Improving Grammar Resources

[bluemel4]

Since joining this website I have come to realize that my grammar skills need serious work. I have not been able to find helpful resources through the forums. With that in mind I decided to share what I have found.

Grammar Girl's: Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty is good for a refresher. Fogarty is also famous for running a podcast and has a website with free articles. If you need something with a bit more explanation I recommend looking to a different resource.

Woe is I: The Grammarphone's Guide to Better English in Plain English (3rd edition) by Patricia T. O'Conner is a wonderful resource and does one of the most impossible things. Makes grammar accessible. O'Conner explains very clearly why the rules are important and how to implement them in your writing. She also has a website that is a great resource.

Nitty-Gritty Grammar: A Not-So-Serious Guide to Clear Communication by Edith H. Fine and Judith P. Josephson is based on a workshop given to college students in need of a "grammar review class." The book goes right into the meaning of words as they relate to a sentence. The book was published in 1998 and I obtained it from my library. I am not sure if the book is still in print but it is a great resource and the addition of grammar cartoons make this book a pleasant experience.

What do you use as a grammar resource?

[moderntimes]

My resource is between my ears, the ol' grey matter. Best way to improve grammar is to read, read, read. And read some more. Eventually you'll not have to ask -- it will just come out right at the start.

[bluemel4]

@moderntimes you always impress me with what you have to say. I actually was part of a school system that did not teach grammar directly but judged work more on content. Every year teachers would say, "Oh you already learned this last year! Let's skip it." So I am at a disadvantage but I am learning.

[moderntimes]

Thanks for the compliment but I just speak my mind usually. And I've got a considerable set of writing experience behind me to share.

No, I'm certainly not an A-list author. I'm somewhere about the W-list or X-list ranking, ha ha. But I have been published professionally (meaning: I was paid real money) via both my novels and quite a few magazine/newspaper articles, reviews, essays, etc, plus the occasional short story over the years.

And I'm a pretty bright kiddo. I was reading at 3, read all the standard juvenile literature while very young (Treasure Island was one of my faves, then Tarzan, and John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, all the rowdy pulp books). And I was reading Hemingway, Faulkner, and others while still in grade school. A voracious reader. Which is why, I think, that I've never had problems with grammar as a writer.

Most newbie writers make errors with homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently) such as "its" vs "it's" and "they're" vs "their" -- and I believe much of this is from too much TV and not enough reading as a kid. Because you can't learn grammar or spelling from hearing dialogue -- it must be from the written page (or screen of text -- I'm totally computer literate and always write straight onto the laptop).

It's by reading that a writer learns to have a "voice" and learns where to find him/herself in the way things are. And besides a general knowledge of the classics (Faulkner and Hemingway are maybe the best teachers for logical English, despite their both being American), it's also good that you read what you're writing. If you are creating a fantasy novel, you've got to be well read on the major and newest fantasy authors, and so on.

School? Well, being pretty precocious, I really didn't learn a lot in school growing up except for math and the basic mechanics of cursive handwriting. And mostly how to be an okay young kid. Naturally, there are things, specific facts and skills, that school teaches you. I was a chemistry/biology major w. a minor in math (all my lifetime "day jobs" have been in high tech) and unless you're a true genius you need formal classwork to learn calculus or German grammar or how to isolate a pathogenic bacterium in a petri dish or synthesize methyl-ethyl-ketone. (I've done all that.)

But formal classwork for grammar? I think that the most it can do is to set you off on a good pathway toward your learning the nuances on your own. For each hour spent in class, ten or twenty times that is requisite by yourself, reading. Because once we're given the correct instructions and taught the basics in navigating this complex English language, you must explore those literary waters on your own, mostly by reading the great writers and learning from them.

For example, anyone who wants to write short stories? I highly recommend James Joyce's "Dubliners" which is maybe the finest example of modern English short story composition extant. These stories were shunned when first published, early 20th century, because they were simply too far advanced for most critics then. But the story "Araby" in that collection is heart-wrenching in its frustration and guilt, and anyone wanting to write a story with human anguish could never learn from a better source. Of course there is Katherine Ann Porter and many other great short story authors.

Just one example. I'd also recommend that budding authors wean themselves from the YA craze and read adult fiction. Not that YA isn't good, but it's good for young people, and there are structural and composition differences between this and truly adult and mainstream fiction. Fantasy, especially YA fantasy, has its own rules of layout and plot and such, and truly complex interaction between characters isn't there. Which is okay, since the book are written for mid-teens mostly. Go to Faulkner or Umberto Eco or Joseph Heller or other mainstream and "real" adult writers and learn the trade from them. Because only by learning how to structure a genuinely adult novel can you then, if you are wanting to, later create a good YA novel.

Just my 2 cents. I'm always open to disagreement.

