About Tim Albert Training

Useful pointers
on style

Other categories of books include:

Writing process

Medical writing

Journals and journalism

Grammar and style

Plain Words for Nurses: Writing and Communicating Effectively, Alison Turnbull, London: The Foundation of Nursing Studies, 2001. A useful book for nurses who want to know how to write simply (see review).

Quite literally: problem words and how to use them, Wynford Hicks, London, Routledge, 2004. Thorough and very useful guide on a range of difficult issues, from spelling and confusions to political correctness. Recommended to all those who should be taking their writing seriously (see review).

Eats, shoots and leaves: the zero tolerance approach to punctuation, Lynne Truss, Profile Books, 2003. An entertaining romp around punctuation by British journalist and broadcaster. Entertaining and good for sensitising writers (and readers). Less good as a basic text (see review).

Fowler's revised 3rd edition, RW Burchfield, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. A standard and highly regarded reference work. Not recommended for bedside reading, but excellent for settling disputes over grammar and style (see review).

New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: OUP, 1998. Another classic reference book (see review).

The elements of style, Strunk and White. Definitive guide to an effective style - now in its fourth edition (see review).

The plain English guide, Martin Cutts, Oxford: OUP, 1996. This book, written by one of the pioneers of the plain English movement, shows just how easy it is to write in an understandable way. What he doesn’t cover is how to change attitudes so that this kind of writing becomes valued once again.

The good English guide, Godfrey Howard, London: Pan Macmillan 1993. Similar to the above but less stuffy.

The complete plain words (third edition), Sir Ernest Gowers, revised by Sidney Greenbaum and Janet Whitcut, London: HMSO, 1986. Classic work by and for the British civil service.

Troublesome words, Bill Bryson, London: Penguin (revised),1999. An early book by one of the most popular writers of the 1990s. Even normally dull subjects such as word derivations and rules of grammar become an entertaining read.

English for jounalists, (second edition) Wynford Hicks, Routledge, 1998. Most books on grammar are long, boring and largely incomprehensible. Wynford Hicks, on the other hand, manages a quick whizz round the main rules of grammar in 16 pages, which is about right. The rest of the book gives useful pointers on style.

Righting English that's gone Dutch, by Joy Burrough-Boenisch, The Hague: Sdu uitgevers, 1998. This book 'explores the zone where Dutch and English meet and gives advice on writing English right'. (see review)

The Orwell reader: ficition, essays and reportage, San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1984. A massive collection of writing, including the 1946 essay on Politics and the English language. Still widely quoted and still relevant. Simplify your English, he writes, and 'when you make a stupid remark your stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself'.

The Times Guide to English Style and Usage, compiled by Tim Austin, London: Times Books, HarperCollinsPublishers, 1999. (see review)