The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage : The Official Style Guide Used by the Writers and Editors of the World's Most Authoritative Newspaper [Paperback]

Allan M. Siegal
William G. Connolly



(from the publisher) Is the deejay a wannabe? Or does the D.J. just want to be?
When is heaven capitalized? Do you stand in line or on line?

     For anyone who writes—short stories or business plans, book reports or news articles—knotty choices of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and meaning lurk in every line: Lay or lie? Who or whom? None is or none are? Is Touch-Tone a trademark? How about Day-Glo? It’s enough to send you in search of a Martini. (Or is that a martini?) Now everyone can find answers to these and thousands of other questions in the handy alphabetical guide used by the writers and editors of the world’s most authoritative newspaper.

     The guidelines to hyphenation, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling are crisp and compact, created for instant reference in the rush of daily deadlines. This revised and expanded edition is updated with solutions to the tantalizing problems that plague writers in the new century:

* How to express the equality of the sexes without using self-conscious devices like “he or she.”
* How to choose thoughtfully between African-American and black; Hispanic and Latino; American Indian and Native American.
* How to translate the vocabulary of e-mail and cyberspace and cope with the eccentricities of Internet company names and website addresses.

With wry wit, the authors, who have more than seventy-five years of combined newsroom experience at the New York Times, have created an essential and entertaining reference tool.



(from Michael) In general the Chicago Manual of Style is used in book publishing and the AP and Times manuals are used for journalism. I own all three books. Sometimes the three agree. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they disagree with popular dictionaries. Sometimes they don't. You can pick which book you want to follow, or pick and choose bits and pieces from each. You can even disagree with all three and make up your own rules -- if you have a good reason and don’t do anything too stupid.

     Besides accuracy, the main reason to use this book or your own homemade cheat sheet is to achieve consistency in your writing. Some rules are arbitrary, so if you follow the rules you won’t have to make a decision on the spot, and end up with “homemade” on one page and “home-made” on another.

    The Times book is useful and also extremely interesting. As expected, there are lots of rules for grammar and spelling. But you can poke through and find  interesting bits of trivia, like the fact that New York City has no Fire Chief. Also, Hades is uppercased but hell is not, pinch-hitter is hyphenated but colorblind is not.

    If you buy just one stylebook for your book business, get 'Chicago," but if your budget allows two, get the Times book too.



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