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Easy to navigate, has the answers to the questions you want, and you can find them instantly. I use this far more often than the Chicago Manual of Style or Strunk and White. It's small, well-organized, and has it all (most of it all, anyway).
I write fiction, and this guide works wonderfully anyway; I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to a fiction writer. Sometimes--but only rarely--entries don't apply to fiction writing, or the rules differ.
The manual is organized alphabetically, not just by subject, but the entire book is alphabetical. This makes it *so* much easier to find what I'm looking for than the other reference guides.
E.g.: Do titles of books go in quotes? Look up "book" and the answer is there. If the answer isn't there, this manual anticipates what you may be looking for and tells you: for titles, see "title." If you look up the word, "quote," it will tell you how to use quotation marks (not 2nd grade information, but every permutation of those gnawing things you just aren't quite sure about when writing a professional cover letter or a story). And again, it can anticipate what was left out of the "quote" entry and send you elsewhere.
It's a keyword book, organized alphabetically, beginning to end. It *is* the glossary, in a sense, but the glossary doesn't send you to a wordy, where's-what-I-want chapter; the info is succintly at hand. No need to spend any amount of time searching for your question, or answer; it's there for you, as is the reason for the usage. I'd call this the opposite of the Chicago Manual of Style, where time spent searching for where they may have chosen to put my question is an exercise in frustration.
This is a great reference guide for any writer's desk, and within my reach at all times.
- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Three Rivers Press; Revised and expanded, paperback edition c1999 edition (January 2, 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 081296389X
- ISBN-13: 978-0812963892
- Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1 x 9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: 33 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#153,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #158 in Writing Skills Reference
- #58 in Editing Writing Reference (Books)
- #61 in Encyclopedias (Books)
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