Anyone for grammar?

You might be surprised but I have decided not to cover the rules of grammar and the perceived wisdom of what is good or bad English in this short book.

Why? Because there are many good books (and several not-too-good books!) that are available on the market that purport to be able to teach you how to become an expert grammarian. But that is not the purpose of this book. However, here is a question for you. What would you rather be? An expert grammarian? Or a good writer or journalist?

I remember the puzzlement and frustration that I felt when, as a young teenager, I read a science fiction novel written by a man who was a professor of astronomy in his fulltime job.

He had written a figure of speech for one of the main characters and followed this with the really punchy tagline: “He said, rather ungrammatically.”   I read, and re-read that sentence many times, yet could not see which rule of grammar it had offended.

Eventually I showed it to my father –a journalist himself and certainly no slouch when it came to the correct use of English and English grammar- and asked him for his opinion on what rule had been broken. He read it through a time or two, scratched his head and then said: “There’s nothing wrong with that sentence that I can see. Perhaps this would be a good reason for not allowing professors of astronomy to write science fiction novels?"

This incident took place some 30 years ago. Yet all I can remember about the book is the pedantic use of English (which he might have been wrong about in any case!) by the author. An example of grammar being a stumbling block to the enjoyment of a piece of written work, one might argue.

However, there is one book that I can definitely recommend for journalists and writers. It is “Lapsing Into a Comma” “A Curmudgeon’s guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print – and How to Avoid Them” Written by Bill Walsh, the Copy Desk Chief of the Business Desk at the Washington Post, the book is an erudite and witty guide to the use of English for journalists. The one draw-back is that it is written primarily for American journalists, so does use American rather than British or Australian English (for example) although does contain some helpful hints for copy editors to “correct” British English for  American newspapers. It is published by Contemporary Books and has an ISBN of 0-8092-2535-2 at a cost of $14.95. Mr. Walsh also answers questions on the use of English via his website www.theslot.com