The "witty and accessible" bestseller by the Atlantic Monthly editor who rules on linguistic disputes ( San Francisco Chronicle).Atlantic Monthly senior editor Barbara Wallraff first began answering grammar questions on AOL in the 1990s, and the site's success soon morphed into a regular magazine feature. In Word Court, Wallraff moves beyond her column to preside over common and uncommon cases, establishing rules for such issues a...

A fully revised and updated edition with writing prompts and challenges in every chapterToday’s writers need more spunk than Strunk: whether it's the Great American e-mail, Madison Avenue advertising, or Grammy Award-winning rap lyrics, memorable writing must jump off the page. Copy veteran Constance Hale is on a mission to make creative communication, both the lyrical and the unlawful, an option for everyone.With its crisp, witty tone, Sin and Synt...

Many textbooks do a fine job of presenting grammar to students. However, some students or classes need more practice after they've finished the exercises in their textbook. This guide provides imaginative and enjoyable games, drills, and activities to practice different grammatical structures such as verb tenses, articles, phrasal verbs, pronouns, relative clauses, modals, word forms, syntax, and more.This book is divided into three categories:a) Reading-writing exercises

Every writer needs help with words: choosing them, using them, spelling them correctly. When is optimal or optimum the better choice? Why use germane when relevant is, well, more relevant? Created for just such tortuous (torturous?) situations, this handy guide provides an A-to-Z listing of troublesome, confusing words, accompanied by clear examples and explanations to help avoid common mistakes. With a discussion on getting the most out of words, a helpful resource section, humorous illus...

The newest edition of Jan Venolia’s best-selling guide, Write Right! is an essential resource for writers with 500,000+ copies sold since publication.**In this age of electronic correspondence and self-produced documents, we need a useful and reliable writing guide more than ever. Write Right! covers the essentials of good writing in a concise and easy-to-follow format. The new edition of this classic handbook takes you through the entire writing process,...

One of the English language’s most skilled and beloved writers guides us all toward precise, mistake-free grammar.As usual Bill Bryson says it best: “English is a dazzlingly idiosyncratic tongue, full of quirks and irregularities that often seem willfully at odds with logic and common sense. This is a language where ‘cleave’ can mean to cut in half or to hold two halves together; where the simple word ‘set’ has 126 different meanings as a verb, 58 as a noun, and 10...

"Very much a manual for the 21st century . . . a welcome addition to the bookshelf of anyone who cares about language-and is willing to argue about it." — New York Times Book ReviewEarly in the history of English, the words "grammar" and "glamour" meant the same thing: the power to charm. Roy Peter Clark, author of Writing Tools, aims to put the glamour back in grammar with this fun, engaging alternative to stuffy instructionals. In this practical ...

“We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child. We love and nurture it into being, and once it gains gross motor skills, it starts going exactly where we don’t want it to go: it heads right for the goddamned electrical sockets.”With wit and irreverence, lexicographer Kory Stamper cracks open the obsessive world of dictionary writing, from the agonizing decisions about what to define and how to do it to the knotty q...

Have an interest in words? From the meaning of prefixes and suffixes to word origins and trivia, this book can help you build your vocabularySomeone just called you captious. Should you be flattered? Considering your extreme lactose intolerance, is it a good idea to order veau au béchamel from a French menu? Calumny is to slander as obloquy is to a) flattery, b) sermon, or c) invective? You've just heard that your new boss is a real martinet. Should you be worried ...

How does good writing stand out?If its purpose is to convey facts, findings, or instructions, it need be read only once for its content to be clear. If its purpose is to entertain or to provoke thought, it makes readers want to come back for more.Revised and updated, this guide covers four essential aspects of good writing:• Individual words - spelling variations, hyphenation, frequently confused homonyms, frequently misused words a...

"A strong new entry for the reference shelf of anyone who writes to be understood—or would like to."—Pittsburgh PressIn the first part of this useful book, the author shows how to solve common problems of writing. The reader will learn how to recognize common problems of writing. The reader will learn how to recognize words and phrases that should be cut; how to shorten cumbersome sentences; how to arrange the elements of pairs, series, and compound subjects and predicates...

A handbook for writers. Intended for self-help and classroom use, it contains chapters on the paragraph, the sentence, diction, the writing as a whole, and style, with exercises at the end of each chapter. Intended primarily to clarify the writing of essays, memoirs, and other forms of non-fiction, it also provides suggestions for improving fictional style.