New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors

A handy reference for a writer looking to improve their work
Useful, fulfills a niche for the midrange writer looking to improve their craft.

It’s a valuable tool for writers.
It’s a great little book for those who have difficulty understanding the usages of hyphens between words and which words should not be hyphenated. The book itself is not much larger than a pocket book in size, which I was not expecting. I was expecting a book something similar in size to the Oxford dictionaries. It does however have the answers to many of my questions. I have an older version of the same book and this new edition is the updated version. Over all, The Oxford Dictionary For Writers and Editors is a must for people who write and/or edit manuscripts and other forms of writing.

Nothing special
I buy a lot of writer’s tools and am usually pleased with the useful knowledge but this dictionary is just a dictionary. There is nothing special here for writers and the definitions are the same you’ll find in a simple dictionary app.

like journalistic style guides
The 2014 version is a reprint of the 2005 second edition (also found in 2012’s New Oxford Style Manual, which also includes New Hart’s Rules from 2005). This is a usage dictionary, like journalistic style guides, and Fowler’s. It’s concise, but covers usage of various troublesome terms and phrases. It is more academically oriented than journalistic manuals like the Guardian Style Guide or the AP Stylebook. Because the text really dates to 2005, it’s actually a decade old now, and this weakens its utility. That said, any of the journalistic usage dictionaries will compensate, and many of the British ones are free online (Guardian, BBC, Economist, etc.) If you adjust for the spelling and typographic differences, this book is also useful for North Americans, especially when writing for an international audience (in professional journals, in blogs, etc.)If you’re hardcore about your style guides, be aware that New Hart’s Rules (2005, and included in New Oxford Style Manual of 2012) is partially an update, but also in part an abridgement, of the 2002 Oxford Guide to Style, also included in the 2003 Oxford Style Manual (and both are an update of the old Hart’s Rules). To complicate matters, the 2014 New Harts Rules is in fact a new 2nd edition, with over 40 more pages than the 2005 version. I have not yet gotten it, so I can’t tell you if it restores the material cut from the 2002/2003 version. But I repeat that the 2014 version of the New Oxford Dictionary is just a reprint of the 2005 edition, so save your money.

a different dictionary with a lot of new words

Love the compact size. Font is not too small or too big. It’s perfect!

I have a copy of this, Fowler’s, an OED shorter [two volume] dictionary and a Collins thesaurus, a W&A yearbook and a W&A Guide To Getting Published, and a few others on my desk. This is quite literally at the top of my pile. Not only because it is the smallest, but it is the most used.Would my work still be published or be publishable without it? Yes, I doubt it makes any real difference, but it makes a very great difference to how I see my work before I submit it to editors.