Grammar Lovers Giveaway! The Joy of Syntax and That Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means

Grammarians, wordsmiths, teachers, writers, and other word nerds delight! We have two fantastic resource books to give away today from Ten Speed Press | Penguin Random House. The first guide will help you tighten your vocabulary and figure out if you’re using the right word the right way. (Think: affect/effect) The second book will help you write sentences in the correct order for meaning, or the most poetic order for lyricism. (Think: “What light breaks from yonder window?” or “What light from yonder window breaks?”) Yes, I’m talking about syntax. It’s the acrobatics that make our sentences varied and interesting. Both are must haves for your writer’s toolkit. They are clever in content, compact in size (and price), and witty in tone, which makes them the perfect gift for your writerly friends with the holidays right around the corner.

Spruce up your vocabulary and give your sentences a workout with these two books! Enter the Rafflecopter form at the bottom of this post for an opportunity to win these two gems.

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That Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means: The 150 Most Commonly Misused Words and Their Tangled Histories by Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras

Hardcover: 208 Pages | 5 x 7 inches | Publisher: Ten Speed Press 2018 | ISBN-13: 978-0399581274 | Available on Amazon

An entertaining and informative guide to the most common 150 words even smart people use incorrectly, along with pithy forays into their fascinating etymologies and tangled histories of use and misuse.

Even the most erudite among us use words like apocryphal, facetious, ironic, meteorite, moot, redundant, and unique incorrectly every day. Don’t be one of them. Using examples of misuse from leading newspapers, prominent public figures and famous writers, among others, language gurus Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras explain how to avoid these perilous pitfalls in the English language. Each entry also includes short histories of how and why these mistakes have happened, some of the (often surprisingly nasty) debates about which uses are (and are not) mistakes, and finally, how to use these words correctly … or why to not use them at all. By the end of this book, every literati will be able to confidently, casually, and correctly toss in an “a priori” or a “limns” without hesitation.

About the Authors

Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras, a sister-and-brother writing team, are the authors of many non-fiction books including the New York Times bestseller You’re Saying It Wrong, and compilers of the bestselling page-a-day calendar The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said (with over 4.8 million copies sold) and its counterpart The 365 Smartest Things Ever Said. Their work has received the attention of, or has been featured in, diverse media outlets including the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, Bustle, The Atlantic, the London Times, and McSweeney’s. They have also been guests on hundreds of radio and tv shows, including Good Morning America, CNN, Fox & Friends, and NPR’s Here and Now. They are currently working on a podcast for NPR affiliate KMUW entitled You’re Saying It Wrong.

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The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know by June Casagrande

Paperback: 272 Pages | 5 x 7 inches | Publisher: Ten Speed Press 2018 | ISBN-13: 978-0399581069 | Available on Amazon

Language columnist June Casagrande presents a fun and breezy guide to everything a grown-up interested in grammar needs to know.

When it comes to grammar, it seems like everyone—even die-hard word nerds—feel they "missed something" in school. The Joy of Syntax picks up where sixth grade left off, providing a fresh foundation in English syntax served up by someone with an impressive record of making this otherwise inaccessible subject a true joy. With simple, pithy information on everything from basic parts of speech and sentence structure to usage and grammar pitfalls, this guide provides everything you need to approach grammar with confidence.

About the Author

June Casagrande’s syndicated grammar column, "A Word, Please," runs in newspapers in five states. She is the author of four grammar books, including It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences and The Best Punctuation Book, Period, and is the face and voice of the Grammar Underground weekly podcast. She works as a freelance copy editor for the advertising department at the Los Angeles Times and for several local and national magazines.

Visit her website, Grammar Underground, to find out more: http://www.grammarunderground.com.

*****BOOK GIVEAWAY*****

Enter to win a copy of That Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means: The 150 Most Commonly Misused Words and Their Tangled Histories by Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras, and The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know by June Casagrande! Fill out the Rafflecopter form below. We'll choose a winner next Monday, October 15th. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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11 comments grammar, grammar pitfalls, June Casagrande, Kathryn Petras, misused words, sentence structure, syntax

Five Ways To Improve Your Writing

As a journalist, I need to be able to write when it's time to write. I'm on deadline - well, all the time - so it's imperative that once I've interviewed someone, I sit down and tell the story.

Despite writing two or three articles a day, I continue to look for ways to improve my writing. Even if you write fiction or poetry or plays, these practical ideas will help you fine tune your work.

Tip #1: Inspiration. I spend at least an hour a day perusing other newspapers, observing the storytelling style of its reporters, as well as the types of stories printed. A lot of the time, one of the stories I've read sticks in my mind, and by the time I should be working on a story, I'll catch myself daydreaming about that particular topic and how I can tie it to the community where I live and write about. Daydreaming - investigating and imagining - are important parts of the writing process. It allows you to question what's going on in the world and narrow it to something specific. Without asking those questions that come about from a daydreaming session, writing becomes stagnant. Why not take a half hour each day to investigate what subject can be molded into a story?

Tip #2: Flow. Once inspiration hits, it is time to put words on paper. What happens if the well runs dry or if a story takes a detour, into something that's not quite where it should be? This is why a routine - flow - is a key component on the writing process. I like to flesh out a story in my mind first and have a mental outline of what should be included. Then, the words take off, like a melodic sonata of give and take. Now that's writing.

