Sunday, March 18, 2007

Groom Your Grammar with Grammar Girl

When I started writing my blogs and doing some freelancing, I realized my English grammar was a tad bit rusty. I can explain the difference between the present perfect and the simple past until the cows come home -- which I couldn't do before becoming an ESL teacher -- but that doesn't help much when writing professional English.

The first step I took to spruce up my writing skills was rereading the The Elements of Style cover to cover. I can't quite see myself doing the same with The Chicago Manual of Style, though.

So where can I go from here?

That's where Grammar Girl comes in. All right, the name isn't very PC. But we all know "Grammar Woman" just wouldn't have done the trick.

This approximately weekly blog and podcast site reviews English grammar rules, both basic and advanced. Take a look or a listen, especially if you fear you are using comma splices -- or, of course, if you can't quite remember what they are.

5 comments:

wheresmymind said...

I flinch every time my English teacher wife reads my blog

Anonymous said...

The Elements of Style is such a great book. So is The Big Orange Book, as my brother and I call it, but on a different scale.

And it's funny, that whole present perfect/simple past thing. You didn't know a thing about it until you moved to France, right? I didn't either. (Should there be a comma after "didn't"? Must visit The Grammar Girl.

Betty Carlson said...

I'm glad someone is watching over you, wheresmymind! I've noticed a few "issues" myself!

Betty Carlson said...

Ali, I remember studying up -- in a panic -- for a class I had to teach in Albi, circa 1990, where I had to cover the present perfect! That is definitely a difference I learned in France. Too bad my students can't seem to learn it!

As for your comma, I think you'd have a choice there. But you definitely need to close your parentheses! (Tee-hee...)

Anonymous said...

Ha ha! I hate when I forget to proofread.