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The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly
Fasten your seat belt for a crash course in careful usage.
Just like automobile accidents, accidents of style occur all over the English-speaking world, in print and on the internet, thousands of times every day. They range from minor fender benders, such as confusing "their" and "there," to serious smashups, such as using "sensual" for "sensuous" or writing "loathe" when you mean "loath."
Charles Harrington Elster shows you how to navigate the hairpin turns of grammar, diction, spelling, and punctuation with an entertaining driver's manual covering 350 common word hazards and infractions, arranged in order of complexity for writers of all levels.
Just like automobile accidents, accidents of style occur all over the English-speaking world, in print and on the internet, thousands of times every day. They range from minor fender benders, such as confusing "their" and "there," to serious smashups, such as using "sensual" for "sensuous" or writing "loathe" when you mean "loath."
Charles Harrington Elster shows you how to navigate the hairpin turns of grammar, diction, spelling, and punctuation with an entertaining driver's manual covering 350 common word hazards and infractions, arranged in order of complexity for writers of all levels.
269 pages, Paperback
First published July 14, 2010
36 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
About the author
Charles Harrington Elster
45 books53 followersCharles Harrington Elster is a writer, broadcaster, and logophile—a lover of words.
He is the author and narrator of the audio vocabulary-building program Verbal Advantage and the book by the same name. His other books include Tooth and Nail and Test of Time, vocabulary-building novels for high school students preparing to take the college entrance exams; There's a Word for It, a lighthearted look at unusual—and unusually useful—words; and The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations, which William Safire of The New York Times hailed as "the best survey of the spoken field in years." In 2005 Harcourt published What in the Word? Wordplay, Word Lore, and Answers to Your Peskiest Questions About Language, and in 2006 Houghton Mifflin released the second edition of The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations, featuring nearly 200 new entries.
Charlie was pronunciation editor of the seventh and eighth editions of Black's Law Dictionary and a consultant for Garner's Modern American Usage. He is a guest contributor to the "On Language" column of The New York Times Magazine, and his articles have appeared in the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and other publications.
Charlie has also been talking about language on the radio since 1985. He has been interviewed on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, Weekend Edition, and All Things Considered and been a guest on hundreds of radio shows around the country. For five and a half years he cohosted a weekly public radio talk show on language called A Way with Words.
Charlie was born in New York City in 1957 and earned his B.A. cum laude from Yale in 1981. He lives in San Diego with his wife and two daughters.
He is the author and narrator of the audio vocabulary-building program Verbal Advantage and the book by the same name. His other books include Tooth and Nail and Test of Time, vocabulary-building novels for high school students preparing to take the college entrance exams; There's a Word for It, a lighthearted look at unusual—and unusually useful—words; and The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations, which William Safire of The New York Times hailed as "the best survey of the spoken field in years." In 2005 Harcourt published What in the Word? Wordplay, Word Lore, and Answers to Your Peskiest Questions About Language, and in 2006 Houghton Mifflin released the second edition of The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations, featuring nearly 200 new entries.
Charlie was pronunciation editor of the seventh and eighth editions of Black's Law Dictionary and a consultant for Garner's Modern American Usage. He is a guest contributor to the "On Language" column of The New York Times Magazine, and his articles have appeared in the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and other publications.
Charlie has also been talking about language on the radio since 1985. He has been interviewed on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, Weekend Edition, and All Things Considered and been a guest on hundreds of radio shows around the country. For five and a half years he cohosted a weekly public radio talk show on language called A Way with Words.
Charlie was born in New York City in 1957 and earned his B.A. cum laude from Yale in 1981. He lives in San Diego with his wife and two daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 12, 2024
A usage book for the most passionate English-language nerd, The Accidents of Style is a rung above the stuffy and somewhat-outdated The Elements of Style. In its push for accuracy, it’s on the same level as the superb Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, but it’s worlds more thorough than either of those books, making it the best to own. It also differs in tone. E.B. White and William Strunk are direct and impersonal sticklers. Benjamin Dreyer is a funny and nonjudgmental stickler. Elster is a funny stickler too, but in an often-inventive, biting, cranky way, and because of that, some may find him brash. But most people, even those who make plenty of mistakes themselves, find incorrect usage irritating to their core and will surely relate to Elster’s brashness at least some of the time.
