Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences by Janis Bell
August 25th, 2009Title: Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences
Author: Janis Bell
Publisher: W.W. Norton (2008)
I have a confession to make. I am a grammar Nazi. It bugs me when people speak English bad. I also correct people when they say something that is grammatically correct, which in turn bugs them. That said, most of the grammar I only know when I hear it. I didn’t pay attention in any of my English classes from 4th grade through college — so I don’t know what actual grammatical phrases are. Now I do (or rather, now I’m learning) thanks to this book!
Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences: A Guide to Avoiding the Most Common Errors in Grammar and Punctuation by Janis Bell is a great instructional reference book on grammar. It is organized very good. There are chapters on case, punctuation, verb tenses, etc…
Bell points out a couple of my major pet peeves…like when people use the word “effect” when they mean “affect” or “less” when they mean “fewer”. Unfortunately she also says that commas should always follow each item in a list of 3 or more items. I’ve written about this before. It makes me sad that I was wrong.
I think every person on Earth who talks English should read this book. As a (quasi) writer I am sure it will come in handy to reference if I am not sure about something. At $13.95 new, it is a must have for all home libraries!
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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August 25th, 2009 at 9:23 am
I’m very much like you – poor grammar makes my skin crawl. I also didn’t learn the rules – I just know that it isn’t right, even if I can’t tell you why.
An office mate and I had that comma discussion a while back. We looked in some older grammar guides and realized that thinking on this point has changed over time. Personally I’m a fan of the new way as I think it makes lots of sense.
This sounds like a great book!
August 25th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
You are a terrible grammar Nazi! You must have left Nazi grammar school early to search for the Ark of the Covenant like Indiana Jones did. I can’t believe your Nazi grammar friends still associate with you!
August 25th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
I am tuned in to grammar mistakes too – I just hear them and I can’t stop that – only I don’t correct people; I just let it go. But inside I’m often saying to myself something like “You were looking for a past participle there” or “nominative, verb, accusative, please”.
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Descriptive linguistics: learn to love it. No matter what most people will tell you, it’s perfectly grammatical to say “less items”, even if it is more euphonic. It’s also good-times for all split infinitives, phrase-ending prepositions, and using “which” in relative clauses. All the other pet peeves that pedantic prescriptivists pine over endlessly: forget those, too.
Grammar rules are, essentially, the observable habits of expert users of a given language. Churchill split infinitives, Twain used “which” instead of that, and plenty of people don’t use “fewer” the way you want them to. Take a deep breath. There’s nothing wrong with them.
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Whoops. That should read “…more euphonic to say ‘fewer’”. One-thousand apologies.
September 9th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
This one is going on my Christmas wish list. I am right there with you. In fact, I am the official grammar Nazi at my firm and get to take new law clerks to task and train them.
(But I think you meant “badly” in that third sentence.
)
October 5th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
I’m very much like you – poor grammar makes my skin crawl. I also didn’t learn the rules – I just know that it isn’t right, even if I can’t tell you why.
An office mate and I had that comma discussion a while back. We looked in some older grammar guides and realized that thinking on this point has changed over time. Personally I’m a fan of the new way as I think it makes lots of sense.
This sounds like a great book!