Have You Eaten Grandma?

Have You Eaten Grandma?
افزودن به بوکمارک اشتراک گذاری 0 دیدگاه کاربران 4 (1)

Or, the Life-Saving Importance of Correct Punctuation, Grammar, and Good English

مشارکت: عنوان و توضیح کوتاه هر کتاب را ترجمه کنید این ترجمه بعد از تایید با نام شما در سایت نمایش داده خواهد شد.
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فرمت کتاب

ebook

تاریخ انتشار

2019

نویسنده

Gyles Brandreth

ناشر

Atria Books

شابک

9781982127428

کتاب های مرتبط

  • اطلاعات
  • نقد و بررسی
  • دیدگاه کاربران
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نقد و بررسی

Kirkus

June 15, 2019
Another handbook for those who love precision in language and who are not going gentle into that good night. Brandreth, a British radio personality, former Member of Parliament, and author of the Oscar Wilde mystery series (Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper, 2019, etc.), skates lightly across the ice of his subject, offering some occasional humor (see the title). Like other books on the subject, this one assumes that most people care about being "correct" (do they?). The author writes in such a way that readers who already understand grammar, usage, and punctuation will best comprehend his lessons about subordinate clauses, restrictive and nonrestrictive modifiers, the use of apostrophes, and the like. On some issues, Brandreth stands rather firm ("alright" is not all right); on others, he feels the winds of change and realizes the end is near for, say, the difference between "who" and "whom." The author pauses occasionally to comment on the differences between English in the U.K. and in America. His text also features long lists of various sorts: the meanings of prefixes and suffixes, the differences between spelling in British and American English, words that writers can confuse ("affect" and "effect," "complement" and "compliment"), and common internet acronyms. Brandreth spends an inordinate amount of time on spelling, perhaps a superfluous endeavor in a time when many people are carrying around unabridged dictionaries on their phones. He urges his readers--especially those who wish to write--to increase their vocabularies and to read a lot (good advice). He concludes the main part of his text with some advice from some notable writers, including George Orwell, Martin Amis, William Safire, and Gyles Brandreth. In a postscript, the author provides a brief grammar lesson, explaining such things as parts of speech, misplaced and dangling modifiers, and transitive and intransitive verbs. Hope mixes with despair in this bittersweet cocktail of a writing/grammar guide.

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.



Publisher's Weekly

June 24, 2019
Self-styled “language obsessive and... punctuation perfectionist” Brandreth (Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper), a mystery novelist, BBC broadcaster, and former member of Parliament, defends the correct use of English in this witty usage guide. Presenting “the richest language in the world” as a well-established route to health, wealth, and happiness—albeit one imperiled by social media and other modern developments—he starts with the basics: proper punctuation, dashes and hyphens, apostrophes, spelling, and pluralization. Brandreth uses humorous examples, historical asides (Dan Quayle’s “potatoe” spelling), extensive charts, and mnemonic devices of his own creation to illustrate his points. Though the Queen’s (i.e., British) English is his main focus, he also sets aside his “stiff upper lip” (a stereotypically English trait which is actually an American coinage) to explore its many divergences from American English. The resulting confusion, he shows, is compounded by the continual addition of all types of new words into the common lexicon, such as social media lingo, euphemisms, and portmanteaus. Ultimately, clarity, not rigid rule-adherence, is key to Brandreth’s philosophy of writing. Bolstered with an epilogue giving straightforward definitions for different parts of speech, his passionate, enlightening, and easily navigable manual is certainly the right book at the right time.




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