One Day in the Life of the English Language: A Microcosmic Usage Handbook

RR 2015/301 One Day in the Life of the English Language: A Microcosmic Usage Handbook Frank L. Cioffi Princeton University Press Princeton, NJ and Oxford 2015 xviii + 355 pp. ISBN 978 0 691 16507 3 (print); ISBN 978 1 400 86575 8 (e-book) £16.95 $24.95

Keywords English language, Grammar, Guides and handbooks

Review DOI 10.1108/RR-07-2015-0179

Does grammar still have a place in the digital generation of tweeting and autocorrect? Using "real-world" examples from newspapers and magazines published on one day - 29 December 2009 - English professor Frank L. Cioffi aims to prove how the "ethics of language use" helps us to communicate clearly and effectively.

Grammar handbooks - the "proverbial ugly duckling of textbooks", in Cioffi's words - come in a proliferation of levels, styles and approaches, often enforcing outmoded rules such...