Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style

by Benjamin Dreyer

orotund

faffing

fundament

micturition.

Walter Baxter’s undeservedly obscure 1951 novel Look Down in Mercy:

Rather than cut and paste this paragraph from some handy online source, I typed it out, because doing so gave me a little thrill. Once upon a time, I typed out in full Jackson’s short story “The Renegade” to see whether doing so might make me better appreciate how beautifully constructed the story was. It did. It’s an exercise you might want to try out on one of your own favorite pieces of writing, if you have the time.

as in so many things, one can be either on the bus or under the bus.

hie

I’d be hard-pressed to tell you what a nominative absolute is, I think that the word “genitive” sounds vaguely smutty, and I certainly don’t know, or care to know, how to diagram a sentence.