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Michael Merschel: Michael Merschel is The Dallas Morning News books editor. June 2009
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OK, I have to share -- I've had this book sitting on my desk for a couple of months and finally got around to reading it, and if you're at all concerned about the state of the language now that the "Internets" are with us, you'll want to read it. Mignon Fogarty stunned the newly buzzy "podcasting" world in 2006 when she started her weekly Grammar Girl podcasts and they eventually rose to No. 2 on iTunes. Suddenly, knowing where the apostrophe goes, or whether to use a colon or semicolon, became hip (and word geeks everywhere wept with glee). Now she's come out with a book, Grammar Girl's Quick & Dirty Tips For Better Writing (Holt, $14); reading it was WAY more fun (and more informative, in some cases) than those college English classes ever were. Ms. Fogarty's not starchy, but she's a stickler for correctness in every form of written communication -- e-mails, text messaging, blogging, etc. She'll have none of that lazy "Well, it's only for a blog, so who cares if it's grammatically correct?" attitude. The playful title of the first chapter -- "Dirty Words" -- gives a hint at her sense of humor. She doesn't scold; she tries to gently help, although she does note that, despite what certain bloggers or e-mailers might suspect, "writing badly is like dressing in lime skorts and an orange plaid sweater -- people notice." She also gets into issues you've probably never thought about, such as the difference (a big one, it turns out) between a "Dear John" letter and a "Hi, John" letter. The book is sparely, but delightfully illustrated by the grammatical adventures of Aardvark (species obvious) and Squiggly (a snail.) E-mail entry: |
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