Peters Pam. The Cambridge Guide to English Usage

Cambridge University Press, 2004. — xii, 608 pages. — ISBN-13 978-0-511-19563-1.Providing an indispensable new A-Z reference to English usage for the twenty-first century, this guide covers more than 3000 points of word meaning, spelling, punctuation, grammar and style on which students, teachers, writers and editors regularly require guidance. It also addresses larger issues of inclusive language, and effective writing and argument, and provides guidance on grammatical terminology. Based on large international corpora, it differentiates clearly between U.S. , U.K. , Canadian and Australian usage and offers up-to-date, objective advice presented in readable, accessible terms. Pam Peters is a Professor of Linguistics at Macquarie University where she also serves as Director of Macquarie University's Dictionary Research Center. She is the author of several books on English usage, including Cambridge Australian English Style Guide (Cambridge, 1995).Description : At first I was surprised and a little disappointed by the format - it is arranged like a dictionary. I was expecting something that could be read through progressively. However, after getting over that, I enjoy the book. It is full of mini-articles that make interesting reading whenever there`s a few minutes to spare over coffee or lunch. Naturally it can also be resorted to as a reference, though I could imagine that to be a hit or miss affair until you get used to its quirky look-up style, with entries on suffixes or parts of words. Sometimes I think that in the 21st century we should retreat a little to the looser rules of earlier centuries. Do we really have to agonize so much over how best to spell import-words like felafel or taboulie? One nice thing about the book, however, is its consideration of international trends in English and its attempt to bridge between them.