Readers should know that The Accidents of Style concerns American English, which Elster makes clear more than once. It’s still useful to those who speak British English, however, because the parts that apply to American English only (mainly spelling differences) are few. Many of his entries are the same as those in The Elements of Style, but The Accidents of Style builds greatly upon that one, both in number of entries and length of explanations (although none are overly long; following his own instruction, Elster is a succinct writer). The Accidents of Style shows he strongly subscribes to The Elements of Style’s wise mantra: “Omit needless words.” But to this he adds “be accurate.” As he says, “There is usage, and then there is conscientious usage.”
I identified six main messages (correct version bolded):
Additionally, like many authors of these kinds of books, Elster shies away from a grammar lesson even when that would be the most straightforward explanation for some entries. An example is “averse” versus “adverse.” This would be better with the succinct explanation that both are adjectives, just used in different ways, something that could then be shown with example sentences. If he was worried readers wouldn’t know what adjectives and other parts of speech are, he could have included a brief refresher in a preface—but it’s unlikely those reading a book like this don’t know this most basic of grammar.
These weak spots are uncommon enough that they don’t detract from the quality of Elster’s book, though, and it stands out favorably from the others in its huge number of quality entries and clear explanations. He left out a few entries I consider essential, but otherwise The Accidents of Style is thorough and most of all valuable. It’s even progressive for a book published in 2010 (and by someone who’s an English-language purist at that): He doesn’t sneer at the use of “they” as a substitute for “he” and “he/she,” and he matter-of-factly labels the use of “he” exclusionary. This is one of the few usage spots where Elster supports the standard changing—because the change fills a need. The Accidents of Style has a strong identity as a book upholding English-language standards, though, and will appeal to those committed to standards.
Readers should know that The Accidents of Style concerns American English, which Elster makes clear more than once. It’s still useful to those who speak British English, however, because the parts that apply to American English only (mainly spelling differences) are few. Many of his entries are the same as those in The Elements of Style, but The Accidents of Style builds greatly upon that one, both in number of entries and length of explanations (although none are overly long; following his own instruction, Elster is a succinct writer). The Accidents of Style shows he strongly subscribes to The Elements of Style’s wise mantra: “Omit needless words.” But to this he adds “be accurate.” As he says, “There is usage, and then there is conscientious usage.”
I identified six main messages (correct version bolded):
1) People tend toward inaccuracy and are easily fooled by words and phrases that don't just sound similar but plausible. These are called “eggcorns.” (e.g., have another think coming/have another thing coming; buck naked/butt naked).
2) People are enamored of filler words, especially intensifiers (e.g., “absolutely” and “totally”), and they favor long-winded ways of stating something simple because they think the long-winded way sounds more intelligent.
3) People tend to, as I put it, get things wrong by one degree (e.g., home in/hone in; champing at the bit/chomping at the bit; set foot in/step foot in; fill the bill/fit the bill).
4) Most people neglect to think through what they say and write. Carelessness results in sentences that contain filler junk, redundancies, and inaccuracies. Pausing to think and scrutinize makes all the difference.
5) People should consult a reputable usage guide, preferably one in print. The “Grammar Girl” site and others like it are unreliable guides (as Elster proved with corrections to a few mistaken entries).
6) Along similar lines, and a crucial point that almost nobody knows but that everyone should: Dictionaries are one of two kinds—descriptive or prescriptive. The dictionaries people should be consulting for the accurate, original definition of a word are prescriptive dictionaries. A descriptive dictionary is a recording of how a word is most commonly used, even if that usage is flat-out incorrect. (On “nerve-racking,” the author says, “Dictionaries list nerve-wracking as a variant spelling, but don’t be bamboozled by that; dictionaries recognize anything that occurs frequently, even if it is considered a mistake.”) Unfortunately, most dictionaries now are descriptive (which is why updated editions get published). The mistakes Elster calls attention to will be added to descriptive dictionaries eventually unless people course-correct en masse, which is unlikely.This book is nearly perfect. Its tiny weak spots have to do with grammar. In two entries, Elster ties verb agreement to a word he identifies as the subject inside a prepositional phrase, so it appears he didn’t understand that the subject of a sentence always sits outside a prepositional phrase. This is a significant grammatical mistake on its own, and here it unfortunately invalidates both entries.
