This list actually changes over time. At one point, my absolute favorite desk reference was the Cambridge Factfinder (which later became the Penguin Factfinder). This was when I was doing a lot of work for very global companies and needed to look up things like what kind of currency is used in Brazil (Cruzerio Real, abbreviated Cr$) and what’s the country code for dialing Hong Kong (852). At another time it was the Wired Style Guide for definitive answers about when and where to cap web (as in “the Web,” but not webcam, which is preferred as one word says the guide) and whether online was one word, two or hyphenated. Of course those Wired-ish things have evolved and changed since my first edition was published in (gasp) 1999, as really all language does given enough time, but the references listed below are sort of timeless I think.
1) The Elements of Style, Strunk and White. I’ve seen people online argue about whether or not this is a worthy reference, but I’ve got so many stickie notes hanging off the pages I really couldn’t live without it. (OK maybe “live” is dramatic… I certainly couldn’t WORK without it. And let’s never confuse living with working, eh?). I’ve stickied the explanation of serial commas (which, btw, is the American English explanation – British English is the exact opposite, which you can learn in The Economist Style Guide, which did not make this list, but is worth having if you do any writing for people who speak original English vs. ours), the “that, which” entry (also opposite Amer./Brit.), and the “avoid fancy words” discussion. This is my favorite bit of advice in this book: “Utilize. Prefer use.” This is a paraphrase, but basically, it says there’s never a good reason to use “utilize.” “Use” will always work and keeps you from sounding like a pretentious jerk. OH, and I can’t finish up this blurb without nothing that somewhere in the past few years, some very clever person named Maira Kalman created illustrations to accompany this book and it was published as The Elements of Style (illustrated). A VERY fun book to own.
2) The AP Style Guide and its little buddy The Associated Press Guide to Punctuation (which is included in the full guide if you get the fatter version). This is “house style” for a lot of big companies so I finally caved and got one. And I'm really glad I did. The book is exceptionally well organized alphabetically to cover everything, so after explaining the difference between collide and collision and a lengthy explanation of colloquialisms, you’ll find “colon” with a reference telling you to look in the punctuation guide. Further down on that page it has the proper abbreviation for Colorado in print (Colo.).
This is taking much longer than I expected and I need to get to work. I have two more books I want to mention, but it will have to wait.
to be continued…
2 comments:
Does Google count? It's more of a desktop reference. :-) I use it a lot for work - what does this Oracle error mean? What's the proper SQL syntax? What does Tony Orlando look like now? (hey - those of us who can't blow bubbles need some other outlet when it gets really stressful!) Of course, you need to be discerning - not everything on the internets is true. But I'd be lost without the Google, I think.
Books are usually faster than the internets in terms of quickly getting a reliable answer to the kinds of questions I need to answer. When I look up 'Brazil currency' in a book - I know it's already been fact-checked to death. If I google the same, I have to scan the URLs, determine which one(s) are reputable sources, and then when I go there, they may or may not have all I need – both the name and the proper abbreviation. For stuff I need, Google doesn’t really work. I can see though how for questions like you pose, Google is probably the best bet.
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