Even the most brilliant writers now and then lose their footing in their sentences and slip into syntactical, grammatical, or punctuational error. The rest of us can learn from their missteps.
The Gotham Grammarian is a book of rules and guidelines for anyone who believes that correctness and precision still matter. The book illustrates and discusses the ninety-five errors that most often go undetected by extraordinary writers, as well as by editors, copy editors, and proofreaders.
The erroneous specimens (each of which is preceded by a banana-peel icon) have been drawn from distinguished magazines and newspapers, as well as from books brought out by distinguished publishing houses. I am sure to have committed my own share of blunders in writing this book.
Anyone interested in reading further about syntax, grammar, punctuation, and usage is urged to become a lifelong companion of Garner's Modern English Usage, by Bryan A. Garner (fourth edition, Oxford University Press, 2016); Modern American Usage: A Guide, by Wilson Follett (Hill and Wang, 1966); The Careful Writer, by Theodore M. Bernstein (Free Press, 1995); The Handbook of Good English, by Edward D. Johnson (Washington Square Press, 1991); and Understanding Grammar, by Paul Roberts (Harper & Row, 1954).
I consulted Merriam-Webster dictionaries for the spelling of most of the words in the revised versions of erroneous sentences included as examples in this book. The revised versions often reflect my preferences in styling the titles of works and in spelling out certain numbers-as well as my preferences in (or prejudices about) how sentences ought to be punctuated.