Quantcast
Channel: Lauren Holder Raab » review
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 5

A Day—and a Book—Devoted to Grammar

0
0

Now that it’s been a couple of months since New Year’s, have you given up your grammar resolutions? Well, fortunately, there’s another holiday to get you back on track: National Grammar Day is here! This year, Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty is the host. (Don’t worry, NGD founder Martha Brockenbrough is still on board.) Check out the new site with the official grammar day song (“March Forth” on March fourth), a free e-card, and links to participating blogs, including this one!

Looking for a way to celebrate? I suggest you pick up a copy of Fogarty’s latest book, The Grammar Devotional: Daily Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl. (You can download the first four weeks here.)

I love the concept of this book. If you’re new to grammar, learning all the rules can seem overwhelming; if you already know your way around adverbs and semicolons, a daily devotional will help you keep it that way. And Fogarty provides answers to questions you may never have thought to ask. (Why is “y” a vowel only “sometimes”?) At the very least, it’s a fun read. Yes, a grammar book.

Fogarty has taken the successful “quick and dirty” style of her podcasts and created an even more concise grammar delivery format. (If you don’t have time for podcasts, now there’s no excuse.) One of the best things about the book is there aren’t any dates, so no matter when you resolve to improve your grammar, be it January 1 or March 4, you can get started any time of the year.

The Grammar Devotional covers everything you would guess (grammar, style, punctuation, spelling, word usage), but there are also sections you wouldn’t necessarily expect – my favorite: “Language Rock Stars,” profiles of well-known writers and grammarians. (Ever heard of Jed Hartman and the Law of Prescriptivist Retaliation?) I also like the “There’s a Name for That?” entries, which feature words about words (e.g., synecdoche, a type of metaphor). Another highlight for me was learning the origins of the sentence diagram. (I got so excited, I realized there was no turning back.)

There are linguistic lessons and typo tales throughout, with an appealing mix of frequent grammar and language questions (whether data is singular or plural) and less common subjects (how to correctly use the tilde symbol). Maybe only editors care about the proper order of adjectives, but don’t you want to know if it’s a “beautiful, blue swimming pool” or a “blue, beautiful swimming pool” before you dive in?

Fogarty addresses several formatting issues (one space or two after sentences?), including differences between fiction and nonfiction (quotes or italics for thoughts?). She also delves into literary devices (simile vs. metaphor) and questions specific to creative writing, such as how to handle quotation marks in dialogue and the definitions of first, second, and third person.

There’s a fairly consistent format from week to week with certain topics covered on the same days (e.g., punctuation is usually Monday). And there are word games, quizzes, and cartoons of Aardvark and Squiggly to keep you amused and reinforce what you’ve learned. Fogarty refers readers to related entries for more information, and there’s an index, so the devotional doubles as a reference book.

Editors will appreciate how Fogarty distinguishes between rules and style choices. As she puts it, “We wring our hands and try to decide whether to advise you to use the correct form or the common form because either choice will sound wrong to some people.” She often presents a range of acceptable options, giving the opinion of various style guides and weighing in with her own preference. With so many conflicting views out there, it’s extremely helpful to have simple, straightforward recommendations that apply to most situations. The overall result is a comprehensive writing resource, one of the best I’ve read.

Grammar Girl is a Language Rock Star herself. If you want to learn more, check out her first book, Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. (You can read my review here.)

Thanks to Mignon for the book and for everything she does to help us write better!


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 5

Latest Images

Trending Articles



Latest Images