The Glamour of Grammar a Guide to Magic and Mystery of English by Roy Peter Clark

The Glamour of Grammar a Guide to Magic and Mystery of English by Roy Peter Clark

Roy Peter Clark makes grammar entertaining.  He brings out the glamour (as in magic) of the english language.  He asks you to immerse yourself in thinking about language.

This is not a dry and pedantic book.  It does not follow a prescriptive pattern with exact descriptions of how you should use language.  Instead, the author attempts to show you a variety of ways to use punctuation and grammar for different outcomes.  He even describes how and when to use taboo words and sentence fragments.  This was surprising and enjoyable.

For Roy Peter Clark grammar is a tool for self expression.  There are many different examples of how periods, colons, apostrophes, points and other punctuation is used.  My favorite example of grammar is the use of the punk rock band, "? and The Mysterians."

If you like language and word play: You will like this book.  There is a lot of lighthearted self referential humor in the writing.  I like how he describes Appendix A ( Words I Have Misspelled), and Appendix B (Words I Have Confused.).

This book gives grammar that zing which is missing from most grammar texts.  I enjoyed the book enough to want to read Roy Peter Clark's other book, Writing Tools.

The Reader Over Your Shoulder A Handbook For Writers of English Prose-- Robert Graves And Alan Hodges

I finished reading, The Reader Over Your Shoulder, A Handbook for Writers of Enlgish Prose by Robert Graves and Alan Hodges. Robert Graves is the author of I, Claudius and The White Goddess. The writing in this book is quite high caliber.

The first section is a set of rules on how to write. It describes how to clarify the basics so you know to answer what was in grammar school called, the five w's who, what, where, when, and how. It also teaches you how to write without ambiguity, eliminate logical weaknesses, and create understandable prose.

In addition the use of metaphor, style, and elegance in writing is covered. Examples of bad writing are given and corrected. Also bureaucratese, jargon, and professional language is addressed. It talks about how to translate complex thoughts into clear language.

The second part is where I got overwhelmed. This section analyzes rhetoric and logic in writing. It takes apart paragraphs written by many famous people and rewrites them so they are more logical and clear. For example, sections of Why Freedom Matters by Norman Angell, Bishop Chichester; A paragraph from Christianity and World Order and many other famous writings are analyzed. They are not just analyzed. Each sentence in a paragraph is dissected for consistency, logic, grammar, and style.

This would be fairly advanced rhetorical teaching for people who already had an excellent grasp of the english language. At points it was a bit overwhelming in the information being provided. There are examples of logical weakness, mispunctuation, appropriate sequence of ideas, mismatching metaphor, self-evident statement, false contrast, circumlocution, and other fairly detailed criticisms of language use. On Pp. 177-180 they give 41 rules for appropriate use of language.

If you are interested in reading a complex book on advanced written rhetoric; this book is for you. It is at points quite hard to follow. I did enjoy reading the first part immensely. However, I was a bit overwhelmed with the second half of the book. The book is slow going with lots of information in each page. It is not the kind of book you can read in one sitting. The language is also very proper, clear, old fashioned, and very British. The edition I read is the second edition,
c 1979.

I made a rather interesting faux pas. This book is no longer in print. It was suggested by one of my blog readers. It is available in a combined edition as The Long Weekend And The Reader Over Your Shoulder. There are used copies of this. I think this is the kind of book which you should be able to find easily in your public library; most likely as an interlibrary loan, but not in a bookstore.

I remember reading the Golden Ass of Apuleius and The Twelve Caesars translated by Robert Graves when I was younger. He truly is a distinguished writer.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves -- Lynn Truss-- Review

Eats, Shoots & Leaves The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynn Truss is a guide to proper use of punctuation. It is meant to be humorous and for the most part succeeds.

The book is partially about how punctuation changes the meanings of words. A nice example of this from book using the dash is extra-marital sex versus extra marital sex. The two phrases have very different meanings. The title refers to the difference between two sentences; one with a comma, one without: "Eats, shoots and leaves" and "Eats shoots and leaves." Changes in punctuation often completely change the meaning of sentences.

Punctuation also creates rhythm in writing. I especially like her quoting Cecil Hartley with a poem. The poem was written in 1818 so it is no longer in copyright.

The stops point out, with truth, the time of
pause
A sentence doth require at ev'ry clause.
At ev'ry comma stop while one you count;
At semicolon, two, is the amount;
A colon doth require the time of three;
The period four, as learned men agree.

She also attacks common grammatical errors that show a lack of basic education. These attacks are of course are primarily aimed against shopkeepers, greengrocers, and signposters. Mistakes like Cd,s, Dvd,s and Tape,s are pointed out for the readers amusement. While this is interesting to grammar mavens and sticklers; it is something which I do not partake in. My aim is to improve my writing.

This book was useful, humorous, and entertaining. It was originally published in Britain, but it still translates well for an American audience. It will help you with punctuation in places where the use of commas, dashes, quotation marks and other grammatical symbols matter.

Review-- The Elements of Style Illustrated, Entrecard

The Elements of Style Illustrated by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White, Illustrated by Maira Kalman, Penguin, New York c2005. This is a truly wonderful book which makes an old classic even better.

I have seen a lot of blogs with heavy marketing and advertising prose. This book is about how to write, clear, concise, stylish prose. It was originally written in 1911 by William Strunk, Jr. an english professor who wanted to create a to the point book on how to write clearly. The book is considered a classic. Most writers claim to have read it. It is one of those books you are supposed to have read at least once.

His student, E.B. White took up the revision of the book in the second edition. This is the third edition. E.B. White is best known for writing the American children's classic Charlotte's web. He was also an essayist for the New Yorker. E.B. White further expanded the original book to include information on style. He wrote on how to design prose, form it into paragraphs, make the speaker identifiable in dialogue, and included sections on words to avoid like like, thrust, thus and other overused english.

The different between this book and other style books is that it is enjoyable to read. The examples used are entertaining. For example, the author writes "Be obscure clearly! Be wild in tongue in a way we can understand." He also exhorts people to first develop clarity, before deciding to use more flowery words. He uses many recognized people as part of his examples, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, E.M. Forster, William Faulkner, and others. It is a truly literary work.

The Maira Kalman illustrations add to the quality of the work. They are mostly light and airy watercolors. The watercolors are of captions from the text. An example is, "Well Susan this is a fine mess you are in." Above this caption is a watercolor of a basset hound.

This book has helped many people improve the quality of their writing, making it more clear, precise and understandable. I am glad I had the chance to read the latest edition.

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