New Oxford Style Manual

Does what it says on the tin. Includes a huge amount of information relevant to proofreaders and copy editors together with a handy dictionary to supplement the text. Happy with my purchase? Completely. Suitable for an American market? Maybe if they work to the British system, but we all know that'll never happen! Tomato, tomato, potato, potato and all that...Most importantly my online tutor told me this was the best I could buy; after I went with my gut feel and bought it anyway. In a cost/benefit analysis, this wins hands down.

Great book. Clear, concise, and easy to work with.

Perfect! The condition was great

purchased for a friend. He loves it.

I bought this title recently because I need a definitive guide to style for work. I would have loved this being on Kindle, but it is not, so I made the effort and ordered this manual from the Book Depository.If this book was complete, I would give it a 3-star rating. However, I have just noticed 2 major faults, and I think the book needs to be retired from the market because it is chaos and unusable as it is. These findings are random, found right when consulting this book. I am going to return it.>> Pages 609-656 missing from the printed book!>>> Page 560 is the end of letter E and 561 is beginning of letter F, and letter F is complete in p. 576, then letter G starts at p. 577 and all good and no problem and ends at p. 592, then p. 593 is the start of letter H. , which is incomplete and interrupted at p. 608. What follows is p. 561 and start of letter F, which ends in p. 576. Letter G follows again in p. 577 and ends all complete in 592. Letter H is started all over again in p. 593 and goes well until p. 608 (another 608) and then followed by p. 657, which is the last page of letter L Total chaos.>> I think there must be many more, because even if there are just two blocks of mistakes, they have already created a domino effect on the rest book that makes it useless.This "definitive guide" is definitely not definitive but finite.GOOD THINGS ABOUT THIS BOOK> It is Oxford's word on writing style. Therefore, it is very useful and a must if you are bound by the Oxford style sheet in writing and editing at University or work.> This manual includes two books in one.> You pay two books for the price of one.> Despite the voluminous size, almost 1,000 pages, the book is relatively light and easy to handle.> Hard cover and good binding, so the book is flexible and can be fully opened without the binding resenting it.> The dictionary is helpful at times.> The style manual is helpful at times.HUGE NO-NOSee beginning.MAIN NO-NOSNo-no no. 1 -- Year 2016, 21st century. If you work with texts and editions you most probably work in front of a computer. Having your tools online, on CD-Rom or in electronic format makes work faster, easier and more enjoyable, not to mention the space you save in your shelves. That being the case, I expect any prestigious editorial house to understand that, and to make an effort to have all their manuals in electronic format or at least on CD-Rom. This being the case, I cannot understand why a book like this is not on Kindle or CD-Rom. One of the books in this manual is already available as ebook, why not the other, or why not producing this manual on CD-Rom?No-no no. 2 -- Despite the title, I find this manual not specific for professionals, more for Ph.D. students, and for people who are starting to work in translation, edition or writing, not for people who are already professionals. Professionals have as many doubts as anybody else, but theirs are different and more specific.No-no no. 3 -- Most of the info provided in this book can be found, better and larger in other Oxford manuals and dictionaries or, at times, on the Internet for free, the Oxford Dictionaries Website included.THE CONTENTS OF THIS MANUALThe book includes the New Hart's Rules Manual, the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors and some appendixes, plus an index.1/ THE NEW HART'S RULES MANUAL (NHR onwards)This is Waddingan's published a few months ago, both in hard copy and Kindle, of which I have the Kindle edition. The NHR is not the most useful book for a professional working with language. Many of my doubts were not solved. Like, do you add a full stop at the end of any item in a table? Although it is clear enough, great for beginners, lacks a bit of contextualised use, and it is not exhaustive in explanations or rules. This was one of the reasons I decided to buy this definite book for writers and editors, expecting the shortcomings to be fixed. Oh Well. In my experience, a classic like the Swan's Practical English Language is way more helpful to solve my doubts regarding use than the NHR. I found the book not specially well structured, especially in the references section, and I considered not good separating online from not online references, as sometimes both are provided in a note, and