Style Guide (Economist)

Because English is such a vast and continuously evolving language--its vocabulary is double that of French and more than three times larger than German--it is open to multifarious use and all the old arguments about correctness or lack of it. The Economist unequivocally sets out its version of what is acceptable and why, usually conforming to Fowler's Modern English Usage and other good guides to getting it right. It also refutes dozens of common errors, stating firmly, for example, that "Data are plural" and that "Any one refers to a number; anyone to anybody."

Since its style guide is set out in such detail, it makes sense to publish it for the rest of the world, most of whom are not writers for The Economist but who simply want a succinctly witty guide to writing accurately. The first section focuses on minutiae such as distinguishing between a "little-used car" and a "little used-car". It also insists that "to never split an infinitive is quite easy" and, in English so impeccable that you have to read it twice to be sure, that "Frankenstein was not a monster, but his creator." After a section setting out rules governing American and British English this handy reference book provides a miscellany of useful information including abbreviations, currencies, calendars and conversions for metric and imperial measurements. --Susan Elkin

The later version has more reference material than the first but I was a tad disappointed by the lower quality paper used in this version.

That said, this is a great book for anyone who has to write reports or essays and clarifies many grammatical problems, something to which I am emminently prone.

You will also find this to be a valuable general reference book!


Excellent in what it covers, but...   October 22, 2005
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

Excellent glossaries e.g. of proper names that have changed over recent years (UKraine, not the Ukraine; Beijing, not Peking) and of currencies.

Excellent for pointing out fuzzy thinking in your writing and for exposing the emptiness of certain cliches.

Perfect for journalistic purposes; less exhaustive for academic writing or other formal writing.

Beware: many of the recommendations are Economist house style and are not standard British English (e.g. small capitals for all abbreviations).

You will need Oxford: New Hart's Rules (now contained in the Oxford Style Manual) for a full examination of the punctuation of quotations, since the Guide applies journalistic conventions, in which the standard rules of British English puncutation are often reversed.