Title The Glamour of Grammar
Author Roy Peter Clark
Year Published 2010
Kind of Book Writing/Grammar
How strongly I recommend it 8/10
My Impressions This is a straightforward book on grammar. It is written in a more conversational style than a lot of books on grammar, which makes it just about as exciting as a book on grammar can be.
Date Read Aug 2020
Practical Takeaways
Bury yourself in the highest and lowest our culture has to offer //classics and shitty vampire novels
Read the dictionary to learn new words
Use Oxford English Dictionary to tell you where the English language has been
Use American Heritage Dictionary to help you understand where the English language is headed
Collect words that you misspell in a notebook or file
Never repeat a distinctive/memorable word on a page, unless you have a specific reason to do so (memorable words must be allowed to breathe)
When you catch an adjective, kill it-Ben Yagoda
Invent your own words created out of two words combined to make one (eg. Califorinication)
Use short words, short sentences, short paragraphs at the points of highest emotion
Collect jargon words from the group you are writing about
Put the interesting or emphatic words at the end of a sentence —right before the period.
To build suspense, use a series of short sentences
Vary sentence lengths in your writing-Virginia Tufte
Put the shortest sentence of the paragraph right next to the longest one-Virginia Tufte
Use the shortest sentence to clearly state the central idea of the paragraph-Virginia Tufte
Think of periods as a full stop
Look at the space before the period as a hot spot ie. (point of emphasis)
Use lots of periods to slow the pace of the reader
Think of the semicolon as a swinging gate ie. A tool that can connect and separate at the same time
Use the em dash to embed one sentence or important remark in the middle of the other or to end a sentence with a sharp moment of emphasis —like this.
If you're going to use parenthesis makes sure it is really funny, meaty, or interesting (Otherwise they stand as roadblocks to meaning)
Strive for your writing to have "steady advance" ie. An invitation to the keep moving forward without the need to stop, stutter, or turn back.
Use the colon to 1) introduce a statement or a quotation 2)signal the beginning of a long list 3)highlight a word or phrase at the end of a sentence: like this.
Limit the number of reader interruptions caused by the roadblock of parentheses
Use single quotation marks inside double quotation marks to indicate a quote within a quote.
Use question marks in your writing to create forward momentum and suspense
Use open ended questions when you're interviewing someone that you don't know the answer to.
Only allow yourself three exclamation points for every 100,000 words of prose
Use exclamation marks more sparingly the more serious the piece is
Use ellipses to signal the reader that something has been left out
When using ellipses at the end of a sentence, include the period (so four dots total….)
USE ALL CAPS TO SHOUT AT THE READER
Learn the rules of grammar before you break them
Get away from the draft you are writing (even for a few minutes ) before proofreading (your proofreading eye will sharpen with some distance from the text)
Use the universal masculine in one chapter and the universal feminine in the next chapter instead of using the (grammatically incorrect) singular they
Use "who" as the subject and "whom" as the object
Don't say "literally" unless you mean something literally
Don't say ironic when you mean coincidental
Make sure your subject and object don't get spread too far away from one another
Any time you can derive greater meaning from fewer words, do it
Use the passive voice to avoid responsibility (eg. "mistakes were made")
Use the passive voice to place emphasis on the receiver of the action
Stay in one tense when writing and only switch for strategic reasons
Use the present tense to make a story more suspenseful
Use the present tense to make a story more funny
Make the historical past tense your workhorse ie. Default
Make sure your tenses are consistent when proofreading
Vary the kinds of sentences in your writing (simple, complex etc.)
Use sentence fragments to:
Shock the reader
Provide a moment of relief
Intensify the meaning
Use sentence fragments sparingly and with discrimination
Make the second clause of your complex sentence the clause you want to have the emphasis/weight fall on
If the weaker clause comes first, use a comma to separate it from the main clause (as this sentence just did)
Add a pinch of dialect for flavor
Use taboo language in your writing when it is an authentic expression of realistic human speech
Use single curse words out of context to shock the reader or make them laugh (eg. The most commonly held conception amongst notable historians as to why Hitler invaded Poland is that he was a cunt)
Use alliteration in moderation
Don't use popular catch phrases mindlessly. Think of your own way to say them (eg. The war on terror)
Be on guard against loaded words and how they might arouse certain feelings in the reader (eg. Cult, rape, genocide)
Show don't tell (when writing)
Move from the concrete to the abstract or the abstract to the concrete. If you offer the reader an abstraction, offer a concrete example of that. If you begin with the a concrete example, move to a higher abstraction or meaning
Big Ideas
There are no true synonyms. Every word means something a little bit different
Surprising Facts
Ain't is a word according to Websters Third Dictionary as of 1961
The word funky was used in 1784 to describe the odor of musty moldy old cheese
The British put periods after the quotation marks and Americans put them inside
Many Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, used male models for female figures, since a woman posing nude was scandalous
illiterate or mentally handicapped people are allowed to sign their name with an X on documents