Author Topic: Grammar  (Read 6509 times)

Offline Don

  • Seriously?
  • ***
  • Posts: 12588
    • View Profile
Grammar
« on: October 04, 2011, 09:57:20 PM »
I need to improve my grammar skills.  I can devote some time to this over the next three months or so.  I'm not really interested in taking a class.  If I pick up a textbook and workshop on my own, I think I can manage.  Is that a good idea?  If so, what book(s) should I use?
Don is the Prince of Anarchy  :P

Please excuse my grammar, and speling.

Offline Mishell

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 25
    • View Profile
Re: Grammar
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2011, 12:39:44 AM »
Assuming you're beyond the basics, Strunk & White's Elements of Style is a classic.  It deals with some more advanced grammar subjects as well as just making writing more crisp and powerful.

Offline Shecky

  • Bartender
  • O. M. G.
  • ****
  • Posts: 34672
  • Feh.
    • View Profile
Re: Grammar
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2011, 02:21:12 AM »
I'm with Mishell: I can't support S & W nearly enough. Elements is the conveniently pocket-sized Bible of American English grammar.
Official forum rules and precepts; please read: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,23096.0.html

Quote from: Stanton Infeld
Well, if you couldn't do that with your bulls***, Leonard, I suspect the lad's impervious.

Offline whingnut

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 732
  • @RobJDurand
    • View Profile
Re: Grammar
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2011, 02:31:09 AM »
I'm with Mishell: I can't support S & W nearly enough. Elements is the conveniently pocket-sized Bible of American English grammar.

I would like for you to take a moment to look in your copy of Elements and refer to Elementary Rules of Usage #2. In our copy it's on page #2. Go on Shecky, I'll wait  ;D
"Did not see some of it coming AT ALL--crazy ramifications for Dresdenverse" - Anne Sowards 08/03/12 on Twitter regarding Cold Days

Offline Shecky

  • Bartender
  • O. M. G.
  • ****
  • Posts: 34672
  • Feh.
    • View Profile
Re: Grammar
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2011, 02:36:26 AM »
My copy is at work. Are you referring to my use of the colon?
Official forum rules and precepts; please read: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,23096.0.html

Quote from: Stanton Infeld
Well, if you couldn't do that with your bulls***, Leonard, I suspect the lad's impervious.

Offline Starbeam

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 5722
  • Twitter: @stellamortis
    • View Profile
    • Stella Mortis
Re: Grammar
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2011, 02:40:25 AM »
My copy is at work. Are you referring to my use of the colon?
Quote
2. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last.
Don't look at me. I just got my copy to see if it was as dry as I remembered.
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." Ray Bradbury

Offline Dina

  • Has Collapsed Into a Singularity of Posts (a.k.a, "The Dina")
  • ***
  • Posts: 105522
    • View Profile
Re: Grammar
« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2011, 03:15:27 AM »
Assuming you're beyond the basics, Strunk & White's Elements of Style is a classic.  It deals with some more advanced grammar subjects as well as just making writing more crisp and powerful.

Downloaded! I don't know if I will ever use it, but just in case.
Missing you, Md 

There are many horrible sights in the multiverse. Somehow, though, to a soul attuned to the subtle rhythms of a library, there are few worse sights than a hole where a book ought to be. Someone has stolen a book (Terry Pratchett)

Offline Shecky

  • Bartender
  • O. M. G.
  • ****
  • Posts: 34672
  • Feh.
    • View Profile
Re: Grammar
« Reply #7 on: October 05, 2011, 03:23:46 AM »
Don't look at me. I just got my copy to see if it was as dry as I remembered.

I'm not going to do another long-winded essay on exactly why the Oxford comma is logically and linguistically unnecessary; the usual example-arguments "for" it (e.g., "I would like to thank my parents, God and the pope") are based on silly reductio ad absurdum that could be easily remedied with even the slightest sliver of thought (also e.g., "I would like to thank my God, my parents and the pope" or "I would like to thank my parents, as well as God and the pope", as opposed to "I would like to thank my parents: God and the pope", which is the way it should be done if the silly meaning were, in fact, the case).

Oh, and as for the above placement of the comma outside the quotation marks? Another situation in which English suffers from a severe case of rectocranial inversion. :D Yet I still stand by S & W... as a beginning. Once you've learned the rules, you can bend and break them logically. :)
Official forum rules and precepts; please read: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,23096.0.html

Quote from: Stanton Infeld
Well, if you couldn't do that with your bulls***, Leonard, I suspect the lad's impervious.

Offline Dina

  • Has Collapsed Into a Singularity of Posts (a.k.a, "The Dina")
  • ***
  • Posts: 105522
    • View Profile
Re: Grammar
« Reply #8 on: October 05, 2011, 03:27:09 AM »
What is the Oxford comma, Shecky? The example looks ok.
Missing you, Md 

There are many horrible sights in the multiverse. Somehow, though, to a soul attuned to the subtle rhythms of a library, there are few worse sights than a hole where a book ought to be. Someone has stolen a book (Terry Pratchett)

Offline Lara

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 117
    • View Profile
Re: Grammar
« Reply #9 on: October 05, 2011, 03:31:14 AM »
Oh, and as for the above placement of the comma outside the quotation marks? Another situation in which English suffers from a severe case of rectocranial inversion. :D

Yes!

Offline Don

  • Seriously?
  • ***
  • Posts: 12588
    • View Profile
Re: Grammar
« Reply #10 on: October 05, 2011, 04:56:24 AM »
I'm glad I started this thread.  I'm coming back tomorrow with popcorn.
Don is the Prince of Anarchy  :P

Please excuse my grammar, and speling.

Figging Mint

  • Guest
Re: Grammar
« Reply #11 on: October 05, 2011, 04:58:51 AM »

Offline Aminar

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1386
    • View Profile
Re: Grammar
« Reply #12 on: October 05, 2011, 05:30:39 AM »
Is it bad that I follow the rule that you place a comma where you want a sentence pause and in lists?  Because I haven't taken a class on Grammar since 2002.  That said, I've done a good job of picking up on what feels and reads correctly.  I think...

Figging Mint

  • Guest
Re: Grammar
« Reply #13 on: October 05, 2011, 05:50:20 AM »
That said, I've done a good job of picking up on what feels and reads correctly.  I think...

 ;D  There is a recent thread  wherein I allege that Harry has been doing with magic exactly what you say you do with grammar.    I also allege that that habit came back to bite him in Ghost Story. 

Offline shades of grey

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 31772
  • Cardboard wings and knicker elastic.
    • View Profile
Re: Grammar
« Reply #14 on: October 05, 2011, 06:27:59 AM »
I'm glad I started this thread.  I'm coming back tomorrow with popcorn.
We have bacon flavoured...

Is it bad that I follow the rule that you place a comma where you want a sentence pause and in lists?  Because I haven't taken a class on Grammar since 2002.  That said, I've done a good job of picking up on what feels and reads correctly.  I think...

So do I. Never really have lessons on grammar that I remember.  But then again I may have been staring out of the window at the time.