Additionally, like many authors of these kinds of books, Elster shies away from a grammar lesson even when that would be the most straightforward explanation for some entries. An example is “averse” versus “adverse.” This would be better with the succinct explanation that both are adjectives, just used in different ways, something that could then be shown with example sentences. If he was worried readers wouldn’t know what adjectives and other parts of speech are, he could have included a brief refresher in a preface—but it’s unlikely those reading a book like this don’t know this most basic of grammar.
These weak spots are uncommon enough that they don’t detract from the quality of Elster’s book, though, and it stands out favorably from the others in its huge number of quality entries and clear explanations. He left out a few entries I consider essential, but otherwise The Accidents of Style is thorough and most of all valuable. It’s even progressive for a book published in 2010 (and by someone who’s an English-language purist at that): He doesn’t sneer at the use of “they” as a substitute for “he” and “he/she,” and he matter-of-factly labels the use of “he” exclusionary. This is one of the few usage spots where Elster supports the standard changing—because the change fills a need. The Accidents of Style has a strong identity as a book upholding English-language standards, though, and will appeal to those committed to standards.
July 15, 2022
Well, first and foremost (and yes, this is indeed very much the case for me regarding both The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly as a book, as a presented text and Charles Harrington Elster as the author), the question must indeed and definitely be asked why such a sizeable majority of English language style gurus so very often seem to almost rabidly and vehemently insist on and even gleefully relish being pretentious, arrogant, and truly at times so holier than thou that authors like Harrington Elster (or as another example Richard Lederer) really do seem to insinuate that the sun must somehow rise and set according to their points of views, according to their takes on the English language, that they, that these style gurus supposedly never make mistakes and that what they claim is a stylistic English language gaffe is bien sûr totally that and is equally also seemingly something almost unforgivable.
And with the above in mind, I really do find The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly rather ridiculously unreadable and thus also pretty painfully annoying and uncomfortable, and no, NOT AT ALL because of the featured stylistic advice, as I do happen to agree with the vast majority of the “bad English” examples presented in The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly (although I do think that Charles Harrington Elster needs to understand and accept that British, Australian and Canadian orthography and usage are in all ways as acceptable as American English orthography and usage, or that at least this should ALWAYS be the case) but rather totally and utterly because in my humble opinion how Harrington Elster gives his advice is mostly frustratingly arrogantly nasty and like the author has some gigantic proverbial chip on his shoulder.
For come on, Mr. Harrington Elster, even if some of the commonly occurring English language usage gaffes you are presenting in The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly really do manage to majorly frustrate you, like for example, how many individuals do not know the difference between who and whom and that many also keep using the verbs lay and lie incorrectly because they do not know how to conjugate verbs anymore, well, for one, you will (as I have noticed teaching German grammar) get a much more positive result and an increased willingness to take grammar and syntax advice seriously if you were to give this in The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly without sarcasm, without arrogant asides and digs, and that for two, if you really do desire complaining about bad English language writing style and errors of usage, especially with regard to the lack of grammatical and syntactical know-how that is so widespread and common today, blame in particular public education and that many Canadian and American school boards do not consider teaching English grammar important anymore and often do not even allow teachers to teach English grammar. But DO NOT act all snarky towards your intended audience, towards those who need stylistic advice, as they are often the victims here and are also actually reading The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly and do not deserve being insulted and denigrated.
And combined with the fact that I also consider the non alphabetical set-up and listings for The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly unorganised and user-unfriendly, for me, The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly rates with only two stars and is in fact and indeed ONLY recommended for those writing style advice seekers who have no issues with author arrogance and that Charles Harrington Elster seems totally full of himself.
And with the above in mind, I really do find The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly rather ridiculously unreadable and thus also pretty painfully annoying and uncomfortable, and no, NOT AT ALL because of the featured stylistic advice, as I do happen to agree with the vast majority of the “bad English” examples presented in The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly (although I do think that Charles Harrington Elster needs to understand and accept that British, Australian and Canadian orthography and usage are in all ways as acceptable as American English orthography and usage, or that at least this should ALWAYS be the case) but rather totally and utterly because in my humble opinion how Harrington Elster gives his advice is mostly frustratingly arrogantly nasty and like the author has some gigantic proverbial chip on his shoulder.
