Here is an excerpt from the preface:
THIS Index to English is intended to answer some common questions about English usage and style and to foster an attitude toward our language that will make it possible for a writer to decide further questions for himself. To do this it gives a realistic description of many points of current usage and styleof punctuation, spelling, words, sentence and paragraph movement-and especially of instances in which usage is divided or some question is likely to arise. Any discussion of the actual use of language involves questions of style and of certain points of rhetoric, and many of these are touched on.
The Index is by no means a substitute for a dictionary; rather, it supplements a dictionary by giving more detail about selected topics than the more comprehensive work can. The illustrations are from current writers, and students are encouraged to observe speech and writing to see how English is actually being used today. No book can answer all the questions that occur in revising a paper, but it is hoped that the approach of this Index will help students to feel and to take the responsibility for their use of English, and under the leadership of their teachers to grow in command of expression.
To help a student answer questions that arise in his writing, a good deal of space is given to discussing the various levels of usage that are found in current English and in making suggestions for selecting which of possible expressions is the most appropriate for use under particular circumstances. From the point of view of this book, good English is English that conveys what the speaker or writer wishes to convey and that is appropriate to the subject and situation, to the expected reader or listener, and to the writer himself. This point of view allows an affirmative presentation of material, makes it possible to show the potentialities of the language rather than give a list of prohibitions.
Since this book brings to bear on the problems of a composition course the results of the recent advance in the scientific study of our language, its indebtedness to the linguists who have given us this new picture of the resources of English is very great.
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