abstract nouns 47–8
abstraction 40–42, 136, 137, 151–2
academe 210
active voice 63–6
Adams, Douglas 156–7
becoming adverbs 188
and commas 99
and hyphens 107–8
from nouns 188
from adjectives 188
and commas 99
conjunctive 185–6
and hyphens 107–8
affect 201
Agate, Tony 121
ageing 201
agenda 50–51
aging 201
agreement
collective nouns 49
AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) 217–18
Ali, Muhammad 172
‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ 171, 172
Allo Allo 196
alright 201
American Psycho 225
Amis, Martin 235
ampersands 127–8
analogy 156–9
anaphora 174
anecdotes 158
angle brackets 117
annex 201
annexe 201
antecedents 53
anticipate 201–2
antithesis 171–2
appraise 202
apprise 202
Arcadia (Stoppard) 157
aristocracy 266–7
aspect 66–70
attributive adjectives 56–7
Auden, W. H. 62
backslash 126
Barker, Nicola 153
Bartholomew Fayre (Jonson) 203
because of 197
beg the question 202
Belle du Jour 250
Beowulf 94
Berryman, John 128
between you and me 195
bibulous 210
Bishop, Elizabeth 234
block quotation 119–20
blogging 249–51
brain
working memory 79–80, 114, 178
Broca’s area 19
Brown, Brené 154
Brown, Gordon 222
Brown Moses 249–50
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett 178
Buffett, Warren 157
bullet points 127
Burke, Kenneth 27
business letters 225–8
butt 204
call out 210
callbacks 222–3
Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, The (Huddleston and Pullum) 43, 91
Cameron, David 257
Carnegie, Dale 154
Caxton, William 2
centred text 262–3
Chekhov, Anton 152–3
chevrons 117
Chilcot, Sir John 116–17
Child, Lee 82–4
Chomsky, Noam 18
Churchill, Winston 189
classic 202
classical 202
independent 75
climax 168
Clinton, Hillary 244
Clockwork Orange, A (Burgess) 7
close-up 220–22
Coben, Harlan 80–82
collective nouns 48–9
Collins, Phil 240
Comic Sans 263
Coming Up for Air (Orwell) 102
‘Comma-then’ (Franzen) 186
commas 13–14, 88, 89, 97–100, 104
and coordinating conjunctions 136–7
and quotation marks 124–5
common nouns 45–7
comparative adjectives 57–8
complex-compound sentences 77–8, 79
composed 202–3
compound sentences 76, 77, 78–9, 136–7
dashes 103–4
semicolons 101–2
comprised 202–3
conditional mood 70–71
condolences 236–7
conjunctions 24
coordinating 76, 77, 78, 136– 7, 184, 185
parataxis 133
conjunctive adverbs 185–6
Conrad, Joseph 151
contractions 111
convivial 210
coordinating conjunctions 76, 77, 78, 136–7, 184, 185
Coren, Giles 164–6
count nouns 49–50
Cranberries, The 118
crime writing 80–84
Crowley, Megan 152
Crystal, David 88–9, 92, 96, 110
curly brackets 117
CVs 229–31
Cyrano de Bergerac 237–8
Da Vinci Code, The (Brown) 57, 270–71
Daily Mail 242
Daily Mirror Style (Waterhouse) 85
dangling modifiers 186–7
dashes 103–5
data 50–51
decimate 199
décolletage 210
deconstruct 210
decorum 15–16, 34–9, 163–4, 252–3
defining relative clauses 99, 192–3
DeLillo, Don 159
demonstrative pronouns 52
deny 203
deontic modality 71–2
dependent clauses 75, 77–8, 79
derriere 210–11
design 259–64
desserts 206
determiners 56
different to/that/from 197–8
dilemma 203
direct questions 90
discreet 203
discrete 203
disinterested 203
Doctorow, Cory 22
double negatives 196–7
drop intro 220
due to 197
Dylan, Bob 61
e-readers 21–3
Easy Rider 153
Eats, Shoots and Leaves (Truss) 1, 87
Economist’s Style Guide, The 94, 205
editing 131–5
The Academic Repeater 138–40
The Confuser 140–43
The Interrupter 148–50
The Monster 143–8
Pomposo Furioso 135–8
effect 201
Elements of Style (Strunk and White) 1, 43
ellipses 89, 94–6, 105, 114, 116–17
em-dash (em-bar) 103
embonpoint 210
emojis 128–30
emoticons 128–30
en-dash 103
enargia 154–6
End of the World News, The (Burgess) 107
English (verb) 188–9
English for the Natives (Ritchie) 19, 47, 67
Plain English 28–34
plurals 47
enormity 203
enumeratio 176–80
epicene pronouns 54–5
epistemic modality 71–2
epistrophe 174
erotema 175
etymology 199–200
exclamation marks 89, 91–4, 114
expect 201–2
Fahlman, Scott 128
‘Fall of Rome, The’ (Auden) 62