I expect the way of reference a book to be mention both in traditional and online format together. Some of the headings in the book are a bit vague and confusing, not helpful.2/ NEW OXFORD DICTIONARY FOR WRITERS AND EDITORSI work with specialised texts and with specialised vocabulary, some of the word is from Latin, French or Italian, and I always hesitate whether the word is accepted enough and already incorporated into the English Language, and whether I have to use capitals or italics, hyphenate or no, break where. I use, on a daily basis, a Concise Oxford Dictionary in CD-Room (COD onwards) which is great, but it comes short at times for my queries and doubts. I was hoping to get the answers from this specialised dictionary. Well, this has been another disappointment. Although some of my usual doubts are included there, many of them are not.I have done a random sampling for you to see:>> Word colophony THIS BOOK Colophony, rosin. COD colophony /kəˈlɒfəni, ˈkɒləˌfəʊni/ Ⴂnoun another term for rosin. – origin Middle English: from Latin colophonia (resina) ‘(resin) from Colophon’, a town in Lydia, Asia Minor. FREE OXFORD WEBSITE colophony Pronunciation: /kəˈlɒfəni/ Pronunciation: /ˈkɒləˌfəʊni noun. Another term for rosin. Example sentences Origin: Middle English: from Latin colophonia (resina) '(resin) from Colophon', a town in Lydia, Asia Minor. For editors and proofreaders Line breaks: col¦oph|ony Definition of colophony in: US English dictionary>> Word Viaticum not in this manual, included in the COD, and appears with notes for editors in the website, which is more than what you find in this definitive book addressed to professionals.>> High Mass. Ditto. Ditto.>> However, you find words like vibrator...and micro-biographical references to people with such difficult names to spell and remember as... G. Bush and George W. Bush.So the most useful tool for writers and professionals is actually their free look-up tool in their website Isn't that outrageous?3/ APPENDIXESI would have preferred the space devoted to these appendixes to be used to enlarge the dictionary. I have compared the appendixes in this manual against those in the COD and, except for the first two appendixes which are specific for editors and publishers, the others are are available in the COD and those that are not are easily to find on the Internet, secondary-education books and, in the case of symbols, in the symbol chart of your Word program or in specific comprehensive symbol databases on the Internet. The main question to me is, are these appendixes necessary for a professional who has an Internet connection? The answer is NO.The appendixes in this manual are:> Proofreading marks. Useful. Not in the COD> Glossary of printing and publishing terms. Useful. Not in the COD.> Primer Ministers of UK and USA. The COD has the same listing bit it also includes the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia!> Members of the European Union. Not in the COD. Free in the Wikipedia. The UK brexit it!> Greek Alphabet. Also in the COD.> Diacritics, accents, and special sorts. Not in the COD. OK.> Mathematical symbols. OK.> SI Units. Included in the COD.> Metric Prefixes. Available in the COD.> Chemical elements. Also in the COD.The COD, besides those mentioned above, includes: King and Queens of England and the UK; solar system and principal planetary satellites; collective Nouns; countries of the World with their capitals, population and currencies; and States of the USA, with capitals, postal abbreviations and popular names given to each State.4/ GENERAL INDEXThat is OK, more a detailed table of contents than a proper index.IN SHORTThis book (if some pages weren't missing, but they are) is good if you are a student, or beginning to edit books or work in translation. If you are a professional you will find that both the New Hart's Rules and the Dictionary for Writers and Editors included in this manual are handy and helpful at times, but both fall short for what you need. Not my preferred manual. You can have the NHR on Kindle, which comes handy if you work in front of a computer (who doesn't these days?!), and check the Oxford Website for doubts about specific words and the search is free and updated regularly.PS/>> Not even two months since I wrote this review and they have modified the Oxford Dictionaries website, so editorial remarks on a word do not come up as they used to in a search. >> I got the book exchange for free and the second copy was perfect. Yet, a book on edition and publication that has all the mishap I found in the first copy is a clear joke.

It is exactly what one would expect in a style manual from Oxford University Press...it's wonderful.

So useful to have all this info in one volume. Very good value resource.

A BETTER dictionary for Canadians as our english is a blend of UK,and USA influences.

Most exhaustive, thorough and finely done.

Everything as described. Very happy.