The Four Best Language and Grammar Books Published in 2019

Posted on: December 21, 2019
Under: Advice, Grammar

Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language

by Gretchen McCulloch

In a sound kick in the pants to everyone who thinks the internet is ruining English forever, the linguist Gretchen McCulloch argues that just as informal conversation hasn’t replaced public speaking, our tweets about cats won’t replace the formal academic essay. With that out of the way, she examines several aspects of internet language, including emoji, memes, acronyms like lol (or if you’re old like me, LOL), the ~sarcasm tilde, and the patterns in keysmash (asdljklgafdljk). She also divides internet users into waves based on when they first went online, and shows how the platform where they learned to communicate shaped their use of spelling and punctuation (like the dash that older people keep putting between sentences in their emails). If you love linguistics, the internet, or both, this book will be a fun read and an endless source of trivia.

Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style

by Benjamin Dreyer

Dreyer, who is the copy chief at Random House, is a copy editor’s copy editor. If you give this book to someone who also happens to be a copy editor, it’ll simultaneously make them love their job and fear they’re terrible at it. (If they’re a writer, it’ll make them appreciate their editor.) In expertly crafted, quotable prose, Dreyer debunks some English “nonrules” such as never ending a sentence with a preposition and gives advice on punctuation, numbers, foreign words, grammar, fact checking, and tricky spellings. Although I don’t agree with all of his pronouncements—he uses the singular they only under duress—most of them are self-evident. “Only godless savages eschew the series comma,” he writes. “No sentence has ever been harmed by a series comma, and many a sentence has been improved by one.” If only everyone believed this!

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition

by the American Psychological Association

If your wordy person writes or edits in the social and behavioural sciences, natural sciences, nursing, education, communications, or business, they’ll appreciate this admittedly practical gift. The APA comes out with a new edition of its style guide every ten years, meaning that the changes can be quite dramatic in a dry, scholarly way. Students will be delighted to know that their papers no longer need to have a running head, which is a pain to insert in Word; the place of publication is also no longer required in reference entries. This edition also contains new information on accessibility guidelines, journal article reporting standards, and bias-free language.

Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark

By Cecelia Watson

Writers seem to hate semicolons—Kurt Vonnegut famously said that “All they do is show you’ve been to college.” (They don’t express nearly as much ire towards commas, which cause editors many more headaches.) Watson traces the evolution of the semicolon from “a mark designed to create clarity to a mark destined to create confusion,” as nineteenth-century American grammar authorities squabbled over how to use it correctly. These complicated, constantly shifting rules make the semicolon either aspirational or pretentious, depending on your perspective. This book lightens its reflections on the purpose of grammar with anecdotes of semicolon-related legal mayhem and examples of fortuitous rule-breaking by famous authors.