figures 169–80
Fitzgerald, F. Scott 92
flat adverbs 60–61
flaunt 203–4
Flesch-Kincaid score 32–3
flout 203–4
flush-left 262
flush-right 262–3
fonts 263–4
formal agreement 49
Fowler, Henry Watson 1, 85, 200
Fowler’s Modern English Usage (Burchfield) 93, 94, 100, 105, 200
Franklin, Aretha 194
Franzen, Jonathan 186
French (verb) 189
French language 6, 47, 198, 200
full stops 13–14, 88, 89, 96, 259
and dashes 104–5
and parentheses 113–14
and quotation marks 125
fulsome 204
function shift 187–9
Gaiman, Neil 250–51
Gallo, Carmine 154
Garfield, Simon 263–4
gender-neutral pronouns 54–5, 265–6
genre 27–8
gerunds 81–2
Gilead (Robinson) 13–14
Godwin, William 238
Godwin’s Law 157–8
Gotham 264
Green, David Allen 250
greengrocer’s apostrophe 87, 110
Hamlet (Shakespeare) 187
Hammer, M C 47
hanged 204
Hazlitt, William 234
headbutt 204
Helvetica 263
Hemingway, Ernest 79
Henry IV, Part One (Shakespeare) 233
Hensher, Philip 189
Higgins, Eliot 249–50
‘Home is so Sad’ (Larkin) 191
hopefully 204–5
Hopkins, Gerard Manley 30
How To Talk Like TED (Gallo) 154
Hughes, Ted 238–9
hung 204
hypophora 175
identifying people 268–71
identity 24–6
imperative mood 71
imply 205
Incredible Hulk 195
independent clauses 75
indicative mood 71
indirect questions 91
infer 205
see also emails; social media
interrogative mood 71
interrogative pronouns 52
invariably 205
invariant nouns 48
inverted commas 118–26
inverted pyramid 219–20, 230, 248
iPhone 28–9
irregardless 205
Isaacson, Walter 28
Izzard, Eddie 6
Jack of Kent 250
job application letters 229
job descriptions 268–71
Johnson, Dr 92
Johnson, Rebecca 64
Jonson, Ben 203
Joyce, James 20
just desserts 206
Just My Type (Garfield) 263–4
justification 262–3
King, Stephen 61
King’s English, The (Amis) 39
KISS Guide to Cat Care (Walken) 90
Kundera, Milan 103
La, as prefix 211
language 7
abstraction 41
neuroscience 18–20
phatic communication 26–7, 129–30
shibboleths 6–7
see also English language
language wars 1–5, 7–8, 38–9, 181
contested usages 181–99
red rag words 199–207
lay 206
layout and presentation 259–64
leading 260–61
Lee, Spike 58
Lee-Potter, Lynda 60
Lenin, Vladimir 194
Leonard, Elmore 61
letters 225
business letters 225–8
to friends 234–5
job application letters and CVs 229–31
letters of complaint 232–4
letters of condolence 236–7
love letters 237–9
thank you letters 235
see also emails
Levels of Life (Barnes) 236
Lezard, Nick 252
libel 256–7
licence 206
license 206
lie 206
Life Scientific, The 186–7
like 207
limericks 163
line-spacing 260–61
linking verbs 63
lists
brackets 115–16
and comma splice 184–5
enumeratio 176–80
and rhythm 168
semicolons 102
serial comma 99–100
literally 206
litotes 196–7
Little Chef 183–6
loci 21
logos 23
LOL 257
London Fields (Martin Amis) 235
long-form structure 212
planning 213–16
structural tricks 216–24
loop the loop 223–4
love letters 237–9
Lowell, Robert 234
luncheon 211
Luntz, Frank 23
McKay, Peter 220
‘Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two, The’ (Miller) 80
Magnanti, Brooke 250
Magritte, Rene 16
main clauses 75
Major, John 197
Malinowski, Bronisław 26
margins 262
mass nouns 49–51
media 50–51
‘Meditation on John Constable, A’ (Tomlinson) 159
Medusa and the Snail, The (Thomas) 102
metaphor 156–9
Middlemarch (Eliot) 162–3, 167
military titles 267
Miller, George 80
Milton, John 189
mischievious 206–7
Mo’ Better Blues 58
Modern English Usage (Fowler) 1, 200
see also Fowler’s Modern English Usage
modifiers, dangling 186–7
Monty Python 177
negatives, double 196–7
neuroscience 18–20
NHS Litigation Authority 135–8
Nielsen, Jakob 247–9
Nigger of the Narcissus, The (Conrad) 151
Nineteen Eighty-Four (Orwell) 2
non-count nouns 49–51
none is/are 198
Noonan, Peggy 160
notional agreement 49
noun adjuncts 56
abstract 47–8
becoming adjectives 188
collective 48–9
common 45–7
and ‘due to’ 197
gerunds 81
invariant 48
mass 49–51
plural 48
proper 44–5
verbing 187–9
oblique 126–7
one 198–9
Oxford comma 99–100
Palin, Sarah 189
parallelism 170–71
