Re: Editors: Follett/Wensberg "Modern American Usage"

["N. Sivin" nsivin@xxxxxxxx]

Eric Van T. asks about Wilson Follett's _Modern American
Usage._ I am perfectly delighted to hear that a revised
version is out. I have long been recommending the 1966
original above others of its ilk to undergraduates who care
about their writing and to graduate students beginning
dissertations. Like Fowler for the Queen's English, it is a
splendid corrective to academese, full of encouragement to
say what one has to say in plain and readable English. It
deals with fundamental topics no longer covered in
high-school or college education such as how to punctuate.
It does such things not by listing rules but by explaining
what makes sense.

Cheers,
--
Nathan Sivin
History and Sociology of Science
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA 19104-6304
(215) 898-7454
nsivin@xxxxxxxx