My Favorite Language Resources

A good professional has the right toolbox, and for editors and writers, these tools include language, grammar, and style guides along with books about language and writing.

These six books are resources that I use in my day-to-day work, help me understand language at a deeper level, and explain how English has changed and is changing with the Internet.

The Day-to-Day Go-To’s

Me and Grammar Girl at the 2019 ACES conference in Providence, RI

Grammar Girl (Mignon Fogarty)

I depended on Grammar Girl’s book The Ultimate Writing Guide for Students to teach grammar to college freshmen. Her explanations are straightforward and clear with humorous examples. If I’m double checking a rule, I usually default to googling something such as “affect effect grammar girl” to get to her website.

I finally met Grammar Girl at the 2019 ACES conference, and she was patient and friendly about my fangirling, which is just another reason to love her.

The Chicago Manual of Style

If I’m not strictly following the AP Stylebook (or if I am but the manual doesn’t cover something), I go to Chicago style for a second opinion. I use AP a lot for clients, but I admit that I’m more of a Chicago fan, partly because I appreciate how more throughout the Chicago Manual of Style is in terms of what to do and when.

The Deeper Dives

But Can I Start a Sentence with “But”? Advice from the Chicago Style Q&A

In addition to their style guide, the Chicago Manual of Style has a regular Q&A about language, grammar, and style. The compilation book covers how to use language and style with thought and common sense along with a healthy dose of humor. It reads like an editor’s thought process in choosing between sometimes contradictory style and grammar rules.

Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper

Kory Stamper goes behind the scenes to the human side of Merriam-Webster. How does a word get into the dictionary? How does it get defined? What is the dictionary’s purpose? This is a good book if you’re curious how language authorities become authorities in the first place.

Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston

Parts of Shady Characters are purely fun history of now-obscure punctuation marks (such as the manicule) and parts are interesting looks at marks you probably use every day (such as the hyphen). Why do we use these marks the way that we do? How were they used in the past? What happened in between and how does that affect us now? The book also uses typography beautifully.

Staying Ahead

A World Without “Whom”: The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age by Emmy Favilla

Emmy Favilla was hired as BuzzFeed’s first copy editor in 2012, which means she’s inadvertently been on the forefront of determining Internet language style guidelines. Her book talks about how to use language in the 21st century, with examples from social media, the BuzzFeed website, and the staff Slack channel.

Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch

Gretchen McCulloch is an Internet linguist (yep, that’s a job). Her book is a linguistic history detailing how the Internet has changed the English language – and why that’s not a bad thing! This book would be a valuable resource for anyone who spends a lot of time with young people (such as a middle school teacher or parent of teens) and is a bit baffled by their language use.