Who’s (Oops) Whose Grammar Book Is This
Anyway? All the Grammar You Need to
Succeed in Life
by C. Edward Good is one of those books on grammar that could replace most
others on the subject. Yes, it’s that
good.
Good
does a great job of outlining our language, including common grammatical
mistakes, the eight big parts of speech and the 11 elements of punctuation. We
may know when a period is needed but not always the comma. We often confuse the semicolon with the colon
and what’s the difference between a dash and a hyphen? Not sure? Just know where to stick an apostrophe, quotation marks,
and your parentheses.
I
appreciate the book's breakdown on the key parts of speech:
1.
Nouns-words
that name.
2.
Verbs-Words
that do or are.
3.
Adjectives: Words that describe.
4.
Pronouns:
words substituting for words.
5.
Adverbs:
More words that describe.
6.
Conjunctions
– Words that join.
7.
Prepositions
– Words that glue.
8.
Interjections
– Words that exclaim
Here
are some random but insightful thoughts excerpted from Good’s book:
“By
learning the grammar of the language – its structure – the way it fits together
– you’ll begin to see the words, phrases, and clauses you habitually use and
those you tend to avoid.
“Some
school board somewhere right now is concluding that we don’t need to devote
much class time to grammar. After all,
grammar is just elitist worry about out-of-date rules or just a fretting about
manners. Will that school board’s
decision help further erode the knowledge of grammar in this nation?
“You
bet.
“One
day this nation will wake up, realize the harm we’ve done, and begin to insist
that we get back to basics. A thorough
study of grammar should head the list.
“Words
do matter. Words do carry meaning. And grammatical rules do govern the way we
put our words down on paper so that we can transfer knowledge to future
generations. If we have no rules, then
words and groups of words can mean whatever we want.
“Maybe,
just maybe, the erosion of grammar has a lot to do with the widely acknowledged
erosion of communication skills in the United States. Perhaps the erosion of grammar would help
explain why the professor’s students use like
after every third word.
“I
hope you agree that good writing comes directly from a broad and deep knowledge
of the structures our language makes available to us. If we do not study them, if we do not learn
all about them, if we do not practice using them in our discourse, then the
future for our own ability to communicate is bleak indeed.
“Some
of us will continue to cry out that grammar and style are inextricably bound up
together. We believe deeply that we
cannot learn to write well without knowing grammar – not just the basics but
some fairly sophisticated concepts undergirding our language.
“Those
I hope, you’ve learned in this book.
“Words
matter. The way they come together to
convey meaning is governed by a set of rules.
That set of rules is called grammar.
Either you know it, or you don’t.”
READ
THESE!!
The All new 2018 toolkit to promote a book -- 7th annual
edition
Big Marketing Lessons From My All-Time Top 10 Blog Posts
Here are best author-publisher-publishing pro interviews
of 2017
9 things all authors must get right in every media interview
Why is what you know
about book marketing all wrong!
Should authors go big – or for a sure thing?
16 ways to increase book sales
Study this exclusive author media training video from T J
Walker
What does it really take to land on a best-seller list?
Can
you sell 10 copies of your book every day?
Great
book PR lessons from kids, clergy, women, contractors & sportscasters
How do
authors get on TV?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.