For a clear New Year: a musical style guide from the EU Commission.

If one of your New Year resolutions is to improve your writing style (are you reading this, clients? you know who you are) this musical style guide might help you. Good news: clarity’s a-coming! It was produced by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Translation (DGT): We are leading a campaign to encourage Commission officials …

Styling your style guide: Christmas gifts for stylish writing

  The 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS) was published this year. There are of course many wonderful style guides: some are listed here. But The CMoS is the one I’m after — just look at the lovely colours on that cover! (I’ve still got the orange 15th edition; I think this …

Competition for book-lovers: clue no. 7

Here’s clue number 7 to our competition for book-lovers: Boy, he had such style in his heyday! By Marian Dougan

Competition for book-lovers: clue no. 6 (and deadline extended)

We’ve decided to extend the deadline to our competition until mid-day, Wednesday 15 December. Here’s another clue: Not quite Manolos, but just as stylish The clue refers to question 1; the answer to question 2 is in the blog (November posts). Answers (correct ones, naturally!) must be submitted no later than mid-day of Wednesday 15 December …

Competition for book-lovers: clue no. 5

Our competition ends at midnight tonight (UK time), so get thinking. You could win some lovely books. Here’s another clue: Mayors Richard M Daley and Richard J Daley. The clue refers to question 1; the answer to question 2 is in the blog (November posts). Answers (correct ones, naturally!) must be submitted no later than midnight …

Competition for book-lovers: clue no. 4

Get thinking, people, it’s good for your brain. Here’s another clue for our competition: Mrs. O The clue refers to question 1; the answer to question 2 is in the blog (November posts). Answers (correct ones, naturally!) must be submitted no later than midnight of Tuesday 14 December 2010 (UK time) via the comments or by email. …

Competition for book-lovers: clue no. 3

Here’s another clue for our competition: Wrigley’s Chewing Gum The clue refers to question 1; the answer to question 2 is in the blog (November posts). Answers (correct ones, naturally!) must be submitted no later than midnight of Tuesday 14 December 2010 (UK time) via the comments or by email. By Marian Dougan

Competition for book-lovers: clue no. 2

Is our competition giving you brain-ache? Here’s a clue to question 1: it’s in the colours (the red might be a touch on the orange side, opinions differ as to the original). For question 2, you’ll have to search the November posts. By Marian Dougan

Gifted in translation (4): Glorious Goldoni

As I’ve been putting together the last few posts on books as Christmas gifts, it’s been a lovely surprise to discover so many publishing houses specialising in their own niche markets or in helping little-known authors get published. Sparkling Books: are publishers of non-fiction and fiction. Our series are: Sparkling Perspectives – non-fiction Sparkling Imaginations – …

Competition for book-lovers!

    We’re delighted to announce a competition open to all readers. All you have to do is: 1) guess which book I’ll be featuring in my post of Wednesday 15 December, and 2) tell me the name of the book featured last month (November) on this blog that is part of a charity initiative, …