Edith Hope Fine - More Nitty-Gritty Grammar: Another Not-So-Serious Guide to Clear Communication

Text copyright 2001 Edith H. Fine and Judith P. Josephson

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fine, Edith Hope.

More nitty-gritty grammar: another not-so-serious guide to clear communication / by Edith H. Fine and Judith P. Josephson.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. English languageGrammar. I. Josephson, Judith Pinkerton. II. Title.
PE1112 .F534 2001 428.2dc21 2001004601

eISBN: 978-0-307-78565-7

Printed in the United States of America

Cover design by Susan Van Horn

v3.1

Dedication

To all who love language and words.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to our eagle-eyed readers: Hilary Crain,
Teri Feldott, Janelle Fine, Michael Fine, Nick Genovese,
Jill Hansen, Beverly Hamowitz, Pat Hatfield, Melissa
Irick, Kirsten Josephson, Julianne Noll, Jeannie Phelan,
and Kay Vaughan.

We also tip our Grammar Patrol hats to editor
Meghan Keeffe and to our writing group for their
steady support and quick wit.

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

What? More grammar? people asked when they heard we were writing More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. Whats left to say?

Our answer was plenty.

Wearing our Grammar Patrol hats, weve appeared as guests on over one hundred radio talk shows since our first grammar guide, Nitty-Gritty Grammar, was published. Its been fun fielding questions and listening to peoples grammar pet peeves, such as irregardless and between you and I. Well do anything to promote great grammar, including hauling our four-foot-high Grammar Bear with us. While we chatted with Money in the Morning radio host, George Chamberlin, the bear kept an eye on the stock quotes.

Be assured that people across the United States and Canada really do care about grammar and language. At KCET in Pasadena, California, host Larry Mantle warned his eager listeners to pull off the freeways before calling in with their grammar gripes. With all this great feedback and fodder, our mission was clear: to write a follow-up book.

More Nitty-Gritty Grammar offers a painless language brush-up with a comic bent, complete with a bevy of new syndicated cartoons. Its for anyone wanting to refresh, review, or polish grammar skills. Besides digging deeper into topics lightly covered in our first book, we have stretched the strict definition of grammar to include usage, literary terms, spelling, and selective style pitfalls.

Both of our grammar books are designed for anyone from 10 to 110. They are indispensable tools for busy executives and other businesspeople, families, English teachers, second-language learners, graduates, and students of all ages. As avid cartoon buffs, the Grammar Patrol appreciates all the cartoonists who slip grammar jokes into their work. So, by popular request, weve included over fifty new grammar cartoons by syndicated artists.

We wrote this second grammar guide to explore some finer points of grammar and language, to further demystify grammar, to offer practical suggestions, and to help readers increase their grammatical accuracy. We also wanted to use the many real-life errors from our Blooper Patrol collection. But our most important goal was to serve up easy-access grammar basics, with dollops of laughter on the side.

Edith H. Fine and Judith P. Josephson
Encinitas, California

Heres a road map to help you travel easily through More Nitty-Gritty Grammar, whether you stick with the main highways or take shortcuts or detours.

Uh-oh! On , theres a pop grammar quiz. Where do you stand with grammar? Take this quick quiz and see. All the answers are in this book.

More Nitty-Gritty Grammar has alphabetical listings, so you can go directly to the topic you want. For instance, to learn more about ending sentences with prepositions, look under P for Prepositions, then find the To End or Not to End? header. You can read this guide page by page, or simply browse.

In the eBook edition there is no footer along each page, so the content from the Ticker Tape in the print edition shows up in the eBook in the grey boxes that appear randomly throughout the book. The all-new ticker tape are sentences that highlight bloopers frequently seen and heard. You can treat them as a quick refresher. If you say, I dont get this, turn to the page number given in parentheses.