My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English - Hardcover

Caroline Taggart; J A Wines

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1843173107 ISBN 13: 9781843173106

Publisher: Michael O'Mara, 2008

Synopsis

For anyone who has ever had a problem with dangling modifiers and split infinitives, or for those who have no idea what these things even are, "My Grammar and I" provides all the answers. Taking you on a tour of the English language, through a veritable minefield of rules and conditions for the grammatically unaware, and highlighting the common pitfalls that every English language user faces on a day to day basis, "My Grammar and I" also offers amusing examples of awful grammar, while steering you in the direction of grammatical greatness. Factual and witty, "My Grammar and I" is the perfect gift for all English language sticklers for Christmas 2008.

About this title

Review:

Will do for grammar what Eats Shoots and Leaves did for punctuation (The Times)

Beautifully produced... a lot of fun (Tribune)

If you belong to the generation who missed out on being taught grammar at school then out this book on top of your Christmas wish list. If you were taught, then put it on your wish list. Everyone should have this book, in fact... a great stocking filler for total grammar novices and experts alike (The Northern Echo)

Sensible and concise... shows you how to make our wonderful, fluid language work for you rather than against you (The Good Book Guide)

This book would be the perfect Christmas gift for anyone who is genuinely interested in why we write the way in which we do, or who likes doing what's right and proper (The Basingstoke Gazette)

A useful book for anyone with an interest in the English language and an excellent stocking filler (The Wolverhampton Chronicle)

A useable refresher... pedants will also find answers to those evergreen contentious teasers (The Bournemouth Daily Echo)

It's a little gem that takes you on a tour of the English language (Knutsford Guardian)

From the Author:

We're not grammar ogres or ruler-wielding schoolma'ams - we're actually a couple of perfectly nice people who think that English is a beautiful and very subtle language and should be encouraged to stay that way. And we're aware that lots of people would love to speak and write better English; but either they were never taught grammar in the first place, or it was so long ago that they have forgotten, and they're a bit nervous about looking stupid if they get it wrong. Which is why they put an apostrophe where it has no business to be, or say 'between you and I' because they retain some vague idea that 'me' is wrong.

This book sets out to make these people feel a bit more comfortable and confident. Yes, it tells you the rules, but it also acknowledges that change is always happening in a living language, so what was an unbreakable rule ten years ago may be edging its way into the dictionaries now (how cool is that?). It offers ways round the rules for those times when you simply don't know the right answer. And it tries really hard not to be pompous, which means there are a few silly examples to break up all the bossy stuff, and we've found a way to put in a bit about sex.

About this edition

• Publisher: Michael O'Mara
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1843173107
• ISBN 13: 9781843173106
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 191