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He had me at apostrophes

Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer

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On page 36 of Dreyer’s English, author and Random House copy chief Benjamin Dreyer makes use of the fearsome CAPS LOCK key to make a point about never, EVER using an apostrophe to pluralize a word. Having been driven to contemplate felonies by the sight of signs saying, for example, “DVD’s for sale,” this was enough to win my loyalty. However, Dreyer goes on to explain that in Britain these unnecessary punctuation marks are called “greengrocer’s apostrophes,” because you’re likely to find them on signs […]

An ode to punctuation, or erotica for grammar geeks

Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston

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Supporting players against a sea of commas, exclamation points, and other heroes of the written word, These quiet champions of our language get the spotlight thanks to Keith Huston’s Meticulous research and witty pen. Like gentle pilcrow, Who started as “kaput” Then changed to  “c” To mark the start of each new paragraph.     ‘Til rubricators came along to flourish her: thus, the backwards P was born. Live on, Pilcrow, in proofers’ marks and MS Word, though hidden as you are behind your secret […]

Nerd alert: this is a review of a book about sentence diagramming

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I saw Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog recommended on a friend’s Goodreads list, put it on my To Read list and my Amazon wish-list, then forgot about it until my brother gave it to me for my birthday a few months ago. I’d started it a while back, but then had to put it down when work and life got a little busy. Now that things are a little quieter, and I saw a recent article about the Oxford comma being declared legally necessary (a decision […]

This one is for the English majors.

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Due to the tastes of my book club, I have read more non-fiction and more memoirs this year.  Some haven’t worked out for me (fashion. No thank you) but this one faired much better.  As is probably common for a reader, I was an English major in college and so this book, about grammar and the life of Mary Norris, The New Yorker copy editor was compelling thought it was a slow start. A slooooow start.  Also, if you are an audiobook person, members of my […]

The Talk was Better than the Book: An Almost Eternal Journey

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I should admit I had expectations going into this book. I had the privilege of hearing the author, Steven Pinker, speak during a tour for this book, and the talk was amazing. It was smart and entertaining, and I was hoping for the same from the book. The book is smart all right, but it’s soooo dense that the entertainment is mostly gone. I like language and grammar, and I’m pretty good with them. I have graduate degrees in both English and Latin. And even […]

Confessions of a Comma zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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I try really hard not to be “that guy” when it comes to grammar. I don’t have enough friends to play with fire and correct every grammatical mistake that flies out of their mouths. But like most voracious readers, I notice when these errors pop up. These days I work at a publishing company, where we pore over every minute detail. It’s pretty common here to see a production assistant with her face practically buried in a draft, searching for any errant commas to vanquish. […]



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