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Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing | 
 enlarge | Author: Mignon Fogarty
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $16.39
You Save: $13.56 (45%)
New (28) Used (6) from $16.39
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 109257
Format: Audiobook, Cd
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 5
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.9 x 5.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 1427204349
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.042
EAN: 9781427204349
ASIN: 1427204349
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Are you a fool for mnemonics? If so, you'll fall head over nubucks for Mignon Fogarty--a.k.a. the Grammar Girl--and her handy new audio guide to writing and speaking well. It's chock-full of smart little anecdotes and memory tricks for felling the most common grammatical foes (who can ever remember the difference between "nauseous" and "nauseated" anyway?) and at just an hour long it's the perfect turn-to resource for students and professionals alike. I didn't try too hard to stump Grammar Girl in our QA, but with her eagle eyes she spotted my grammatical (typographical?) misstep without missing a beat! i--Anne Bartholomew/ibr/br/ hr class="bucketDivider" noshade="true" size="1" p align=left span class="h1"strongQuestions for the Grammar Girl/strong/span p strongAmazon.com:/strong Now that we communicate so often via e-mail and text messaging, do you think that people have become more desensitized to poor grammar, or in your experience is awareness more heightened as a result? p img src="http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/authors/fogartymignon.jpg" border="0" align="right"strongGrammar Girl:/strong The average person seems to have become more desensitized to poor grammar, but language lovers seem to be tormented by the flood of mutilated e-mail and text messages#151;at least a lot of the people I hear from seem to be tormented. It might be a self-selecting group. To use one of my father's favorite phrases, language lovers seem to feel as though they are "being pecked to death by a duck."p/ p strongAmazon.com:/strong Your weekly podcast helps millions of listeners use good grammar and write more effectively. Do you think there is more value in learning by listening, as compared to reading and practical exercise? p strongGrammar Girl:/strong Perhaps it's ironic, but I have a hard time learning by just listening. I need to read things, which is one of the reasons why I provide full transcripts for all my audio podcasts on the Grammar Girl Web site. People learn in different ways, so those who want to listen can listen, and those who want to read can read. p/ In my experience, nothing beats practical exercise. I often have to look up grammar rules over and over again because I can't remember them, but once I've written a show about a rule, I always remember it.p/ pstrongAmazon.com:/strong Have the grammar mnemonics you've developed come easily to you? Which ones were the toughest to capture in an easy-to-remember tip? p strongGrammar Girl:/strong Some mnemonics come easily and some don't. I had a hard time coming up with a way for people to remember the difference between "its" and "it's," and I ended up using a really complicated story about a dream I had involving the eBay "it" advertising campaign. p/ I think the best mnemonics are the simple ones. Remembering that you should say "different from" instead of "different than" because "different" has two if/i's and "from" starts with an if/i isn't awfully creative, but it's easy to remember. p/ p strongAmazon.com:/strong Is there a grammar rule that even Grammar Girl finds bit/b hard to remember? p strongGrammar Girl:/strong There are so many that it's hard to pick just one! I have a notoriously terrible memory, which is why I'm always making up mnemonics. p/pOften I find that when I can't remember something it's because it is a style issue instead of a hard-and-fast rule, so different people do it differently and there is no "right" answer. For example, I always have to look up the rules about whether the verb should be singular or plural after collective nouns like "team" and phrases like "the couple" and "one of the people who." p/pBut when I look up the rule for collective nouns, I am reminded that the "rule" is that you have to just decide whether your collective noun has a sense of being a group or a sense of being many individuals. (And then there are also differences between British and American English.) p/ pIt's even worse with a phrase like "one of the people who": experts are split over whether the verb should be singular or plural. There really isn't an answer; you just have to pick a side. I have a hard time making a mnemonic for something like that!p/ pstrongAmazon.com:/strong It used to be that proper grammar and thoughtful wording were the defining factors of a good piece of writing. Increasingly, however, writing is prized for the speed with which it is produced and not necessarily the craft. How can conscientious writers find the happy medium between form and efficiency? p strongGrammar Girl:/strong What, didn't I answer your questions fast enough?p/pBut seriously, I don't think I've come in contact with the people who value speed. As a Web editor, I certainly wasn't happy when people turned in bad writing, even if they turned it in early. And when I was writing magazine articles or corporate materials for a living I never felt rushed (except when I waited too long to get started). p/ pThe places where I do feel a sense of urgency are in e-mail and messaging; people seem to expect immediate responses. But writing a high-quality message doesn't take much more time than writing a careless message; it just takes more focus.p/pstrongAmazon.com:/strong Bonus question: I wrote all these questions with no more than a cursory grammar and spelling check. How did I do? pstrongGrammar Girl:/strong I found only one major error, and I changed the text to bold. It looked like a typo rather than an error in your understanding of the rules. Good job!p/ p/ hr class="bucketDivider" noshade="true" size="1"
Product Description
DIVDIVMignon Fogarty, a.k.a. Grammar Girl, is determined to wipe out bad grammar#8212;but she#8217;s also determined to make the process as painless as possible. One year ago, she created a weekly podcast to tackle some of the most common mistakes people make while communicating. More than seven million episodes have now been downloaded, and Mignon has dispensed grammar tips on Oprah and appeared on the pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. /DIVDIVBRWith the trademark wit, warmth, and approachability that the BRpodcasts are known for, Grammar Girl#8217;s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing covers the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers. From #8220;between vs. among#8221; and #8220;although vs. while#8221; to comma splices and misplaced modifiers, Mignon offers memory tricks and clear explanations that will help readers recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules. Chock full of tips on style, business writing, and effective e-mailing, Grammar Girl#8217;s latest audiobook should be heard by every communicator./DIV/DIV
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| Customer Reviews:
An unabridged audiobook rendition of Mignon Fogarty's excellent guide July 12, 2008
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing is an unabridged audiobook rendition of Mignon Fogarty's excellent guide to improving one's grammar. Well-known for her award-winning podcast explaining some of the most common grammatical mistakes people make, Mignon Fogarty delivers the straight scoop on style, business writing examples, advice for crafting smooth prose, and even e-mail tips. Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing is enthusiastically recommended for professional writers of all walks of life, from high school students crafting essays to college students working on Ph.Ds to prospective novel writers, nonfiction writers, journalists, newspaper columnists and much more. 5 CDs, 7 hours. br /
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