Tutorials and Resources:

General Grammar and Style Resources

Easily Confused or Misused Words

It’s Not What It Sounds Like

Clichés: Avoid Them like the Plaque

University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) Style Handout

Free English Grammar Tutorials

Grammar, Usage, and Style Cheat Sheet

Blogs:

Blog for Writers. Kathy Ide, author of Polishing the PUGS, has a blog on her site where she posts grammar and style pointers regularly.

Daily Grammar Lessons. This one features a grammar quiz (with answers) in each post.

I recommend that you subscribe to both of these blogs. Neither offers e-mail subscriptions, but you can subscribe by RSS feed. If you need help with that process, see my article on the subject here.

If you are trying to get your writing published, make sure your work is free of these marks of the amateur.

• Plural for words ending with “st.” Is it guest or guests? It depends on whether you have one guest or more than one. Correct plural example: “We will have about 40 guests at the party.” I’ve seen publishing writing with “guest” where it should be “guests.” Remember, you must add the “s” on nouns like list, request, or mast. The rule for plurals is to add an “s” unless the word ends in “s.” See this summary.
• Exclamation points. Use them sparingly!!!! Many beginning writers think they are adding emphasis by using exclamation points. However, overuse of emphasis defeats the purpose. Rachelle Gardner has a great blog post on the subject here.
• All caps—avoid them altogether. The proper format for emphasis is italics or underline. All caps in a work submitted for publication will mark you as an amateur for certain. It is the typographical equivalent of shouting.
• Spacing after periods. If you learned to type on a typewriter, you learned to space twice after periods or other ending punctuation marks. The computer age has changed that. Re-train yourself to space only once at the end of a sentence. When I point this out to the writers I mentor, they just don’t believe me. That’s because they have no experience in publishing. See the Grammar Girl’s article on this subject.
• Its vs. it’s. The only time you’ll use an apostrophe with the word “it” is when you are using it as a contraction for “it is.” The word “it” may be the only word in the language that does not have an apostrophe in its possessive form. This error is so prevalent that it’s distressing to grammarphobes like me. For one thing, the spellchecker will not catch this error. I’ve seen it on television captions, campaign literature, and advertising signs. I even caught it on a publishing industry executive’s blog. Review the basic principles here.

Rid your writing of these marks of the amateur. It may take some effort, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Links to similar articles on the Web:

Common Grammatical Errors

Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb

Which of the following sentences arouses more righteous anger?

• The World Trade Center was destroyed in 2001.
• The World Trade Center was destroyed by terrorists in 2001.
• Terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center in 2001.

Though all three sentences are grammatically correct, the last uses the active voice or construction which conveys more power, emphasizes the actor, and is clearer and more direct. The first two use the passive voice which generally expresses an idea in a weaker, less straightforward manner.

To understand passive versus active voice, simply remember: In the active voice, the subject performs the action; in the passive voice, the subject receives the action. The passive voice always combines a form of to be with a past participle. Sometimes the direct object acts upon the subject (as in the second example), and sometimes the actor vanishes from the sentence altogether (as in the first example). Your sentences will carry more clout and communicate better if you use the active voice.

Passive voice is still appropriate in certain situations:

• To emphasize the receiver of the action (Jesus was raised from the dead.)
• To minimize the importance of the actor, when you don’t know who the actor is, or when it doesn’t matter (The dam was opened to release flood waters.)
• To place the actor at the end of the sentence for emphasis or surprise (The family was saved from the burning building by a ten-year-old child.)
• To make the sentence a command (Trucks are not allowed on this road.)
• To emphasize the process or experiment in scientific writing (The solution was kept at a steady temperature.)

NOTE: Writers sometimes refer to linking verbs, such as to be, as passive. As Cec Murphey, author of 90 Minutes in Heaven, says, “There is no such thing as a passive verb.” Though to be verbs weaken our writing, they do not by themselves constitute the use of passive voice. Also don’t confuse the use of the progressive tense—a to be verb combined with an -ing verb (i.e. I was walking down the street)—with passive voice. Remember that the subject must receive the action of the verb to constitute the use of passive voice.

Keep your writing strong, clear, and active. Pass on the passive!

© 2009 Tracy Crump, used by permission.

Full title: Macmillan Teach Yourself Grammar and Style in 24 Hours, by Pamela Rice Hahn and Dennis E. Hensley, Ph.D., published by Pearson Education Macmillan USA, 2000.

Have you wanted to attend a writers’ conference but couldn’t afford it? Have you considered online courses but passed on them for the same reason? Consider getting a copy of this book, and give yourself a thorough workshop on the basics of writing. Although the title may intimidate you, the book is not boring and pedantic. It’s designed for anyone needing a review of grammar basics, but it also targets those who need to improve their writing.

You may be wondering what’s the difference between grammar and style. The first sentence in the first chapter explains, “Grammar is the study of sentence structure and the rules that govern it.” “Style” means “a distinctive manner of expression,” according to Merriam Webster. The first 12 chapters give you grounding in grammar, while the rest of the book helps you develop your style.

The title says you can accomplish your study in 24 hours. Sounds amazing? Well, you won’t be able to do it overnight, unless you just don’t sleep at all. Each chapter is constructed so that you can study and absorb the material in one hour. Then you take the multiple-choice test. If you do one chapter a day, you can finish in 24 days. Do two chapters a day and be done in 12 days. Maybe it’s not “quick and easy,” but it is effective.

The book offers several appendices with tables, resources, lists, and a detailed index. If you’re a published writer or one who wants to get work published, this book will be a good refresher course. It’s available both new and used on Amazon.

Preview the book on Google books.