Charles Harrington Elster

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"Give me my typewriter and my dictionary, and just let me suffer!"
— Robertson Davies

"Writing is at the mercy of the largest number of amateurs—almost the entire population."
— Jacques Barzun

"Nearly every fiction writer in the world drinks more whisky than is good for him. He does it to give himself faith, hope, and courage. A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom."
— Roald Dahl

WORD QUIZ

Below are ten abbreviations of Latin terms. Do you know what they stand for in Latin and in English?

1. MS or ms.
2. PS or P.S.
3. i.e.
4. e.g.
5. N.B. or n.b.
6. c. or ca.
7. et al.
8. cf.
9. q.v.
10. ibid.

Answers are on the
Comments page.

To Err Is Inhuman

“I’m afraid that surprise, shock, and regret is the fate of authors when they finally see themselves on the page. . . . Seeing one’s inadequate English frozen into type is a humiliating experience.” — Julia Child, My Life in France

“I think of it as it could have been, with its prolixities docked, its dullnesses enlivened, its fads eliminated, its truths multiplied.” — From the dedication page of
H. W. Fowler's Modern English Usage (1926)

CHARLIE'S LATEST

The Accidents of Style is a crash course in careful usage.

The Accidents of Style is in USA Today.

Click here to order.

Click here to read it.

Copyright © 2003-2013
by Charles Harrington Elster.

Note: Everything in this blog, and on this website, is protected by copyright. Reproduction of any kind without permission is prohibited.

One Writer's Ravings

A Logogogue's Blog for Language Lovers

Born to Correct

June 17, 2010

Tags: Dan Epstein, Bill Scheft, copyeditor, Robertson Davies, A. J. Jacobs

In his review of Dan Epstein's Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s (New York Times Book Review, June 6, 2010), Bill Scheft points out a serious factual error that appears on page 38, one of several "chaw-swallowing" blunders Scheft uncovered in the book. "When an author pulls that big a rock that early, you start reading differently," Scheft writes. "We don't want to be copy editors. We'd rather not keep score. But you cannot hit .900 with facts." (more…)

5 Comments

Introducing the Orthoepist

June 14, 2010

Tags: Wordnik.com, orthoepist, Erin McKean

It's official: As of today I am the orthoepist for the online dictionary project Wordnik.com. What's an orthoepist? It's a fancy word for a pronunciation expert. And wouldn't you know, the orthoepists themselves can't agree on how to pronounce it. Some stress the second syllable, or-THOH-uh-pist, while others stress the first, OR-thuh-wuh-pist. (more…)

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