When it comes to language books, it seems that people often prize attitude over expertise
buy books on English usage? The obvious answer, “for authoritative advice”, doesn’t square with what people actually buy. For decades the best-selling grammar book in the English-speaking world, by far, has been William Strunk and E.B. White’s “Elements of Style”. It is breezily readable, but neither comprehensive—a recent edition is 95 small pages—nor even always reliable.
Benjamin Dreyer is the copy chief at Random House, a New York publisher. For four decades he improved others’ prose without showcasing his own. His experience and good sense are established as early as page 9, where he dispels what he calls “the big three” unkillable myths—that you can’t start a sentence with a conjunction, end one with a preposition or split an infinitive. Do all three, says Mr Dreyer.
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