parataxis 133
brackets 112–16
dashed 104–5
Parker, Dorothy 239
Parris, Matthew 36–7
passive voice 63–6
pathos 23
Patton, General 120–22
Peretti, Jonah 243
periods see full stops
Perry, Rick 176–7
persuasion 10
phatic communication 26–7, 129–30
phrasal verbs 73
Pinker, Steven 2, 44, 46, 54, 125
planning 213–16
Plath, Sylvia 238–9
plural 47
plural nouns 48
policemen 15–16
possession 109–10
postcards 235
practice 207
practise 207
predicate 75–6
predicative adjectives 56–7
ending sentences 189–90
prescriptivists 1–5, 38–9, 88, 181, 200
pronouns 51–5
Proust and the Squid (Wolf) 18
Pullum, Geoffrey K. 2, 43, 91, 125–6
punctuation 13–14, 74, 87–9, 159, 259
ampersand 127–8
apostrophe 109–11
brackets 112–18
bullet points 127
colon 100–101
comma 97–100
dash 103–5
ellipsis 94–6
emoticons 128–30
exclamation mark 92–4
full stop 89
hashtag 127
hyphen 105–9
question mark 90–92
quotation marks and inverted commas 118–26
semicolon 101–3
slash 126–7
questions 174–6
quotation marks 118–26
ragged-right 262
readability tests 32–4
books 20–21
neuroscience of 18–20
online and on-screen 21–3, 247–9
saccades 259–60
rebut 203
red rag words 199–207
refute 203
register 15–16, 34–9, 163–4, 252–3
relative clauses 52, 99, 191–3
relative pronouns 52
that, which and who 190–93
who and whom 193–4
religious titles 267
restrictive relative clauses 99, 192–3
rhetoric 169
rhetorical questions 175
right-branching sentences 80–84, 160
Robinson, Marilynne 13–14
Ronson, Jon 251
round brackets 112–16
Rovelli, Carlo 157
Rowse, A. L. 163–4
run-on sentences 183–6
saccades 259–60
Sacco, Justine 251
scare quotes 123
SCRAP (Situation, Complication, Resolution, Action, Politeness) 218
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) 247
Sense of Style, The (Pinker) 54
beginning with conjunctions 189, 190
ending with prepositions 189–90
hypotaxis 133–4
parataxis 133
parentheses 134
run-on 183–6
surgery 131–50
serial comma 99–100
Shakespeare, William 187, 210, 233
shibboleths 6–7
sic 118
similes 156–9
slash 126–7
smileys 128
snuck 207
SOAP (Situation, Objective, Appraisal, Proposal) 218–19
social media 38, 240, 241, 251–9
emojis 128–30
full stops 95–6
spam filters 245–6
‘Spanish Inquisition’ sketch 177
speaking 11–17
berks and wankers 39
spelling 74
Stallings, A E 188
Star Trek 182
Stevenson, Bryan 154
Stoppard, Tom 157
storytelling 152–4
subject 75–6
subordinate clauses 75, 77–8, 79
subtweeting 256
such as 207
superlative adjectives 57–8
supersede 207
suspended hyphens 108
syntheton 161
TED talks 154
tense 66–70
thank you letters 235
that 190–93
Thatcher, Margaret 158
Thomas, Lewis 102
thrillers 80–84
tome 211
Tomlinson, Charles 159
tone of voice 15–16, 34–9, 163–4, 252–3
ellipsis 95–6
typefaces 263–4
Ulysses 20
Utley, T. E. 143–8
Utley, Tom 143–4
and ‘because of’ 197
choosing 72–4
and collective nouns 49
gerunds 81
phrasal 73
tense, aspect and mood 66–72
voice 63–6
vocabulary
red rag words 199–207
wrong notes 208–11
voice (verbs) 63–6
Walken, Christopher 90
Wallace, David Foster 39–42
Waterhouse, Keith 85
Weiner, Anthony 239
Wernicke’s area 19
which 191–3
Whitehouse, David 253–4
who 191–4
whom 193–4
Wiesel, Elie 223–4
Wilde, Oscar 210
Williams, William Carlos 68
Wilson, Frances 186
‘Wind-Hover, The’ (Hopkins) 30
wireless 211
Wolf, Maryanne 18
Wolfe, David 42
Wolfinger, Ray 158
Wollstonecraft, Mary 238
Woods, The (Coben) 81–2
Wordsworth, Saul 253
Wordsworth, William 94
working memory 79–80, 114, 178
Worth Dying For (Child) 82–4
abstract versus concrete 39–42
cadence 159–69
contested usages 181–99
editing 131–50
figures 169–80
language wars 1–5, 7–8, 38–9, 181
layout and presentation 259–64
letters 225–40
long-form structure 212–24
metaphor, simile and analogy 156–9
painting pictures 154–6
paragraphs, sections and chapters 85–6
Plain English 28–34
planning 213–16
register 34–9
for the screen 240–59
sentences 79–84
and speaking 11–17
storytelling 152–4
structural tricks 216–24
vocabulary 199–211
Yips, The (Barker) 153