My Grammar and I or Should It Be Me? by Caroline Taggart: Book Cover

    My Grammar and I or Should It Be Me?: Old School Ways to Improve Your English: Old School Ways to Improve Your English by Caroline Taggart, J.A. Wines

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    (Hardcover)

    • Pub. Date: June 2009
    • 176pp
    • Sales Rank: 45,775

      Reader Rating: (1 ratings)

      Detailed Rating: "Students" See All

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      • Overview
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      Product Details

      • Pub. Date: June 2009
      • Publisher: Reader's Digest
      • Format: Hardcover, 176pp
      • Sales Rank: 45,775

      Synopsis

      Sharpen your language skills and navigate your way around grammatical minefields with this entertaining and practical guide. For anyone who has ever been stumped by dangling modifiers and split infinitives, or for those who have no idea what these things even are, My Grammar and I...Or Should That Be Me? offers practical and humorous guidance on how to avoid falling into language pitfalls. Here are all the right tools to help you gain confidence as a speaker and writer, highlighting the most common language errors, such as wrongly used prepositions, misplaced modifiers, and confusing participles.

      This refreshing refresher course covers:
      • Spelling and Confusables-There are times when the spelling rule "i before e except after c" does not apply
      • Parts of Speech-Is it "its" or "it's"? "Whose" or "who's"?
      • Sentence Structure-Let us ponder the subject, or object, of "I" and "me"
      • Punctuation-So where does a comma go?
      • Elements of Style-There is more to grammar than knowing the difference between a subordinate object and a nonrestrictive apostrophe

      And, for those grammar know-it-alls, there are entertaining "Smart Aleck" trivia, anecdotes, witticisms, and more. Clever and informative, this is the ideal gift for all English-language sticklers.

      Biography

      Caroline Taggart has been an editor of non-fiction books for nearly 30 years. She is the author of several books, including I Used to Know That (Reader's Digest 2009).
      J. A. Wines is a graduate of Oxford University and the author of several books on grammar and trivia.

      Customer Reviews

      • Reader Rating:
      • Ratings: 1Reviews: 1

      Useful for students, writers, or anyone interested in grammarby gl

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      September 21, 2009: If you are interested in brushing up on your writing and grammar skills, I recommend My Grammar and I...Or Should That Be Me? How to Speak and Write It Right by Caroline Taggart and J.A. Wines.

      The book is divided into five chapters: Spelling and Confusables, Parts of Speech, Sentence Structure, Punctuation, and Odds and Ends (Or, Elements of Style). Each chapter lays out the basic rules and examples in a systematic fashion, then quickly lists the most common mistakes.

      I was eager to review My Grammar and I...Or Should That Be Me? because of those occasional moments when I'd pause and have to think about the rules for certain things. My spelling skills aren't the strongest and I benefit from having a dictionary on hand. The commonly misspelled words section and the "What Do You Call a Group of?" were interesting.

      I appreciate the book most for the errors that it's helped me correct. Here are a few of the things that the book helped clarify:

      * Not to capitalize the names of seasons: to write autumn instead of Autumn

      * To write "Happy Birthday, Jim and Bea" instead of "Happy birthday, Jim and Bea"

      * The plural of talisman is not talismen but talismans

      * That the plural of dwarf is dwarfs, but I still think that dwarves is acceptable

      * That the singular of graffiti is graffitto and papparazzi is papparazzo, though I'll likely just revise whatever I'm writing to keep using the plural. Graffito sounds strange to me!

      * That you're never bored of - instead you're bored by or bored with

      Here's a quote that the book uses to demonstrate the proper use of commas, taken from Dick King-Smith's novel Poppet: "He asked beetles and grubs and worms and caterpillars and little lizards and small frogs, and some replied jokily and some replied angrily and some didn't answer." Can you think of ads or signs that have incorrect punctuation?

      My Grammar and I...Or Should That Be Me? How To Speak and Write It Right is published by Reader's Digest. It's part of a series that includes i before e (except after c): old school ways to remember stuff by Judy Parkinson and I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School by Caroline Taggart.

      Thanks so much to Julie and FSB Associates for this opportunity!