THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. Also:
THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE from the University of Chicago Press.
They explain what the reader expects: feel free to vary from them
when you want to call attention to what you are doing.
George H Scithers
----- Original Message -----
From: "andy turnbull"
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 2:02 PM
Subject: Re: Books on writing?
I come from the old school -- I learned from a succession of
editors, rather than from books, but a lot of people seem to
think a manual by Strunk and White (authors) is the standard. I
don't know the name of the book -- most people just refer to
Strunk and White.
In Canada we use the Canadian Press Style Book to standardize
spellings and such, but that would not help in The States. On
the other hand, I'm sure there are AP and UPI style books. Most
of the big publishing houses, (Random House etc.) also have
style guides.
andy t