The chief aim of the Guide to English Usage is to help people to express themselves clearly and to communicate more easily in both speech and writing through a better understanding of the English language. Set out in alphabetical order for ease of reference, the Guide deals with a variety of topics. There are articles om punctuation showing the correct use of commas, quotation marks, semicolons, the apostrophe and others. Althought it is in no sense a grammar book, it does deal with specific points of grammar where these may prove a source of difficulity and of course the aid of grammar is enlisted where necessary to point out the misuse of words-a frequent source of error. English spelling bristles with difficulties and a number of entries have been devoted to this particular problem. Special attention has also been paid to American spelling where this differs from British English. Words whose meanings are confused(and there are, unfortunately, a large number of these) are dealt with together so that the distinction between them can be clearly pointed out.
This book is intended to be a concise but comprehensive guide to good English, and every effort has been made to present the information it contains in the simplest possible terms and to illustrate it with examples wherever practicable. The authors hope that, with the Guide, they have made a useful contribution to the understanding of English, in which everybody will find something of value.