BOOKS:Fowler's Modern English Usage

Grammar__like chewing sawdust? Yes, to most. It’s not exactly an exciting subject, but a necessary one. If you want to know if you're splitting your infinitives or dangling a participle, the best place to go is, “Fowler’s Modern English Usage.” In the “grammar world” Fowler is “where it’s at”__I don’t think he would approve of that sentence. It has been said that having “Fowlers Usage” by your side is like having a “well educated aunt” looking over your shoulder. “Fowler’s” is not “descriptive” grammar, that is, it does not describe what everyone else is saying or doing with their English__no Fowler’s is “prescriptive,” it “prescribes” what you should be saying or doing with your English. Fowler is not subjective he is objective. Henry Watson Fowler knows what’s right and what's wrong. No waffling here, you either say it right or you don’t. He had no doubts. Fowler’s motto: “proper words in proper places.” He would cringe at the liberties I’ve taken in this paragraph. He was an exacting master. In this sense he is prudish and highbrow, but hey if your going to chew sawdust you may as well do it with a great deal of flair and dignity. The unique thing about Fowler is that he does all his prescribing with wit and style. Some of his essays are succinct masterpieces, yet others are impenetrable and obtuse. But the good advice greatly outweighs the pedantic ranting. Some of what Fowler wrote in 1926 is not considered correct today, language changes, but “Modern English Usage” is still considered “the” grammar book, the classic, along with Strunk & White’s, “The Elements of Style,” that all writers should have. Try to find a used first edition of "Modern English Usage" as this is Fowler at his best and most prescriptive unaltered by later revisionists and editors. It’s disconcerting to know that Fowler would put one big red X over this paragraph.