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Title: Sin and Syntax : How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose by Constance Hale ISBN: 0-7679-0309-9 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 20 March, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.94 (18 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Light and Fun Way to Brush up on Grammar
Comment: This book is a basic grammar guide for those of us who may have been out of school for a while, but it's as much about writing style as it is about grammar. The reason I like this book so much is because it is filled with a range of writing examples, from remarkable to awful. The examples of bad grammar, many taken from students papers, had me laughing out loud. The only thing this book is lacking is a reference section where you can easily look up grammatical terms, although the index is thorough. I personally didn't miss a reference section though. This is the sort of light, readable book I wanted.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fun reading even for grammar know-it-alls
Comment: Well structured, as it must be, Hale's guide presents both the nuts and bolts of grammar and the considerations of style that cannot exist without a sound grasp of grammar. The book begins each section simply, with the "bones" of the part of speech being explained, puts on the "flesh," and elucidates the "cardinal sins" and the "carnal pleasures" of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and so on. Even when the going gets heavy, as in her discussions of attributive nouns or appositive phrases, her clear, conversational tone smooths the way. She concludes with reflections about voice, lyricism, melody, and rhythm. One of the best features of her book is a glut of choice passages from the likes of Nabokov, Joan Didion, George Orwell, Jamaica Kincaid, and many others. Her well-read reach extends to rap lyrics and the wine labels written by the flip, clever copywriters at Bonny Doon Vineyards. The collection of quotations alone makes this book worth owning. At times the tone is slightly uneven, as when she follows a serious discussion of rules with the casual use of words like "gonna" and "wimps" (apparently she has a reputation for being hip to uphold), and she includes sentence diagrams without really explaining how they operate. Her advice to "go ahead and be ungrammatical if it feels right" may make some sticklers swoon. But these are minor flaws in a manual that is useful for beginners and seasoned writers alike. You close the book understanding how the rich inventiveness of English is rooted in its complex grammar and vocabulary, which are the reasons it can be so flexible, so magical -- the reason, in fact, that language creates reality. Includes a helpful appendix describing other grammar guides.
Rating: 5
Summary: A welcome difference
Comment: Most grammar books are dry, able to put you to sleep at 20 paces. This one is not. I found it fun to read. I have recently started graduate school. I found that I had to write a number of papers for each class. Since it has been awhile since I had to worry about commas, semi-colons, and the difference between which and that I needed a good reference book. I picked this one and I use it every time I write a paper.
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Title: Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know about Writing by Patricia T. O'Conner ISBN: 0156010879 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 07 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Deluxe Transitive Vampire : A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager and the Doomed by KAREN ELIZABETH GORDON ISBN: 0679418601 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 10 August, 1993 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O'Conner ISBN: 1573226254 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: August, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The New Well Tempered Sentence : A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed by Karen Elizabeth Gordon ISBN: 0395628830 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 10 July, 1993 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Disheveled Dictionary : A Curious Caper Through Our Sumptuous Lexicon by Karen Elizabeth Gordon ISBN: 0395689902 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 26 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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