Re: Reference/Style manual

[Jim Grey <jwg -at- ACD4 -dot- ACD -dot- COM>]

I claim there ain't no such beast as Janet Foltz's dreamed-of "Do-All-And-
End-All Style Guide (tm)".

I have a number of writing references on my shelf:

  o Warriner's English Grammar and Composition, Complete Course
    I use this guy more than anything else.  It's copyrighted 1957!
    There are more recent versions; they're all basically the same.  This
    was my mom's in high school; she was apparently dating someone named
    Ricky then, because his name and little hearts are pencilled in the
    margins.
  o The Beacon Handbook, by Robert Perrin, a professor at Indiana State
    University here in Terre Haute.  Tries to be a modern-day Warriner, but
    is too liberal for my taste.  It was free; what the hey.  It has also
    once or twice been the only source for an answer.
  o The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage.  Part of the 3-free-books
    deal from the Quality Paperback Club.
  o The Elements of Style / The Elements of Grammar / The Elements of
    Editing.  Counted as 1 book in the QPB freebie deal.
  o Writing Better Computer User Documentation v2.0, by John Brockmann.
    The first version was the text in my one (1) tech writing class I took
    in college; I liked it so much I bought the next version when it came
    out.

I also used to have this book called something like The Gregg Secretary's
Reference, which listed all kinds of typing conventions and corporate
usage conventions and such.  I lent it to someone, I forget who, and now
it's gone.  That book, when I got it, answered a long-burning question in
the department about whether to use a comma after the company's Inc. in
a sentence.  "X, Inc., reserves... or X, Inc. reserves... -- turns out
because there's a comma after X, one's needed after Inc.  When a company
uses no comma after X, none is needed after Inc.  *Nowhere* else have I
seen anything like that.

So I am always looking for another reference that tells me something more
than the references already on my shelf.  I especially like it when multiple
sources have slightly-out-of-phase opinions, because then I'm free to do
it the way I like best! :)

I looked, by the way, and none of my references say anything about
annotated bibliographies, either.  Lots about bibliographies in general,
but nary a word about the annotated variety.  Wouldn't know one if I hit
one with my car.


jim grey         |beebeebumbleandthestingersmottthehoopleraycharlessingers
jwg -at- acd4 -dot- acd -dot- com |lonniemackandtwangandeddiehere'smyringwe'regoingsteadyta
GO/M d p+ c++(-) l u+ e- m*@ s+/ n+ h f++ g- w+@ t+ r- y+(*)
Terre Haute, IN -- The Silicon Cornfield