The Economist Style Guide, Eighth Edition (The Economist Series)

An invaluable companion for communication

This new, expanded eighth edition of the best-selling guide to style is based on The Economist‘s own house style manual, and is a boon for everyone who wants to communicate with the clarity, style and precision for which The Economistis renowned. As the introduction says, “clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought.”

The Style Guide gives general advice on writing, points out common errors and clichés, offers guidance on consistent use of punctuation, abbreviations and capital letters, and contains an exhaustive range of reference material—covering everything from accountancy ratios and stock market indices to laws of nature and science.Rare is the style guide that a person–even a word person–would want to read cover to cover. But The Economist Style Guide, designed, as the book says, to promote good writing, is so witty and rigorous as to be irresistible. The book consists of three parts. The first is the Economist‘s style book, which acts as a position paper of sorts in favor of clear, concise, correct usage. The big no-noes listed in the book’s introduction are: “Do not be stuffy…. Do not be hectoring or arrogant…. Do not be too pleased with yourself…. Do not be too chatty…. Do not be too didactic…. [And] do not be sloppy.” Before even getting to the letter B, we are reminded that aggravate “means make worse, not irritate or annoy“; that an alibi “is the proven fact of being elsewhere, not a false explanation”; and that anarchy “means the complete absence of law or government. It may be harmonious or chaotic.”

Part 2 of the book describes many of the spelling, grammar, and usage differences between British and American English. While many Briticisms are familiar to most Americans and vice versa, there are some words–such as homely, bomb, and table–that take on quite different meanings altogether when they cross the Atlantic. And part 3 offers a handy reference to such information as common business abbreviations, accountancy ratios, the Beaufort Scale, commodity-trade classifications, currencies, laws, measures, and stock-market indices. The U.S. reader should be aware (but not scared off by the fact) that some of the style issues addressed are specifically British. –Jane Steinberg