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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Art of Misusing Words, April 16, 2005
This review is from: Between You and I: A Little Book of Bad English (Hardcover)
I have to admit I enjoy reading slim volumes like this that focus on language, whether it's the misuse of commonly used words or untranslatable words from another culture or when to insert commas. In the spirit of Lynne Truss's "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" and Christopher Moore's "In Other Words", James Cochrane covers roughly two hundred words, phrases, and expressions that are frequently misused, mispronounced, or misspelled. In many cases, Cochrane, an editor at Penguin Books, gives real-world examples from people who really should know better: writers, journalists, broadcasters, and other public figures. Throughout, his style is light and readable. As usual with these types of books, he can come across as pedantic and prescriptive, but on the whole he gets the right tone to ingratiate the reader.
Cochrane arranges the book alphabetically, with a couple of paragraphs describing each entry and the common error attached to it. I received the most value from the sections highlighting frequently confused words. Cochrane tells the reader how to choose the correct term from pairs such as comprised and composed, discrete and discreet, flout and flaunt, who and whom, and even some you probably thought you understood like envy and jealousy. Other sections of value focus on his mission to stamp out the redundancy in expressions like free gift, ongoing situation, and at this moment in time. Another area of concern for the author is the misuse of plurals. He points out that bacterium is the singular form of bacteria, criterion of criteria, stratum of strata, phenomenon of phenomena and a new one for me, graffito for graffiti. There are some random jewels to be mined here, for example, the mistaken use of alibi to mean any excuse, rather than a plea that when the crime was committed the suspect was somewhere else; or the misuse of "epicenter" to mean simply a center, rather than the technical sense of the point on the Earth's surface immediately above the origin of an earthquake; or stating the oft-turned phrase of "a panacea for all ills" is a redundancy since a panacea is already a universal cure. Many more await the reader, and if you're like me, your paranoia will increase with what will come out of your mouth as a result. A genuinely entertaining read if not in the same league as the gold standard on such breeches, Stunk and White's "Elements of Style".
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Easy read, fun, but not rigorous, November 2, 2006
This review is from: Between You and I: A Little Book of Bad English (Hardcover)
This book was easy to read and quite fun. It has lots of sayings that make you say, "Ah-ha" when you realize something you hear all the time is wrong, or at least questionable. Some of the entries have some good research and background. I think everyone would like this book because there is enough variety that every person will find some phrases they also think are barbaric and others they'll disagree with the author about (oops, ended my sentence with a preposition, I think...). So lots of debate topics available and it will make you think.
However, the book is a bit shallow; some of the reasoning and "background" on some of the phrases seems suspect; it is certainly not a rigorously researched book and by no means complete or authoritative. It reads as if it was written by someone who knows English well, has some pet peeves, and is probably right about a lot of things, but didn't put a whole lot of effort into research for the book. I found _Eats, Shoots, and Leaves_ to be even better than this book. Wittier, if nothing else. Still, this book is fun and very quick read. Worth it if you don't pay full price and definitely worth it if you can get your friends to read it so you can argue with them! :-).
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
for word geeks and wannabe word geeks, June 1, 2005
This review is from: Between You and I: A Little Book of Bad English (Hardcover)
Step aside, Lynne Truss, James Cochrane has taken center stage. Going beyond the ignorant scree of Truss, Cochrane provides clear rationales for correct word usage. One bemoans his "Losr Causes," but learns much about communication in this tiny book. The USA edition employs American spelling, which is appreciated. The only flaw is that good information gets buried, because there is no index.
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