For come on, Mr. Harrington Elster, even if some of the commonly occurring English language usage gaffes you are presenting in The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly really do manage to majorly frustrate you, like for example, how many individuals do not know the difference between who and whom and that many also keep using the verbs lay and lie incorrectly because they do not know how to conjugate verbs anymore, well, for one, you will (as I have noticed teaching German grammar) get a much more positive result and an increased willingness to take grammar and syntax advice seriously if you were to give this in The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly without sarcasm, without arrogant asides and digs, and that for two, if you really do desire complaining about bad English language writing style and errors of usage, especially with regard to the lack of grammatical and syntactical know-how that is so widespread and common today, blame in particular public education and that many Canadian and American school boards do not consider teaching English grammar important anymore and often do not even allow teachers to teach English grammar. But DO NOT act all snarky towards your intended audience, towards those who need stylistic advice, as they are often the victims here and are also actually reading The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly and do not deserve being insulted and denigrated.
And combined with the fact that I also consider the non alphabetical set-up and listings for The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly unorganised and user-unfriendly, for me, The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly rates with only two stars and is in fact and indeed ONLY recommended for those writing style advice seekers who have no issues with author arrogance and that Charles Harrington Elster seems totally full of himself.
March 2, 2011
Quite an interesting book, in spite of the author's position atop his high horse. Some of the errors listed I consider so basic I winced when I saw the entries, and others are more subtle (though I knew the "correct answer" - yay!); there were some instances (thankfully, not many) where I came to realize I'd been writing wrong, some where I agreed with what he was saying, but have no problem with the "incorrect" form (usually with a disclaimer such as "Though X is widespread in common usage, I'm going to cling to only Y as acceptable), and a couple of points on which I fully disagreed (the "error" he decries is the overwhelming current form, and he's clinging to the relic).
Definitely recommended, as long as you can roll your eyes when he gets worked up over (almost) nothing on occasion.
Definitely recommended, as long as you can roll your eyes when he gets worked up over (almost) nothing on occasion.
July 14, 2022
The idea is that there are common grammatical/usage mistakes made by writers, and it's akin to an auto accident. The writer is a serious prescriptivist (and apparently a Yalie, since I learned of the book through the alumni mag). He covers 350 different misuses!! It might have been interesting to own, but no good for reading straight through. It just gets to be too much. I didn't actually finish, since I got it as a library book and someone had it on hold when I went to renew. But I don't feel obligated to get it again and finish. I did try to look something up---whether the neither/nor construction should be used with more than two elements. But even though two of his 350 were about 'neither/nor', this was not directly addressed, so that was a little frustrating.
April 7, 2012
I'm looking around and some people say that the author is too cocky, too worried over little things. Well yea. He has a right to be. Stuff like this is his passion, and so he has the right to go crazy. I mean, it's a book on the misuse of the English language. It's kinda obvious that there's going to be huge details on every little thing. Besides, what YOU consider "little" might "big" to another person. Not everyone is at the same level as you (who's being high and mighty now?). Also, if you're freaked out over the huge amount of information present...shut up. No one's asking you to remember everything. There's a fucking index, for christ's sake.
December 8, 2015
The following review contains at least 24 accidents of style. Can you find them all? Answers at end.
1) I can not tell you how helpful the book accidents of style was to me. 2) It had a positive affect on me. 3) I have been meaning to write a review for awhile but I waited ‘til I had more time. 4) My English usage, I thought was alright until I read this book and realized it wasn’t my forté. 5) In fact and it goes without saying, when I realized how many errors I make I was nauseous with the understanding. 6) I felt a change coming, I decided to hone in on my own personnel accidents of style. 7) I read the book voracious, dwelled into it’s secrets and keep it by my desk as a guide. 8) If you write alot, I would like to convince you to read this book. 9) Don’t be discouraged if you feel like you are a long ways off. 10) I promise, you won’t be bored of it!
Answers:
1) Can not should be cannot. accidents of style should be capitalized and set off with commas.
2) Affect should be effect.
3) Awhile should be a while. Need a comma before but. ‘til should be till or until.
4) I thought should be set off with commas before and after. Alright should be all right. Forté should be forte.
