Introduction: By Way of Introduction 1
Part I The Stuff in the Front 7
Chapter 1 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up (Your Prose) 9
Chapter 2 56 Assorted Things to Do (And Not To Do) with Punctuation 25
Chapter 3 1, 2, 3, Go: The Treatment of Numbers 77
Chapter 4 A Little Grammar is a Dangerous Thing 86
Chapter 5 The Realities of Fiction 106
Part II The Stuff in the Back 129
Chapter 6 Notes on Amid a List of, Frequently And/Or Easily Misspelled Words 131
Chapter 7 Pet Peeves 156
Chapter 8 The Confusables 176
Chapter 9 Notes on Proper Nouns 222
Chapter 10 The Trimmables 241
Chapter 11 The Miscellany 252
Outro: By Way of Conclusion 265
Things I Like 267
Acknowledgments 269
Index 271
About the Author 289