Word Perfect [antikvár]

Preface This book has evolved gradually from notes and observations made during nearly thirty years working as an editor and writer for various British and American publishers. Many of the "style sheets" encountered over those years have been silent sources of inspiration, and I remain indebted to them and their creators. The result is a guide to current English usage, arranged alphabetically to make it easy to look things up. It is intended to be of help to learners of English, to writers and to editors. But any editor who attempts to prepare such a guide is soon made embarrassingly aware of the adagé that warns anybody living in a glass house of the danger of throwing stones. Nevertheless a senior editor can -and sometimes should - be uncompromisingly prescriptive; a publisher's house style should not be intended to address itself to the rights and wrongs of stylistic decisions so much as to establish editorial consistency. Although Word Perfect can therefore be regarded as primarily an editorial guide to English writing style, I have alsó tried to make it something more. I believe that for generál purposes - that is, where visible authorship is not desirable - a good writing style is characterized by ease of access (what somé people call readability). This is, in effect, the absence rather than presence of any noticeable style. In preparing material for this book I have tried to offer advice that encourages a writing or editing style that is unobtrusive yet acceptable to most readers of modern English A basic assumption is that the chief object of the written or printed word is to communicate; anything that detracts from this purpose is consequently criticised or even deplored. Despite this aim, sometimes the demands of the pedant or purist, on the one hand, and the vagaries of fashion, on the other, compete for precedence. Often the difficulty can be avoided or a fair judgement made by acknowledging the overriding importance of