The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation

by Bryan A. Garner

The authoritative guide to using the English language effectively, from “the greatest writer on grammar and usage that this country has ever produced” (David Yerkes, Columbia University).   The author of The Chicago Manual of Style’s popular “Grammar and Usage” chapter, Bryan A. Garner is renowned for explaining the vagaries of English with absolute precision and utmost clarity. With The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation, he has written the definitive guide for writers who want their prose to be both memorable and correct. Garner describes standard literary English—the forms that mark writers and speakers as educated users of the language. He also offers historical context for understanding the development of these forms. The section on grammar explains how the canonical parts of speech came to be identified, while the section on syntax covers the nuances of sentence patterns as well as both traditional sentence diagramming and transformational grammar. The usage section provides an unprecedented trove of empirical evidence in the form of Google Ngrams, diagrams that illustrate the changing prevalence of specific terms over decades and even centuries of English literature. Garner also treats punctuation and word formation, and concludes the book with an exhaustive glossary of grammatical terms and a bibliography of suggested further reading and references.The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation is a magisterial work, the culmination of Garner’s lifelong study of the English language. The result is a landmark resource that will offer clear guidelines to students, writers, and editors alike.   “[A manual] for those of us laboring to produce expository nonfiction books, journalistic articles, memorandums, business letters. The conservatism of his advice pushes you to consider audience and occasion, so that you will understand when to follow convention and when you can safely break it.”—John E. McIntyre, Baltimore Sun

Genres: Reference, Writing, Nonfiction, Language, Linguistics, Communication, Self Help

875 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 5, 2016

Reviews

[Daniel Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's nice to have a big, thorough grammar and usage guide handy, but Garner deserves some skepticism.

The weakest thing about the Chicago Guide is that Garner starts from the assumption that what was typical and accepted in books published in the 20th century should be the default starting point for writers working today. I'm willing to accept the assumption that something like "standard written English" exits, but the implication is that writing conservatively is desirable in and of itself.

This assumption breaks down most obviously in Garner's advice about gender neutral language, the singular they, and constructions including "he or she." Garner essentially says that it's better to write to avoid annoying sticklers like him than it is to demonstrate inclusivity (when more wholly gender-neutral language can't be written). Garner doesn't suggest some kind of audience-focused approach; he just declares "he/she" forbidden.

That said, it's nice to know what the sticklers are thinking and know exactly how I'm poking at their sensitivities.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been picking away at this book a few pages at a time since I received it a year ago in May, just as it was released, and completed the whole thing this morning. It's a wonderful book in many ways, though I imagine it's difficult to use as a reference (I'd love to see an online version). But I work as a copyeditor—not because I have to, but because I want to—and found it enlightening on a great variety of subjects. One section that is almost purely a simple list is the section on verbs and the prepositions that go with them. (Failure to use the right one is one of the surest signs of an author whose first language is not English.) I greatly enjoyed Garner's explanation of the value of Google Ngrams, which I use almost daily for assistance with questions of usage, especially in comparing one word or phrase with another.

The reading is dense but entertaining, and outstandingly readable, appropriate given that readability is at the core of the subject matter, and the author is one of the most preeminent exponents of good practice in Standard English.

This is a book for those who really want to study the subject matter with a view to progressing in their own knowledge, understanding, and practice of both writing and speaking Standard American English. If you make it from beginning to end (not necessarily in order—I didn't read it in order myself), you will come out the other end of the process a better-informed person.

[Eduardo Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, even fun (for a certain class of reader, among which I fit in). Really great material, well cross-referenced and with nicely crafted examples. It's just that... I suppose one must be a bit of a prescriptivist to write a usage manual, but getting preachy — e.g., "They won't succeed" when discussing attempts to solve the English gendered-pronoun problem — seems shortsighted. Counterproductive, even: the entire point of language is to adapt to changing human needs, and it is not up to him to decide what those needs are.

I learned a great deal: about usage that I already comply with but without having known why; about grammatical terms and concepts I'd heard but never understood; and about mistakes I tend to make. (Blush.) I took lots of notes, placed bookmarks, and hope to remember to refer back to them over time. And, again, I really just enjoyed myself. Garner writes crisp sentences that are a real pleasure to read.

[T. Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because I still care!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This reference is one of the most helpful I've ever worked with. I believe it will be more useful to people engaged in writing and editing outside of academia than the Chicago Manual of Style--and would still be of use to those inside. It's much less cumbersome than the CMoS, and much easier to navigate.

[Abbas Mehrabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this book and enjoyed each and every sentence of it. It's so well-written.

As a non-native English speaker, I've always been insecure about my grammar; that's why I got this book, which was recommended in The Copyeditor's Handbook as a comprehensive review of English grammar. And it absolutely deserves that description. And contrary to my expectations, it wasn't dry at all. In fact, it was so engaging that I finished the 400-page book in three weeks.

The book starts with a complete, 250-page overview of grammar and syntax. And then it dedicates 100 pages to usage: words and phrases that are frequently misused by writers. It also has a 14-page list of word-preposition pairs: what preposition is used with each word (I like such attention of Garner to details). The final 50 pages discuss punctuation. The punctuation part is a general guide and doesn't explain all the tricky situations that can happen with punctuation (The CopyEditor's Handbook is probably a better guide for that).

It's also a witty book and I totally enjoyed Garner's sense of humor throughout this very instructive book.

[Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have, been trying, to fix, my writing, technique; and perhaps to even a greater extent, the way I read; this book has been a godsend for me. There are a lot of details here, that I wasn't aware of, and they fit into a comprehensive system. An impressive feat, in more than one way- as a system and as a book or piece of writing.

[Ansate Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really nice intro to the ins and outs of grammar. As someone interested in becoming an editor, I found it very useful and informative in general. The sentence diagrams and Google ngrams included were a very nice touch.

However, there are several points in the book where Garner outright contradicts himself or is very unclear and it's these points that tend to have the least explanation (and in many cases, zero examples!). It feels as if he isn't quite too clear on these points himself.

Here is my one and only major problem with this book: His treatment of gender is horrific. There is no mention of alternative gender, transgender, agender, etc. For a book published in 2016 this seems unacceptable and automatically dated. His tack is to avoid gender as much as possible altogether, and while that isn't necessarily a bad idea, the absence of any acknowledgement of these types of issues is glaring. He outright denigrates the use of the singular "they" and any alternative pronouns, warning any writer who resorts to them that they will "lose credibility". Um, okay. Gender takes up the bulk of his teeny tiny section on bias-free writing. There's virtually nothing in here on any other sort of bias. Not racism, not stereotyping, etc. He sure likes to focus on the very thing he advises to avoid writing about.

(For contrast, Garner has no problem calling out the use of the default "he" as outdated and inappropriate-- which I guess means he's gotten as far as accepting 90s feminism, so that's something I GUESS.)

Use this book as a starting point. Don't treat it as scripture. No matter what David Foster Wallace says.

[Avi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed me. Despite the fact that I read all the words in this book (except the index) I haven't really comprehended all of it. That being said, I learned a lot and I found this book interesting. Not being one for brevity, Garner goes through each and every rule for Grammar, Usage and Punctuation (as far as I am aware). In school I learned—as you probably did—grammar though writing sentences with certain elements, breaking down sentence, and later figuring out why my paper was covered in red. By going through each rule how they work and interact with Garner I still don't think my writing will be error-less but it will be better—especially when I revise. And now I actually know the rules of the game.
Now, if you don't plan on reading this whole book cover to cover I still think it will serve you well. It works as an excellent reference (I would know since I had to look up things I didn't understand) with glossary. The index is an index, what else would it be. The entries are each quite succinct and the sections give a solid understanding of the topic.
Overall, if you have the space and the money this book is a welcome addition on any shelf. It can be a reference for your questions and a book for when you don't know what to read. Or it will work as a impressive "shelf warmer."
P.S. I think I will be reading this again. If not it whole in many parts.

[Kevin Stecyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful Review of Grammar

Even if you are reasonably well versed in grammar, you are bound to learn something new by reading this book.

I often refer to The Chicago Manual of Style and decided to read this book as a complementary reference. These two books play well together, which is not surprising since Garner wrote a significant portion of The Chicago Manual of Style. I highly recommend both books.

[Mandi Gerth · Rating 4 out of 5]

For as long as I have been a lover of good English, I had yet to own a usage guide until I bought this one for a graduate level course at University of Dallas. I read this one for the course and then bought his more robust usage guide for personal reference. If you write or teach writing, I recommend Garner.

[EstelleLiterature · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book, by one of the authors of Chicago Manual of Style, is the best in contemporary American grammar. Particularly useful are the sections on action and sense verbs, when split infinitives must be used to avoid confusion, and the long but useful chapter on when to use gender neutral pronouns.

[Ashley Polikoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Preordered this because I was most excited about a refresher course on transformational grammar. If you use CMS daily, there's still something to learn here. For example, I thought I knew about nouns and was planning to skip that section, but ended up reading it and learned a thing or two. I now find myself second-guessing myself on basic things I thought I knew. (Ha...) I do work for both British and American authors and appreciated some talk of the differences between BrE and AmE. There is also a whole section comparing good usage vs. popular usage with some data to back it up, which is useful for when you want to stet something as author style. I'd recommend this as a supplement to anyone in managing ed or proofreaders/copyeditors, though some parts are redundant with CMS, the dictionary, or house style guides. 4.5/5

[Luz · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are an editor, or a writer of English, there's always more to learn about using language . . . style guides are not hard and fast rules (unless you are required by a writing assignment or publisher to follow them), but they are helpful to understanding how stringing the same words differently like beads on a string or threads on a loom, can change, enhance, or manipulate meaning.

[Mills College Library]

428.2 G234c 2016

[RUSA CODES · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winner of the 2017 Outstanding Reference Sources Award.

For a complete list of Outstanding Reference Sources Award winners, please visit https://www.rusaupdate.org/awards/out...