I love a well-written language book, especially if it’s humorous and enlightening rather than pedantic and proscriptive. I’ve previously shared my delight with Semicolon by Cecelia Watson. Today I share the very entertaining Writely or Wrongly by journalist Joanne Anderson, who has worked as a sub-editor for major Australian newspapers and developed style guides and language-related newsletters for her colleagues.
Anderson brings a spot of whimsical wit to her deep knowledge of English – its etymology, its nuances, the ways it has shifted over the centuries and how it continues to change. In clear language, and the occasional overblown simile, she shines a light on the frustrations of words that have changed meaning (and maybe changed back) and on the stiff-necked folks who refuse to budge with the times, even when everyone else has moved on.
Her chapters cover vital topics such as ‘rules that aren’t rules’; punctuation, American English, and language arguments to have with lawyers at parties. She points out the use of ‘they’ for the singular, which has been going on for hundreds of years, that there’s nothing actually wrong with split infinitives, and the natural progression of nouns into verbs.
One chapter covers words that are often mixed up. I’ve covered some of those myself, like reign/rein and flaunt/flout, but she also brings in a range of others, as well as covering issues like varied uses of commas, apostrophes, quotation marks and more.
I love how she demonstrates that we English speakers don’t necessarily follow the rigid dictates of dictionaries – rather, the way we use language organically means that what was rare (or wrong) eventually may become common usage, and then become entries in a dictionary which is then wielded as Irrefutable Law for some.
(I say this as a former stickler, who has become more flexible and learned to embrace the ways in which spelling, grammar and punctuation have been seconded [or suborned] to the needs of social media.)
It’s illustrated throughout by Matt Golding, a newspaper cartoonist who demonstrates a love of puns with his work here.
If you’d like a handy guide to writing clear, unstuffy English, or just to enjoy a romp through the language, you can pick up Writely or Wrongly from Allen and Unwin or any bookshop.
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