Tip #3: Voice. A former fellow teacher would argue with me about the definition of voice. Naturally, I would win the argument. (Note my sly grin.) I had a knack for being able to read a student's piece of work and tell you who wrote it without looking at the name on the outside of the folded essay. Voice is how you write, how you string words into phrases and how those phrases create a rhythm and that rhythm morphs into a fluid piece. A reader contacted me the other day and told me that she enjoyed reading my newspaper articles because they were different. I asked her what she meant and she replied that the articles told a story, that they drew in the reader and made her feel like she was experiencing  what I wrote about. In other words, my writing has a distinct voice, and that, fellow writers, keeps readers coming back for more.

Tip #4: Sentence Structure. The same teacher I mentioned above taught students a formula for sentence writing. Personally, I found the practice a bit strange. Sometimes, a single word completes a sentence. Sometimes, a compound-complex sentence does the trick. What I'm saying is that sentence structure needs to vary. A lot. If it's all written the same, it'll read the same. And (yes, I started a sentence with 'and.') after awhile, same becomes boring. Stagnant. Get. The. Point?

Tip #5: Word choice. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Granted, I like visiting thesaurus.com as much as the next person, and at times, I think there's good reason to consult a resource like this, but precision - connotation and even denotation - drive a story. Is it OK to say the grass is green if the color resembles an emerald instead of a lime or the ever-popular Kelly green? Great writing relies on precision to make a point, create an image, set the tone. You can accomplish those goals through word choice.

Writing requires practice on paper - maybe even a dry run through the mind - and implementing key writing processes will improve what you put on the page.

by LuAnn Schindler

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3 comments flow, Inspiration, LuAnn Schindler, precision in writing, sentence structure, voice, word choice, writing tips

Forest or Trees?

One of my editing instructors at the University of Chicago, Graham School,  recommended How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One by Stanley Fish. I've scratched the surface of it and it already has started me thinking about our interactions with sentences.

Lately I've become conscious of my reading style. When I'm reading for pleasure/escape, I often read for a couple pages and realize my mind has strayed from the piece. If I feel like I've gotten the overall sense of the piece, I'll re-focus and keep reading. (Does this ever happen to you?) If I'm able to re-engage, then I generally can pick up the overall meaning--the forest--of the piece. (I tried to find another analogy, but the color of the fall leaves have been captivating!)

Forest, trees or leaves | PHOTO: P. Humphrey

If I re-engage in a piece and am swept away, I may return to what I missed. Over the weekend, while reading a book by one of my favorite novelists, I found myself reading more deliberately and fighting the urge to rush through it because it was so good.

My husband, who is not a writer or editor, practices the opposite to my reading habits. With each piece of writing, he feels he must truly engage in the reading. It seems that he luxuriates in the words he is reading. He is an amazing reader to have because he takes such care. He looks at each tree in the forest and sometimes I suspect he is looking at every leaf.

When I edit, I travel all over the forest, staring at trees and leaves. I do manage to slow down my reading and study the writing. I become more professorial, pulling out a magnifying glass (or reading glasses) and wading in, as if on an expedition.

At the end of the day, it's always a nice feeling to have ventured into the forest and spend some time with the trees.

How about you and your forest adventures? Are you a forest or tree type--or do you venture in and stare at the leaves?


Elizabeth King Humphrey is a freelance writer and editor. After staring at trees, she plans to finish How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One.

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1 comment Elizabeth King Humphrey, sentence structure

All Words Are Not Equal

By Sharon Mortz

I have always loved words and enjoyed writing that challenges my vocabulary. Words are like pieces of an intricate puzzle, and when I write, I fit them together. Since my youth, when reading, I’ve recorded or “yellowed” words with which I was unfamiliar. In junior high, we were assigned vocabulary words to be defined and used in sentences. I tried to make each sentence a little story. I could have taught a class on run-on sentences. But all words are not equal.

I still have a tendency to write long, convoluted sentences. Now, as a freelancer, I’m challenged to shorten my sentences and use simple, concise language. My current writing teachers all admonish me to reduce “big” words and cut wordy sentences.

Factoid: Racecar, kayak and level are palindromes i.e. spelled the same whether read left or right.

Writer’s Digest offered an interesting analogy that has helped me understand the necessity of concise writing and the relative importance of parts of speech: writing is like an automobile. Verbs are the engine, nouns are the passengers and adjectives and adverbs are tails fins, hood ornaments, bumper stickers and other decorative paraphernalia.

If concise is good enough for Hemingway, it’s good enough for me.

Factoid: Dreamt is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt.”

Below are some ways to put your writing on a diet while increasing the flavor.

• Excise empty intensifiers: these are the adverbs that I now eschew like a dieter eschews sugar: extremely, very, absolutely, unusually, really, particularly. These words are acceptable in conversation but water down writing.

Factoid: Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

• Some adjectives are just “nice” and add nothing to the sentence. Example: The beautiful sunrise warmed the hills. In this case, beautiful adds nothing. Use the “nice” test.

Factoid: There are two words in the English language that contain all five vowels in order: abstemious and facetious.

• Sometimes adverbs can be replaced with verbs and that will energize the sentence. Example: The sun was intensely hot could be converted to the sun scorched the skin.

Factoid: Lollipop is the longest word typed with only the right hand.

• One of my big problems is “he said” plus an adverb. I usually want to add loudly, softly or some other “ly” word to the “he/she said.” If more is needed, the first lesson I learned as a writer applies: instead of telling the reader, show the reader with action. For example, “he said vehemently” could become, “he said, pounding his fist on the table.”

Though lean and mean is better writing for the novice, if I attain any writing stature, I will know how to write wordy, convoluted sentences that I prefer. I only hope I get paid by the word!

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2 comments adjective usage, adverb, empty intensifiers, sentence structure, Sharon Mortz, verb usage, vocabulary