Full Reference List: Style and Grammar Guides

Checking more than one guide is always advised. While it is recommended as an inspirational tool for beginning writers and in some cases does a decent job of identifying common writing problems, Strunk and White’s Elements of Style should not be a final arbiter for any specific style question or point. It is best used merely as a general survey of areas to which a good writer should be attentive. You will find that many of its specific rules have been completely overturned by the respected reference works listed below. (For a summary of the problems with Elements of Style, see Jan Freeman’s review of a 2005 edition.)

Burchfield, R.W., ed. The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage, rev. ed., London and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Favors British English, but does make some effort to reflect the influence of American English worldwide.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 15e, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. A super writer’s tool, but does not offer many glimpses into the reasoning for rules.

Garner, Bryan A. Garner’s Modern American Usage. Oxford University Press: New York, 2003. Highly conservative and safe, while still rightly contradicting Strunk and White in many places. Offers many examples of incorrect usage. This is the tie-breaking work to check when other sources disagree.

Huddleston, Rodney, and Pullum, Geoffrey K. A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge and New York, 2005. A brilliant encapsulation of the ground-breaking work done in the much larger (and more expensive) Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, which was built by examining large corpora for examples of how educated writers use English, rather than perpetuating long-held and unexamined rules. Covers world-wide Englishes quite well.

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, Springfield, Massachusetts, Merriam-Webster, 1994. Reliable and safe.

Merriam-Webster’s Manual for Writers and Editors, revised. Springfield, Massachusetts, Merriam-Webster, 1998. Good guide for corporate and scholarly writing.

Ritter, R.M., ed. The Oxford Style Manual, Oxford University Press: London, 2003. Scholarly and British.