Product Description

The New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors is the essential A-Z guide for everyone who works with words. Drawing on the expertise of the Oxford Dictionaries department, it provides authoritative advice on those words and names which raise questions time after time because of spelling, capitalization, hyphenation, or cultural or historical context. As well as lexical terms, there are many proper names included: from place names and personal names to names of institutions, literary references, and books of the Bible. Entries give full coverage of recommended spellings, variant forms, confusable words, hyphenation, capitalization, foreign and specialist terms, proper names, and abbreviations. The New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors follows in the footsteps of its illustrious predecessor The Authors' and Printers' Dictionary, published in 1905, and later called Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors; for the centenary year, the entries have been reselected, and the text has been entirely rewritten. The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors has long been an indispensable part of any editor's reference shelf; now, the text is even more useful than before, and appears in a new handbook size. It is an essential tool for writers, editors, publishers, journalists, and web editors, and together with New Hart's Rules and the New Oxford Spelling Dictionary forms the complete editorial reference set.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10551 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

Customer Reviews

Beautiful reference book
If you like to write accurately, or have often wondered whether laissez-faire takes italics, this is an excellent reference book. It is full of authoritative guidance on fine points of grammar and spelling, eg the difference between Baliol and Balliol, whether "balaclava" takes a capital, or when you can use the word "gotten". The book is nicely produced, a sensible size (not too huge) and makes you feel erudite the minute you pick it up. It's also fun to browse in.

The only drawback is that some points of spelling or grammar I've wanted to check are not in the book. Result: I've found myself using it less than I expected. So, only four stars.

Essential tool
As a poor punctuator I love this book because it has finally taught me what I should have been doing all along. It is an essential aid to consistency and I feel my work looks more polished as a result of following its guidelines.

Great!

I was led to tick the wrong item
The search engine let me down here. I wanted the 'Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors', which includes a style guide as well as a dictionary. The first item displayed in answer to my search was the 'New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors', which is a dictionary only. I thought it was a new edition of the book I wanted, so I ordered it and was disappointed. It's useful but I still had to buy a style guide!