Grammar Girl Presents the Ultimate Writing Guide for Students [Paperback]

Mignon Fogarty (Author), Erwin Haya (Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: July 5, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0805089446 | ISBN-13: 978-0805089448 | Edition: 1

Named to the International Reading Association’s 2012 Teachers’ Choice book list

 

Grammar Girl Presents the Ultimate Writing Guide for Students is a complete and comprehensive guide to all things grammar from Grammar Girl, a.k.a. Mignon Fogarty, whose popular podcasts have been downloaded over twenty million times and whose first book, Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, was a New York Times bestseller. 

 

For beginners to more advanced students, this guide covers it all: the parts of speech, sentences, and punctuation are all explained clearly and concisely with the warmth, wit, and accessibility Grammar Girl is known for. Pop quizzes are scattered throughout to reinforce the explanations, as well as Grammar Girl's trademark Quick and Dirty Tips—easy and fun memory tricks to help with those challenging rules.

 

Complete with a writing style chapter and a guide to the different kinds of writing—everything from school papers to letter writing to e-mails—this guide is sure to become the one-stop, essential book on every student's desk.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Budding writers will find it invaluable.” —School Library Journal

"This guide is accessible to all, whether writing is limited to texting and e-mailing or creating the next great novel…Fogarty has succeeded in furnishing students with a witty guide to an often-challenging part of daily life.” —VOYA

 

“As a guide to dip into and peruse, it will be a solid and enjoyable resource for writers everywhere.” —Kirkus Reviews

 

"The Ultimate Writing Guide for Students [goes] beyond vocabulary into grammar and the structure of writing. But it's not a dry, boring reference ... this guide is both informative and user-friendly...The main message [is]: You can write; here are the tools."—Lisa McLendon, The News & Observer (Raleigh) 

About the Author

Mignon Fogarty, the creator of Grammar Girl and the founder of the Quick and Dirty Tips Network, is also the author of the bestselling GRAMMAR GIRL'S QUICK AND DIRTY TIPS FOR BETTER WRITING and THE GRAMMAR DEVOTIONAL.  She lives in Reno, Nevada. 

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1 edition (July 5, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805089446
• ISBN-13: 978-0805089448
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Teens > Education & Reference > Reference
  • #10 in Books > Teens > Education & Reference > Language Arts
  • #14 in Books > Education & Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Linguistics

More About the Author

Mignon Fogarty is the creator of Grammar Girl and founder of the Quick and Dirty Tips Network. A technical writer and entrepreneur, she has served as an editor and producer at a number of health and science Web sites. She has a B.A. in English from the University of Washington in Seattle and an M.S. in biology from Stanford University. She lives in Reno, Nevada.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Have you ever willingly read a writing guide cover-to-cover? I have. July 7, 2011

By Denise

Format:Hardcover

In the past, I've had writing guides that I've flipped through, maybe I've read a page or two if I've needed to look up a specific issue, but this is the first time I've ever read a writing guide all the way through. This guide is entertaining!

Grammar Girl, because of her training in language and in the hard sciences, understands how to explain the importance of proper usage for clarity and she also explains when sometimes rules exist out of tradition. She also explains grammar myths and how to handle people who still buy into them. Her examples are easy to understand and fun (I especially like the section on misplaced modifiers). The quick and dirty tips and the pop quizzes throughout are also fun and handy.

Other bonuses include tips that perhaps were not designed specifically to help ESL learners, but would still be immensely helpful for such students. Tips like FANBOYS and ordering adjectives, for example, are things that many native speakers take for granted, but having them described simply but completely is helpful for any user of the English language.

Also included are tips for drafting and proofreading one's own writing. Additionally, she gives tips that as a comp teacher, I've tried to drill into my students' minds, like "show, don't tell," "avoid cliches like the plague," and "you need to know if a website is credible." I am so happy I have Grammar Girl to back me up on these points.

Personal anecdote: A couple of years ago, I was teaching comma rules to a technical writing class. I was trying to explain restrictive elements and nonrestrictive elements to the class and several of the students weren't getting it. They were frustrated and I was frustrated. As I read the section in this book about restrictive elements and nonrestrictive elements, I realized that if I'd just explained it the way Grammar Girl did, a whole lot of headaches would have been prevented. This book is coming with me to school every day so that when a grammar or usage question comes up, I can simply take Grammar Girl's wording and examples to explain it much more succinctly than I am often able on my own.(It's hard to come up with sentence examples on the fly, have you noticed?)

As a teacher, I have seen many writing handbooks, most of which cost upwards of $50. This book is a delight-- not only is it the best one I've seen in that it is fun, complete, and user-friendly, but it's also truly inexpensive. I am requiring it for my college composition class this fall, and I recommend it to every high school, ESL, and college writing teacher out there. Even if you don't require it as a text, you should still have it on hand in your book bag (like me) or have a copy or two in your classroom. Your students will thank you.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful tips for writers of all ages July 6, 2011

By Jessica at Cracking the Cover

Format:Paperback

"The Ultimate Writing Guide for Students" is divided into an introduction, five chapters, an appendix, grammar at a glance, glossary and index, among other things. The five chapters focus on parts of speech, crafting sentences, understanding punctuation, quick tips on "dirty" or confusing words, and wisdom about writing as a whole.

Pop quizzes are scattered throughout to reinforce the explanations, and Grammar Girl offers easy and fun memory tricks to help with rules.

My favorite section of the "Ultimate Writing Guide for Students," is Grammar Girl's "Quick and Dirty Tips." Listed in alphabetical order, these entries range from "affect versus effect" and "farther versus further" to "it's versus its" and "lay versus lie." These entries get to the heart of the matter quickly and are easy to understand. And, as always, Grammar Girl's wit makes finding answers to sticky questions much more enjoyable.

My one complaint is the binding. This may seem trivial to some, but I would prefer a spiral binding for greater usability. I hate having to use another book to hold my reference book open. I suggest purchasing the paperback so that it can be spiral bound at Kinko's.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Handy Grammar with Squiggly and Aardvark July 6, 2011

By Marina Ruben

Format:Hardcover

All the essential components of a great grammar guide, with a few perks:

Sample sentences refer to Squiggly (a snail) and Aardvark (an aardvark), adding a layer of dry humor to the examples, as when Grammar Girl explains the difference between "Squiggly and Aardvark's hotel room" and "Squiggly's and Aardvark's hotel rooms."

Twenty-first-century references spice up the text. Grammar Girl uses "Dr. Horrible" as an example of a proper noun. There's also a section on e-mail etiquette.

Cartoon illustrations and orange highlights add visual appeal.

For students who enjoy Fogarty's style, she also records the very popular Grammar Girl podcast and has a "Quick and Dirty Tips" site that's updated frequently. All excellent sources of information.