A guide to the understanding and correct usage of different parts of grammar and marks of punctuation.

New York Times Bestseller Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal "Hilarious…This book charmed my socks off." —Patricia O’Conner, New York Times Book Review Mary Norris has spent more than three decades working in The New Yorker’s renowned copy department, helping to maintain its celebrated high standards. In Between You & Me, she brings her vast experience with grammar and usage, her good cheer and irreverence, and her finely sharpened pencils to help the rest of us in a boisterous language book as full of life as it is of practical advice.

How does good writing stand out? If its purpose is to convey facts, findings, or instructions, it need be read only once for its content to be clear. If its purpose is to entertain or to provoke thought, it makes readers want to come back for more. Revised and updated, this guide covers four essential aspects of good writing: • Individual words - spelling variations, hyphenation, frequently confused homonyms, frequently misused words and phrases, irregular plurals and negatives, and uses of capitalization and type style to add special meanings • Punctuation - the role of each mark in achieving clarity and affecting tone, and demonstration of how misuses can lead to ambiguity • Syntax and structure - agreement of subject and verb, parallel construction, modifiers, tenses, pronouns, active versus passive voice, and more • Style - advice on the less hard-and-fast areas of clarity and tone, including sentence length and order, conciseness, simplification, reading level, jargon and clicheÌ s, and subtlety Filled with self-test exercises and whimsical literary quotations, Grammatically Correct steers clear of academic stuffiness, focusing instead on practical strategies and intuitive explanations. Discussions are designed to get to the heart of a concept and provide a sufficient sense of when and how to use it, along with examples that show what ambiguities or misinterpretations might result if the rules are not followed. In cases where there is more than one acceptable way to do something, the approach is not to prescribe one over another but simply to describe the options. Readers of this book will never break the rules of language again - unintentionally.

The bestselling workbook and grammar guide, revised and updated! Hailed as one of the best books around for teaching grammar, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation includes easy-to-understand rules, abundant examples, dozens of reproducible quizzes, and pre- and post-tests to help teach grammar to middle and high schoolers, college students, ESL students, homeschoolers, and more. This concise, entertaining workbook makes learning English grammar and usage simple and fun. This updated 12th edition reflects the latest updates to English usage and grammar, and includes answers to all reproducible quizzes to facilitate self-assessment and learning. Clear and concise, with easy-to-follow explanations, offering "just the facts" on English grammar, punctuation, and usage Fully updated to reflect the latest rules, along with even more quizzes and pre- and post-tests to help teach grammar Ideal for students from seventh grade through adulthood in the US and abroad For anyone who wants to understand the major rules and subtle guidelines of English grammar and usage, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation offers comprehensive, straightforward instruction.

The Broadview Guide to Writing is a concise yet uncommonly thorough text with a fresh approach to the craft of essay writing. The first part of the book discusses the style and structure of essay writing, and includes a useful discussion of the intangibles involved in the writing process—such as confidence, perseverance, and a willingness to deal with criticism constructively. The second part of the book provides thorough coverage of grammar and usage in a comprehensive reference guide, ranging from the simplest mechanical issues (such as subject verb agreement) to subtle distinctions between words that have similar meanings. A wide range of examples is included throughout the book. The fourth edition has been extensively updated and now incorporates the 2008 changes to MLA Style guidelines for documentation. Particular attention is paid throughout to the needs of Canadian students.

"This is that rare audiobook that truly makes the print version come alive. The sound effects alone are priceless, with homage to Grammy Award-winner Bobby McFerrin. If you've ever wondered what punctuation marks sound like, Beach provides hilarious voices and sound effects for each one. A masterful, creative, amusing, must-have production that simplifies the rules of punctuation." -School Library Journal

Increasingly, writing handbooks are seen as over-produced and overpriced. One stands out: The Broadview Guide to Writing is published in an elegant but simple format, and sells for roughly half the price of its fancier-looking competitors. That does not change with the new edition; what does change and stay up-to-date is the book’s contents. For the sixth edition the coverage of APA, Chicago, and CSE styles of documentation has been substantially expanded; the MLA section has now been fully revised to take into account all the 2016 changes. Also expanded is coverage of academic argument; of writing and critical thinking; of writing about literature, of paragraphing; of how to integrate quoted material into one’s own work; of balance and parallelism; and of issues of gender, race, religion etc. in writing. The chapter “Seeing and Meaning: Reading (and Writing About) Visual Images” is entirely new to the sixth edition.

A staple for adults, students, and anyone who has ever been baffled by then to use a comma--and a serial comma--The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style contains basic chapters on the parts of speech, gradually building up to the finer points of writing, sentence structure, punctuation, creating paragraphs, and following accepted publishing styles.

The Broadview Book of Common Errors in English offers full coverage of such common mistakes as commas splices, sentence fragments, words frequently confused, words frequently misspelled, mixed metaphors, and subject-verb agreement errors. In each case the problem is clearly explained, with examples illustrating both the nature of the trouble and how to put it right. Unlike many guides to grammar and usage, The Broadview Book refrains from dogmatism; it treats correctness in English not as an unchanging objective standard laden with moral overtones, but rather as a code of convenience that is extraordinarily useful in helping humans to communicate effectively and even elegantly. It thus retains an openness to the inevitable process of change in the English language, and recognizes that change does not imply debasement. The fifth edition has been updated throughout, and includes new material on capitalization; on the connections between clear writing and clear arguments; on academic citation systems; on business writing; and on particular difficulties experienced by those whose first language is not English.