The Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips to Clean Up Your Writing [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] (Audio CD)

by Mignon Fogarty (Author, Reader)

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 Q&A, but with her eagle eyes she spotted my grammatical (typographical?) misstep without missing a beat! --Anne Bartholomew

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Questions for the Grammar Girl

Amazon.com: 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?

Grammar Girl: 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—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."

Amazon.com: 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?

Grammar Girl: 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.

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.

Amazon.com: Have the grammar mnemonics you've developed come easily to you? Which ones were the toughest to capture in an easy-to-remember tip?

Grammar Girl: 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.

I think the best mnemonics are the simple ones. Remembering that you should say "different from" instead of "different than" because "different" has two f's and "from" starts with an f isn't awfully creative, but it's easy to remember.

Amazon.com: Is there a grammar rule that even Grammar Girl finds it hard to remember?

Grammar Girl: 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.

Often 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."

But 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.)

It'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!

Amazon.com: 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?

Grammar Girl: What, didn't I answer your questions fast enough?

But 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).

The 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.

Amazon.com: Bonus question: I wrote all these questions with no more than a cursory grammar and spelling check. How did I do?

Grammar Girl: 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!

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Review

PRAISE FOR Grammar Girl: One of iTunes’s Best Classic Audio Podcasts for 2008! "One of the Best Audiobooks of 2007"—iTunes on the audiobook page
“Delightfully droll...Grammar Girl gives clear explanations with helpful examples.” —Los Angeles Times  “At the root of all her success, of course, is a true love of language and grammar.”  —The Arizona Republic "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." - The Midwest Book Review

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio; Unabridged edition (July 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1427202826
• ISBN-13: 978-1427202826
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #53,425 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming and useful, September 3, 2007

By	Beau Yarbrough (Hesperia, CA) - See all my reviews

I'm a professional writer with a dirty secret: I don't know my gerunds from my dangling participles, but mostly go off of what feels right, thanks to a lifetime of voracious reading (and, of course, my AP Stylebook).

Grammar Girl to the rescue! She breaks down sometimes thorny grammatical questions in a real world, no-nonsense way. Although she herself is interested in a lot of the fiddly aspects of grammar, she writes (and podcasts -- this is a cleaned-up collection of past podcasts) for those who just want to know how to write better.

There may be someone who can't benefit by listening to Grammar Girl's audiobook -- although I certainly don't know anyone who couldn't -- but even they would be charmed by her presentation and clever examples.

A must-buy for anyone who has ever wanted to improve their writing, whether for professional purposes or just for personal ones.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good addition to The Elements of Style, September 29, 2007

By	Frank J. Stone "Author of Ivory Hunter" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Grammar Girl's, Quick and Dirty Tips is really a condensed, audio version of The Elements of Style, excluding the section, (in The Elements of Style) on the approach to style.

Though it is not as detailed as Strunk and Whites excellent work, and should not be considered a replacement for it, it is a worthy addition to it. The emphasis in Mignon Fogarty's Work is on punctuation and proper use of confusing word groups.

The one thing that I really like about this CD is that it holds my interest; with Fogarty's cheerful and perky voice, it is easy for me to listen to, and absorb, while on the road at work. This maximizes my study time.

The information is solid, and chock full of information that aspiring and experienced writers alike, will find useful. The more we both hear, and read about the elements of style, the more it improves our writing skills. Repetition after all is at the core of habit development.

Combine your listening time of this CD, with your study time of The Elements of Style, and you will be certain to rapidly increase your writing skills

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Add this to your reference collection, November 16, 2007

By	rhiannonsmum (Oak Park, IL USA) - See all my reviews

I've enjoyed Grammar Girl's podcast, and this book is a delightful addition to my reference collection. As a former English as a foreign language teacher I wish this had been around during my teaching days. Each topic is a lesson in itself complete with excellent examples and no-nonsense explanations. My teaching days are over, but my love of grammar and learning are not. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good sense of humor and a nicely turned out sentence.