[Shakina]

Grammer is very important..... writing is a good way to help Grammer.

[moderntimes]

Kelsey Grammer? He's already a good actor so I don't think he needs much improving.

[bluemel4]

I just wanted to update everyone. I studied grammar using the resources in the first post for about a month without stopping and my last review came out better than I have ever written before. I was able to go line by line checking the accuracy of my punctuation and word choices. I have never felt so in control in my life.

[moderntimes]

Good to hear this, blue!

I was always a pretty good-mechanics writer going back to high school. So I'm fairly okay about correcting errors (or not making them in the first place) like mispeling or tpyos (ha ha). This came I think from my Dad who was a design engineer who was also very well read, and as a designer, he knew good spelling and mechanics from the outset. And he always urged me to write error-free stuff.

Having good mechanic skills is a learned thing but it builds upon itself, and thankfully, when a new writer gets these necessary skills down pat, the writer can then focus on style and good composition, which is critical.

That's where I am now and have been for ages -- I worked as an engineering consultant on specs for offshore and therefore I spent all my working day writing and proofreading documents, which honed my proofing skills.

So now they're pretty much automatic and I can now focus on style and other higher level things in my writing.

[Tumi91]

At times I find that, in my head expression is colourful but when I have to put it to paper It becomes a horrifying essay experience. We all have our own unique 'expression' voice but how we implement it on paper is another challenge on its own.

The more you read the more your vocabulary expands. Its a simple push and pull principle. But how do you put together this bountiful plethora of words. Reading and writing are like husband and wife. Sometimes they clash sometimes they collaborate. You have got to find a balance.

What I have come to find is that after reading a specific chapter, I write an individual review about that specific chapter. I mark new words I have learnt and create my own 'review dictionary'. Afterwards I read the the review, or I review my review then I continue this process throughout the entire book.

When you have mastered this you will see how big your 'review dictionary will grow and your vocabulary will swell into vast cells of beautiful words. This is a great way to treat and cure writers block.

Sit back and appreciate your writing. Hone your craft.

[Jolyon Trevelyan]

As i am dyslexic my grammar and spelling will never be perfect. But i try to do my best.


One of the reasons i never let anybody read any story i have written, is because i don`t need people to tell me about grammar mistakes or spelling mistakes. Because know they are there.

[moderntimes]

Best thing to do is work hard at ensuring that your English improves and that you can go back and correct the errors, Jolyon. That's what MS-Word is meant for, after all. I always make mistakes in my early drafts, and by mistakes I don't mean plot or content errors, but plain old tpyos, ha ha. But after about 3 passes I can hopefully remove those mistakes. Most are simply mechanical errors in typing rather than my lack of knowledge about grammar, such as a missing period or apostrophe.

Best resource for grammar for me is to keep reading good modern fiction. And of course there's always the Chicago Manual of Style, which is the "bible" for American grammar and typography. Plus the internet.

[Jolyon Trevelyan]

Well i never write stories in English.

[moderntimes]

Well, regardless of which language you write your fiction in, reading a lot in that language will help improve your own writing.

[bluemel4]

I know moderntimes advocates reading quality work to improve grammar. I have spent my life reading quality and some mediocre work. What I did not know was what to pay attention to. Without digging into direct resources concerning grammar I was unable to really understand what I kept getting wrong. Learning the fundamentals with the resources I started this thread with; I am getting better at understanding my mistakes and how to correct them. Yes, reading the genre you want to write for is important, but so is a fundamental understanding of grammar before you can expect yourself to start improving.

I am learning that it is something I need to keep studying and stay on top of.

[moderntimes]

Well, of course you have to know the fundamentals. That's requisite. But reading material of the type that you will be writing helps you understand the rhythm and syntax of modern fiction, and to also learn how and when you can break the rules, which I do all the time in my novels. I've got incomplete sentences and deliberately missing commas (if you omit commas in a narrative it gives the phrasing a "run on" tone which works well when describing a violent or abrupt event), and so on.

Here's a para from one of my novels, describing a plane crash involving two T-38 jets upon landing:

"A great and frightening fireball burst from nowhere and tumbled along the ground, rushing and billowing. The last plane tried to pull up to get clear but it was too close and was swept into the path of destruction. Fragments of metal and plastic and pieces of things I didn’t want to recognize bounced into the air and scattered debris across the field everywhere with flashing and sparking and the roar of sudden flames."

You can see the run-on sentence at the end, meant to convey the tumult in the mind of the observer. Leaving out commas helps induce this rush of emotions, all jumbled together.

These are the sorts of things you pick up by reading a lot of modern fiction that's similar to your own genre. Of course, nonfiction such as essays and articles cannot take these liberties with composition rules. It all depends on the genre or the recipient to whom you're writing to sell.