The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing

Sept 1997 · Dundurn

About this eBook

The revised edition of The Canadian Style is an indispensable language guide for editors, copywriters, students, teachers, lawyers, journalists, secretaries and business people -- in fact, anyone writing in the English language in Canada today.

It provides concise, up-to-date answers to a host of questions on abbreviations, hyphenation, spelling, the use of capital letters, punctuation and frequently misused or confused words. It deals with letter, memo and report formats, notes, indexes and bibliographies, and geographical names.

It also gives techniques for writing clearly and concisely, editing documents and avoiding stereotyping in communications. There is even an appendix on how to present French words in an English text.

Ratings and reviews

Comprehensive compromise: I have used this guide so often since it first came out, I almost have it memorized. It covers all the bases including a long list of verb-preposition collocations, official titles and discrimination. It falls a little short on scientific abbreviations and with its poor index. There are about five very minor errors. My biggest pet peeve is the unjustified and misguided claim that 'Eskimo' is a pejorative and that 'Inuit' is an adequate substitute for all peoples north of the Arctic Circle: I prefer the Oxford English Dictionary's solution for that. Keeping in mind it was prepared for Canadian federal government employees, mostly by employees in translation services and has not been updated much if at all; I still find it the best style guide for what is mostly 'British' English not 'American.' It provides little grammar theory or explanation, is organized logically, is visually adequate and reasonably priced. The copy editing methods and symbols in the appendix are useless to anyone; and the sample letters on government letterhead are outdated, too simple, too few and possibly barely a guide to government employees. Despite its slightly pedantic outdated register and lack of suggestions for efficiently and effectively employing electronic word processing and document exchange-storage-retrieval - this remains my personal style reference before all the other multitude of guides in my library and knowledge base. This book when complemented by a few other guides and years of experience, will definitely polish your writing and make it more consistent. Its impersonal cant, lack of readability, lack of reference to suggested readings or bibliography make it useless as a study text. I have tried and still use all of its electronic versions - but hate them: finding only the handheld book useful, comfortable, practical for making notes in, and it's the best one visually. But, with no hardcopy, this electronic version is viable. I had offered my suggestions for corrections and changes to the authors several times and heard and saw no replies. I would love to be included in any committee trying to convert it into the principal authoritative guide for all Canadian federal government employees, its corporations - especially the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - diplomatic services (whose websites are horrendous); and possibly then adopted by provincial and territorial governments - after the incorporation of Hansard and Royal gazette methods and standards: and then possibly as standard curriculum in Canadian schools and universities; plus, addition of formats and styling for employees working in the US, and on other continents. Not a great guide for academic publishing, journalists, ESL learners nor Americans. Despite it being published pre 'email' era, brevity and unattractive appearance - it's still my favourite/favorite. [You have to giggle when the About the Author blurb above remains with "is PLEASE to present" for ages, and no one involved is willing or competent enough to check it.] Again, this guide needs a refreshing by people outside the translation group, who are experienced editors, with a more global perspective. It needs about three new chapters, and the inclusion of suggested readings for technical notations, standard uniform dictionaries, legal terms, contract and specification preparation, printing and binding.... It needs to be two volumes! Still, I love it.

About the author

The Translation Bureau, a special operating agency of the Department of Public Works and Government Services of Canada, is please to present the second edition of the Canadian government's English-language editorial style guide, The Canadian Style.