Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


The Grammar Girl Devotional by Mignon Fogarty

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on April 29, 2011
Posted in Books Read in 2011Grammar  | 1 Comment

Back on December 31, 2008 I reviewed Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips by Mignon Fogarty.

I loved it.  Who knew how much grammar could be?  Last year I received The Grammar Girl Devotional from Henry Holt and Company. I feel bad that it has taken me this long to write my review.

This book was meant to be read daily, one tip a day for 365 days.  I don’t know why I had such a hard time sticking to that.  I read a day, then forget about it.  Then I picked it up again.  There are some great tips in this book but it isn’t as fun as her first book.

There are a few tips on using the words “less” and “fewer” I found very helpful.  Here’s an example:

Week 17 Sunday- I Wish There Were Fewer Things to Remember: Less Versus Fewer.
“Less and fewer are easy to mix up.  They mean the same thing- the opposite of more- but you use them differently: you use less with mass nouns and fewer with count nouns.
A count noun is something you can count.  On my desk, I see books and M&M’s.  I can count those things, so they are count nouns and the right word to use is fewer.
I should eat fewer M&M’s.
Mass nouns are things you can’t count individually.  Again, on my desk I see tape and clutter.  These things can’t be counted, so the right word to use is less.

If I had less clutter, my desk would be cleaner.”

Then two days latter, there were exceptions to using “less” and “fewer”.  There were also some facts about grammar and famous people who made grammar what it is today.  These facts didn’t help me with grammar but they were interest.

This book is a great reference book.  Mignon Fogarty made her grammar tips easy to understand and there is an easy to navigate, index at the end of the book to look up grammar tips.  Since I have a poor memory, this really comes in handy.  I really enjoyed learning more about grammar with this book. 

4/5

Did you review this book?  Please leave a link in the comments so I can post it here.

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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips by Mignon Fogarty

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on December 31, 2008
Posted in Books Read 2008GrammarMignon Fogarty  | 9 Comments

Grammar Can Be Fun, Who Knew?

This excellent book makes a wonderful reference book and is also fun to read cover to cover.

Do you ever wonder which you should use, E.G. or I.E.? I always thought they could be used interchangeably. Actually they can’t. I.E. stands for “that is” or “in other words” while E.G. means “for example”.

If you have any grammar questions but are afraid to ask, most likely you can find it in Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips. You can also look for tips on Mignon’s website and she even has an open invitation for people to email her with questions.

I checked this book out from the library but I am going to purchase a copy to have on hand. This book is indispensable!

5/5

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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.