Lapsing Into a Comma: A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--and How to Avoid Them

by Bill Walsh

Book Overview

No writer's or editor's desk is complete without a battered, page-bent copy of the AP Stylebook . However, this not-so-easy-to-use reference of journalistic style is often not up-to-date and leaves reporters and copyeditors unsatisfied. Bill Walsh, copy chief for the Washington Post's business desk, addresses these shortcomings in Lapsing into a Comma . In an opinionated, humorous, and yes, curmudgeonly way, he shows how to apply the basic rules to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809225352
• ISBN13: 9780809225354
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Light reading for word nerds

Walsh's book is excellent, and a fun read. He even responded quickly to an e-mailed question asking for clarification on a rule regarding quote marks and other punctuation. One caveat about some of the rules -- The book is written with newspaper writing primarily in mind, so some of the rules about how to handle titles may not apply to academic writing. Check the style of what you're working on.

The next Bill Safire?

Bill Walsh does a great service to the English language by building a potent barricade in the war against imprecision, obfuscation and outright misuse. And he makes it a great read as well. A great gift for your favorite college student or federal official!

Great read for copy editors. Money Well Spent.

I just ordered this book. I recently heard about it at the author's website and had to have it. It was money well spent. I'm buying several more for my favorite copy editors. This is a necessity for every copy editor or anyone managing copy for print. The author covered all of my pet peeves and touched on capitalization, math, pronoun and verb use and tech terms. Bill Walsh's choices are sometimes at odds with what we find in the AP Stylebook, but he provides reasonable explanations for his rationale. A good read! This one will remain at arm's length.

The perfect book! Well, it's really good, anyway.

I admit it -- I'm one of those people who can sit in a cornerreading a book on grammar and be perfectly content for hours. I'm also one of those lucky enough to have stumbled across Bill Walsh's Web site...several years ago. Here in this fabulous book he has transferred most of the good advice from his Web site, so that I can now carry it with me wherever I go. (Would I actually do that? Hmm ...)Bill makes the subject of grammar not only readable, but fun. Yes, I said "fun"! He argues against some of the "silly taboos" of ancient grammatical rules, but he also makes suggestions about when to go along with the rules even if they don't make sense, "if only to avoid the scorn of the misinformed legions." His examples are often hilarious: "Individuals who need individuals are the luckiest individuals in the world"; "Why does Paul McCartney want me to live on his piano?" (You'll have to look in the book for an explanation.)No, I'm not on his payroll, but I am in his debt. I've used his advice to help me decide how to rewrite a sentence (I don't always agree with him, but it's a real rarity when I don't) and used his examples to add humor to my day. Once you get the book, don't be surprised if you look up how to use a semicolon and find yourself still reading the book a half hour later, chuckling all the way.

A necessity for all editors

Every copy editor (and many who think they're copy editors) should own and faithfully read and reference this book. "Lapsing into a Comma" has the same wit and humor previously found on Walsh's Web site The Slot, and keeps things in a clear and concise fashion that anyone (and by that I mean non-grammar people like myself) can understand. The book answers several questions the AP Stylebook just doesn't cover, and clarifies several things the stylebook does cover.