go the rest of your life without another ‘actually,’ ” he says.) Dreyer goes on to write with authority and humor about commonly confused or misspelled words, punctuation rules, and “trimmables,” or redundant phrases (the most memorable he ever encountered was, “He implied without quite saying”; Dreyer was so “delighted” he “scarcely had the heart” to eliminate it from the manuscript). But Dreyer’s most effective material comprises his recollections of working with authors, including Richard Russo, who after noticing a maxim posted in Dreyer’s office from the New Yorker’s Wolcott Gibbs—“Try to preserve an author’s style if he is an author and has a style”—later called him to ask, “Would you say I am an author? Do I have a style?” This work is that rare writing handbook that writers might actually want to read straight through, rather than simply consult. Agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM.
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November 1, 2018
A veteran copy editor debuts with an account of his beliefs, preferences, and peeves about contemporary English grammar and usage.Dreyer--vice president, executive managing editor, and copy chief at Random House--rehearses a bit of his personal history with the copy editing profession and then takes us on a journey to the many major and minor isles of written English. In most ways, the author is not an Ahab-ian captain. He recognizes the arbitrary nature of many of our "rules" (after all, we made up most of this stuff). Early on, he explains the silliness of our adherence to such things as never splitting infinitives, never starting sentences with "But" or "And," never ending sentences with prepositions. Soon, however, Dreyer begins to list specific dos and don'ts, instructing us on the uses of commas, colons, parentheses, and quotation marks. He pauses to explain the difference between an en- and an em-dash, between "who" and "whom," and "lie" and "lay." He also has some fun with dangling modifiers. In fact, Dreyer has fun throughout, exhibiting a light tone and a sly sense of humor. He could not resist, when reminding us of the difference between "hanged" and "hung," that some men are, indeed, hung. He thinks we are losing the battle against "alright" and doesn't really observe the difference between "nauseated" and "nauseous," but he does like the distinction between "each other" and "one another." Also included are some sections on the correct spelling of proper names and on the use of the word Frankenstein (the creator, not the creature). He wryly reminds us that "clichés should be avoided like the plague" and that we really shouldn't trust internet memes as a source for authentic quotations.A pleasant voyage with a genial, worthy captain--though we do sail to many places we have been before.COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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December 1, 2018
In this user-friendly guide, Random House copy chief Dreyer invites readers into his life's work, explaining how to navigate written communication through examples from years spent buried in unpublished manuscripts. While the manual is invaluable for the author-to-be, it's also an advantageous read for anyone looking to avoid sounding like an idiot in any official document, regardless of whether they have a background in or penchant for writing. Speaking of they, it's worthwhile to note that Dreyer's is a modern reference text, relaying how certain rules of the English language, like pronoun use, are evolving alongside Western culture. The manual is peppered with Dreyer's playful anecdotal footnotes and acerbic wit, making for a riotous read when readers wouldn't necessarily expect one. Useful features include a compilation of Dreyer's ultimate language pet peeves and a list of commonly misspelled proper nouns with tricks for keeping them straight. A remarkably fun book about a dastardly dry subject, this will surely aid in committing the rules of the written word to memory, once and for all.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)
- premium: True
- source:
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November 1, 2018
A veteran copy editor debuts with an account of his beliefs, preferences, and peeves about contemporary English grammar and usage.Dreyer--vice president, executive managing editor, and copy chief at Random House--rehearses a bit of his personal history with the copy editing profession and then takes us on a journey to the many major and minor isles of written English. In most ways, the author is not an Ahab-ian captain. He recognizes the arbitrary nature of many of our "rules" (after all, we made up most of this stuff). Early on, he explains the silliness of our adherence to such things as never splitting infinitives, never starting sentences with "But" or "And," never ending sentences with prepositions. Soon, however, Dreyer begins to list specific dos and don'ts, instructing us on the uses of commas, colons, parentheses, and quotation marks. He pauses to explain the difference between an en- and an em-dash, between "who" and "whom," and "lie" and "lay." He also has some fun with dangling modifiers. In fact, Dreyer has fun throughout, exhibiting a light tone and a sly sense of humor. He could not resist, when reminding us of the difference between "hanged" and "hung," that some men are, indeed, hung. He thinks we are losing the battle against "alright" and doesn't really observe the difference between "nauseated" and "nauseous," but he does like the distinction between "each other" and "one another." Also included are some sections on the correct spelling of proper names and on the use of the word Frankenstein (the creator, not the creature). He wryly reminds us that "clich�s should be avoided like the plague" and that we really shouldn't trust internet memes as a source for authentic quotations.A pleasant voyage with a genial, worthy captain--though we do sail to many places we have been before.COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- premium: True
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Starred review from February 1, 2019
With this utterly readable and informative handbook, Random House vice president, executive managing editor, and copy chief Dreyer delivers an assertive (albeit amusing and authoritative) guide to correct English. In an engaging and sometimes anecdotal style, he instructs on the uses of commas, apostrophes, semicolons, and parentheses, not merely through a series of rules but rather with effective examples of correct and incorrect usages. He argues that it's time to stop appropriating British English, presenting plenty of examples of our missteps. While Dreyer's list of frequently misspelled words serves as a helpful reminder of accurate spelling, his chapter on "Peeves and Crotchets" provides a list of wrong usages of which some of us may find ourselves guilty. This will prove beneficial to everyone who wants to improve "their" writing and especially valuable to those who want to help others with their prose. VERDICT Highly recommended for general readers.--Herbert E. Shapiro, Lifelong Learning Soc., Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • Paste • Shelf Awareness
“Essential (and delightful!)”—People
We all write, all the time: books, blogs, emails. Lots and lots of emails. And we all want to write better. Benjamin Dreyer is here to help.
As Random House’s copy chief, Dreyer has upheld the standards of the legendary publisher for more than two decades. He is beloved by authors and editors alike—not to mention his followers on social media—for deconstructing the English language with playful erudition. Now he distills everything he has learned from the myriad books he has copyedited and overseen into a useful guide not... - sortTitle
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