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1-Page Summary of Dreyer’s English
Ignore the “nonrules” that make writing harder and less enjoyable than it needs to be.
Dreyer, an editor at Random House, believes that subject-verb agreement is the only rule of English grammar that is important. Many other rules are just conventions that help people communicate. However, he says you should ignore many so-called rules because they don’t serve a purpose. If your sentences sound good when read aloud then it doesn’t matter if they break the “rules”.
The author lists three tips that make writing harder than it needs to be: 1. Don’t start sentences with “and” or “but.” Great writers do it whenever they like, but you shouldn’t overdo it. 2. Don’t split infinitives when you’re trying to boldly go where no man has gone before.
- Don’t end a sentence with a preposition and don’t use contractions. There are times when it’s better to emphasize the outcome of an action rather than the actor, so avoid using passive constructions. Avoid sentence fragments as well.
Even with all the rules, Dreyer wisely recommends cutting words that are “wan intensifiers and throat clearers.” These include: very, rather, really, quite (in the sense of “not much”), so (in the sense of “extremely”), pretty (“pretty” tedious), of course, surely (as in ‘surely you’re joking’), and actually.
Effective punctuation helps a reader navigate your prose to arrive at the meaning you intend.
Dreyer offers many simple explanations of grammar. For example, he says that punctuation is the reader’s guide to how you want your writing to be read. He also states that if a sentence looks like it could be a question but it isn’t, ending it with a period rather than a question mark can work well. Another example given by Dreyer is not putting question marks at the beginning of sentences such as “I wonder” or “Guess who,” because they aren’t questions.
The author bravely decides to tackle the serial comma debate. The serial comma is a comma before the last item in a list, also known as an Oxford comma. Dreyer believes that we should use it because leaving one out can cause confusion.
Commas are used in a list when any of the items contains a comma. If you’re using commas to connect two sentences, make sure they’re not run-on sentences. Also, use commas before “too” at the end of a sentence if it sounds right. Colons announce upcoming information that’s worth paying attention to. They sound loud, so don’t overuse them. Dreyer insists that apostrophes should only be added for plurals on letters or numbers, as in “p’s and q’s.” If you want to show possession with an_ s on the end of a word without adding an apostrophe like most people do by default (like Smiths), then add an _s. You can also pluralize family names by simply adding an s (or more if needed).
Using square brackets in your writing indicates that you are adding to or altering the source material. You can also use it if there is an error in quoted text, such as a typo or some other mistake. Make sure not to sneer at the stupidity of this quote by using “sic” (the Latin word for thus). Use italics instead of quotation marks for emphasis on certain words and phrases. British and American English punctuate differently when using quotation marks: Americans put commas and periods inside the terminal quotation mark, while Brits place them outside.
Many hyphenations have disappeared, but we should continue that trend. Use longer em dashes to interrupt dialog and shorter en dashes to connect multiword phrases more firmly than a hyphen and for page references, sports scores, and court decision votes.
