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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
Grammar Girl is my hero. I always love learning about grammar, and this book makes it even more enjoyable. It's full of witty jokes and cute examples to help understand the wacky rules of language.
A must-read for everyone, I think. Especially word nerds.
A must-read for everyone, I think. Especially word nerds.
Excellent tips, concise, helpful
This would be good for students as young as junior high and then up to anyone at any age who wishes to write better. Love the Kindle version for highlights and bookmarks. She has a great podcast as well.
This would be good for students as young as junior high and then up to anyone at any age who wishes to write better. Love the Kindle version for highlights and bookmarks. She has a great podcast as well.
This book should be on anyone's shelf that writes anything. Mignon Fogarty explains many common grammar rules in a way that is easy to understand and remember later. I purchased the book as an ebook, but I think it would be an even better reference as a paper book.
Mignon is a person people can relate to. Her personality made learning more about grammar and usage painless.
Thank you Mignon, time to work on my novel now!
Thank you Mignon, time to work on my novel now!
Not for everyone, and probably a book that should be read not listened too (whoops), but for someone like me who apparently missed grammar in school (maybe I was distracted writing?) this was useful. Doubly so since I have a lot of britishisms as a hold over from my parents.
For years I have frequented Grammar Girl's website when confronted with grammatical confusions of all shapes and sizes. Affect vs. Effect. Comma placement. Its vs. It's. That last one sends me over on a monthly basis.
There are a million different sites I could hit when I need a little clarification, but Grammar Girl consistently makes me smile, even whilst shining an embarrassing spotlight on my English inadequacies and my flat inability to keep the jargon straight. Split infinitives? Conjunctions? Prepositions? Mostly, I am lost. (It should be said that I made it all the way through high school and several college English courses without having to diagram a single sentence. And I am a writer. And I have not been hindered.) While any old site can set me straight, the truth is that when I need clarification on that dastardly its/it's thing for the seventh time in any given week, I really just need a smile. Enter Grammar Girl.
When I stumbled upon her book, I will admit that I was a bit skeptical - it's grammar, people - but I had enough experience with her wry sense of humor that I picked it up and gave it a try. I was not disappointed. Maybe it was my inner geek seeking solace in the greater geek community. Maybe it was my avoidance of actually writing (ouch). Maybe it was my weakness for aardvarks and snails. Whatever it was, it kept me reading, and I truly enjoyed the read. I learned a few things, gained confidence in many more - did you see how I used its back there? - and was completely entertained on the journey.
Grammar Girl apparently shares my bizarre memory trick leanings, and bravely shares hers with the entire world. Right there she gets points from me. Whenever I decide to enlighten others with my quirky strategies, I am met with the slack jaw, raised eyebrows, and rising voice of my well-meaning, yet disbelieving audience. Uuunh. Mm-hmmm. I'm glad that works for you. I guess you could say I get Grammar Girl. And if I get her, then there is still a good chance that there are others out there in this unenlightened universe that are waiting to get me!
Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing covers everything from those wordy dirties that confound us all to the punctuation and capitalization errors that hang us up on a daily basis, and covers it all with integrity and style. Grammar Girl does a great job at mining all the grammatical wisdom of the age and distilling it down to its essence - knocking the high-and-mighties and the willy-nillies alike off their soapboxes with her common-sense approach, and giving us a great foundation on which to build our writing confidence, without having to consult seven different sources.
I rarely buy books, but this one is in my Amazon cart at this very moment. I already own a worn, ancient copy of The Elements of Style. I could run out and grab The Chicago Manual or some other obscure yet groaningly exhaustive compendium of grammatical wisdom and usage guidelines, but pretty much everything I really need is right here, contained withing the pages of Grammar Girl's offering. And beyond that, Dr. Google is always waiting to guide me to the answers I need - probably right to Grammar Girl's online doorstep.
There are a million different sites I could hit when I need a little clarification, but Grammar Girl consistently makes me smile, even whilst shining an embarrassing spotlight on my English inadequacies and my flat inability to keep the jargon straight. Split infinitives? Conjunctions? Prepositions? Mostly, I am lost. (It should be said that I made it all the way through high school and several college English courses without having to diagram a single sentence. And I am a writer. And I have not been hindered.) While any old site can set me straight, the truth is that when I need clarification on that dastardly its/it's thing for the seventh time in any given week, I really just need a smile. Enter Grammar Girl.
When I stumbled upon her book, I will admit that I was a bit skeptical - it's grammar, people - but I had enough experience with her wry sense of humor that I picked it up and gave it a try. I was not disappointed. Maybe it was my inner geek seeking solace in the greater geek community. Maybe it was my avoidance of actually writing (ouch). Maybe it was my weakness for aardvarks and snails. Whatever it was, it kept me reading, and I truly enjoyed the read. I learned a few things, gained confidence in many more - did you see how I used its back there? - and was completely entertained on the journey.
Grammar Girl apparently shares my bizarre memory trick leanings, and bravely shares hers with the entire world. Right there she gets points from me. Whenever I decide to enlighten others with my quirky strategies, I am met with the slack jaw, raised eyebrows, and rising voice of my well-meaning, yet disbelieving audience. Uuunh. Mm-hmmm. I'm glad that works for you. I guess you could say I get Grammar Girl. And if I get her, then there is still a good chance that there are others out there in this unenlightened universe that are waiting to get me!
Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing covers everything from those wordy dirties that confound us all to the punctuation and capitalization errors that hang us up on a daily basis, and covers it all with integrity and style. Grammar Girl does a great job at mining all the grammatical wisdom of the age and distilling it down to its essence - knocking the high-and-mighties and the willy-nillies alike off their soapboxes with her common-sense approach, and giving us a great foundation on which to build our writing confidence, without having to consult seven different sources.
I rarely buy books, but this one is in my Amazon cart at this very moment. I already own a worn, ancient copy of The Elements of Style. I could run out and grab The Chicago Manual or some other obscure yet groaningly exhaustive compendium of grammatical wisdom and usage guidelines, but pretty much everything I really need is right here, contained withing the pages of Grammar Girl's offering. And beyond that, Dr. Google is always waiting to guide me to the answers I need - probably right to Grammar Girl's online doorstep.
Helpful Reference
Most of this information can be found on the Grammar Girl website. It was helpful for those things you don't know that you don't know.
Most of this information can be found on the Grammar Girl website. It was helpful for those things you don't know that you don't know.
There isn't anything wrong with this book, it just wasn't for me. I was aware of almost all of her tips, which, again, isn't a complaint or criticism. I'm sure for many this would be very useful! It just wasn't useful for me.