5) In fact is unnecessary filler wording. It goes without saying is unnecessary filler wording. Nauseous should either be felt nausea or nauseated since nauseous is the property of the thing causing the sensation. i.e. nauseous cigar smell.
6) Comma splice—comma should be a period. Hone in should be home in. Personnel should be personal.
7) Voracious should be voraciously. Dwelled should be delved. It’s should be its.
8) Alot should be a lot. Would like should be want. Convince should be persuade. (Convince is when you want someone to believe something. Persuade is used when you want someone to take action.)
9) Ways should be way.
10) Bored of should be bored by or bored with. ! is unnecessary.
1) I can not tell you how helpful the book accidents of style was to me. 2) It had a positive affect on me. 3) I have been meaning to write a review for awhile but I waited ‘til I had more time. 4) My English usage, I thought was alright until I read this book and realized it wasn’t my forté. 5) In fact and it goes without saying, when I realized how many errors I make I was nauseous with the understanding. 6) I felt a change coming, I decided to hone in on my own personnel accidents of style. 7) I read the book voracious, dwelled into it’s secrets and keep it by my desk as a guide. 8) If you write alot, I would like to convince you to read this book. 9) Don’t be discouraged if you feel like you are a long ways off. 10) I promise, you won’t be bored of it!
Answers:
1) Can not should be cannot. accidents of style should be capitalized and set off with commas.
2) Affect should be effect.
3) Awhile should be a while. Need a comma before but. ‘til should be till or until.
4) I thought should be set off with commas before and after. Alright should be all right. Forté should be forte.
5) In fact is unnecessary filler wording. It goes without saying is unnecessary filler wording. Nauseous should either be felt nausea or nauseated since nauseous is the property of the thing causing the sensation. i.e. nauseous cigar smell.
6) Comma splice—comma should be a period. Hone in should be home in. Personnel should be personal.
7) Voracious should be voraciously. Dwelled should be delved. It’s should be its.
8) Alot should be a lot. Would like should be want. Convince should be persuade. (Convince is when you want someone to believe something. Persuade is used when you want someone to take action.)
9) Ways should be way.
10) Bored of should be bored by or bored with. ! is unnecessary.
November 25, 2010
a humorous & helpful style guide. this is one of the few books from which i actually learned something! & in fact, i learned a lot! even the intro had me laughing, as the author says that "experienced writers will make fewer mistakes, while apprentice writer will, unfortunately, make less." if you didn't get this joke, you need this book. & if you did get this joke, you're a huge nerd like me who will undoubtedly enjoy this book! though in writing this review, i broke the exclamation point rule most egregiously.
July 23, 2016
Interesting approach to a topic near and dear to lovers of language. Elster identifies the common offenders and walks us through them, entry by entry, so we don't make the same mistakes again. While I agree with him most of the time, some entries seem to be a bit of a reach. Some figures of speech or constructions he labels "accidents of style" to be avoided completely, are really more a matter of opinion. His is an expert opinion, for which we are grateful, but some of the "corrections" are clearly his personal preference. Still, a good resource.
February 21, 2012
A fun usage guide that would have appealed to me a bit more if Elster wasn't so snarky.
December 23, 2023
Insightful guide for anyone interested in language, writing, and proper usage. The writer shows his sense of humor, which made for a fun read.
January 19, 2025
Useful language guide, fun for a language nerd like me to read.
July 21, 2016
Always more I can learn, or relearn, about the English language so I found the book interesting. However, I thought the author was sometimes too self-righteous about minor issues. I agree that clear and concise language and punctuation is important, but I think being so prescriptive makes one hesitant to write at all.
November 29, 2010
I took it out of the library and stared at it. Hoping that none of the accidents had happened to me. But alas, after reading it I realized many had. Hopefully, I can retain enough of the information to ensure that they don't happen again, or at least less frequently.
March 23, 2015
This book looks so promising that I'm going to buy my own copy. I was convinced when I saw the section that discusses eager versus anxious; it's hard not to love a book that has the same pet peeves as I do!
September 8, 2010
350 errors of punctuation, spelling, grammar and usage .....whew! I
can not (cannot) imagine their (there) being a way for my friend and me (I) remember every last (every) one!!!!
can not (cannot) imagine their (there) being a way for my friend and me (I) remember every last (every) one!!!!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews