Quiddity Spain Local time: 22:40 English to Spanish
Apr 26, 2011
Hy everyone,
I'm searching a good "style book" in English which makes clear the use of simple and double inverted commas, punctuation, structure of a bibliography, capital letters and so on.
Can you suggest any? I've been searching and I'm quite lost. At the moment I've just found one for bibliographies (Cite them right: the essential referencing guide- Richard Pears (Author), Graham Shields (Author)) but I have no idea if it's good or not either.
Someone suggested:
- The Times Style and Usage Guide.
- The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (but I imagine it's JUST grammar)
Any other suggestions or recommendations? As a Spanish/catalan native it's very strange for me not to have a good reference to look at when I have doubts so I would really appreciate any help that helps me "see the light!
Thanks in advance!
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John Simpson United Kingdom Local time: 21:40 Member (2004) French to English + ...
The Penguin Guide to Punctuation
Apr 26, 2011
Hi,
Have you looked at the The Penguin Guide to Punctuation by R.L. Trask (ISBN: 9780140513660)? There is a section on capital letters and quotation marks. It is very well written and easy to follow.
I don't think you will get any information on bibliographies in a book on punctuation. I have "Cite them right" but it is a publication by the University of Northumbria at Newcastle library, where one of the authors works or worked. It is not the same as the one you have found but I was very happy with my version when I used it when studying at Newcastle.
Punctuation varies between English-speaking countries so coming across different uses is no surprise. I would just stick to applying the same rule throughout your work.
Good luck!
John Simpson
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Teresa Borges Belgium Local time: 22:40 Member (2007) German to Portuguese + ...
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Christine Andersen Denmark Local time: 22:40 Member (2003) Danish to English + ...
There are quite a lot...
Apr 26, 2011
Ideally, you need to go to a good academic bookshop and compare them, and find the one that suits you best. Paperback versions are quite adequate, but they all cost money!
I have not got the latest editions of them all. I like the Times style guide too, but it does not cover everything
The books I use refer to 'English Usage'.
A lot of people swear by Michael Swan: Practical English Usage.
I have a niggling feeling that the newest edition is not better than the earlier one, which I borrowed from a colleague at the start of my career. It was just on the way out, and I bought the new one - ISBN 0 19 431197 x (Paperback) or 0 19 431198 8 (hardback).
Written especially for non-native speakers of English, it explains a lot of things that we natives think we know, but cannot explain when challenged!
I am very fond of Sir Ernest Gowers - The Complete Plain Words. He goes back to the 1940s... so you will want the edition revised by Sydney Greenbaum and Janet Whitcut:
Penguin Reference, ISBN 13: 978 0 14 051199 4
I also have the edition reprinted in 1975, revised by Sir Bruce Fraser... Which is wordier, but in fact only slightly dated IMHO!
For quick reference, however, I go first to the Longman Guide to English, also by Sydney Greenbaum and Janet Whitcut:
ISBN 0 582 09566 2
There are others...
Try looking up a specific problem in each, and compare how it is dealt with.
For instance, I find there is often very little satisfactory explanation of the use of the ordinary comma in grammars... which is a problem for Danes, who have very defininte fixed rules. However, they do NOT work if applied to English, of course. English is not as chaotic as it appears to them at first glance, but there are different conventions...
Here The Complete Plain Words gives the best and most detailed explanation IMHO!
I know very little about Spanish and Catalan, but there are probably special areas that you need to check up on, and others you find easy to understand.
Best of luck!
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Barbara Carrara Italy Local time: 22:40 Member (2008) English to Italian + ...
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Michael Wetzel Germany Local time: 22:40 German to English
New Hart's Rules, MHRA, Chicago Style
Apr 26, 2011
Hello Quiddity,
For enGB, I usually use New Hart's Rules (= Oxford, 2005), Times Style & Usage (online; supplemented by New Hart's Rules if it does not provide an answer to my question), and, for academic texts, the MHRA Style Guide (online; basically Oxford, but with a lot of additional relevant information).
For enUS, I almost always use the Chicago Manual of Style (16th Ed.); the AP Sylebook (new edition every year with usually insignificant changes) and various other style guides (MLA, etc.) may be better for specific projects.
All of these books are designed to answer the types of questions that you mentioned.
Sincerely,
Michael
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