(I know, only editors could get excited about this. But I am excited.)

Garner’s is the de facto standard usage guide for American English, offering guidance on burning issues such as when to use farther versus further or when to use which versus that. Garner writes in a highly readable style, and his approach simple and sensible:

Generally, writing is good if readers find it easy to follow; writing is bad if readers find it hard to follow.

He is also highly practical, writing that:

… recommendations on usage must be genuinely plausible. They must recognize the language as it currently stands, encourage reasonable approaches to editorial problems, and avoid refighting battles that were lost long ago.

The need to “recognize the language as it currently stands” and adjust one’s usage decisions accordingly is all the reasoning I need to purchase this third edition of the book.

What are you waiting for?

Correspondent E.F., a great writer and good egg, writes today with a concern from one of her clients …

He seems happy but commented that I use a lot of one-sentence paragraphs. I never noticed this, but it’s probably a holdover from reporting work. Is there a rule against this? He wasn’t really complaining but sort of musing about it because he says writing workshops claim this is a no-no.

My response? One sentence paragraphs are perfectly fine — as long as they are used smartly and judiciously. Moreover, there’s no rule against them, despite what high school English teachers or “workshop leaders” might tell you — and what you might find in Strunk & White’s Elements of Style.

As a rule, single sentences should not be written or printed as paragraphs. An exception may be made of sentences of transition …

But I don’t use S&W as a rulebook, just as a very general primer on good writing — so I disregard this “rule,” and don’t consider it authoritative.

Moreover, William Safire advises against any pedantic insistence that one-sentence paragraphs must never be used. And Bryan Garner writes in his Modern American Usage that “long sentences slow the reading and create a solemn, portentous impression; short sentences speed the reading and the thought.” Couldn’t the same be said of long and short paragraphs?

I advised E.F. to tell her client — if she had to give him an explanation — that in this age of short attention spans, short paragraphs are often preferred to long paragraphs, and one-sentence paragraphs are perfectly acceptable. Short paragraphs help readers access your copy easily and digest it in manageable chunks. They also help draw attention to important points that are significant enough to stand alone — a critical factor to consider knowing that many readers are actually “scanners.”

Of course, it wouldn’t make sense to have every paragraph be one sentence long. Good writers vary the length of their paragraphs, much as they vary the length of their sentences — as part of the process of crafting clear, readable, resonant prose.