My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

This book is exactly what I wanted. It is packed with information that is present in a way that makes it easy to remember. I keep it by my desk and find myself dipping into it on a regular basis

I completely agree with Magnus that this book is not what it claims. It has far too many errors to even suggest it takes an 'old-school' style approach. If this was edited carefully and checked for errors, as would be expected of an old-school approach, this would be a great book. The glaring lower case 'e' on the front cover should be warning enough!

If you want a truly useful and entertaining book on grammar, buy something by the guru, David Crystal!

It is deeply unfashionable to care about the proper use of language and grammar these days. Wince at "between you and I", get annoyed by "me and my friends", question a misplaced and misleading apostrophe and you will probably be dubbed an old fogey or, worse, an "elitist". You can expect a solemn lecture about how language is always changing, and how usage is what counts and sets the standards.

Well yes, language is always changing, and ultimately usage does set the standard, but (unless you are a politician or someone else with an agenda of their own) the purpose of language is to communicate, and not just facts. How we use it also communicates attitudes, how we see other people, and how we want to relate to them. Correct grammar does these things - sloppy usage does not, or at least reduces language's effectiveness.

For that reason this book should be required reading for journalists, broadcasters, and anyone else who supposedly communicates for a living. It is concise, logical, informative, and even humorous. It explains why we use, or should use, words in a certain way, and is fair enough to point out those forms that came about for academic reasons and can safely be forgotten. I wish it had been around when I was studying English at school!

And (showing my age again?) I really appreciate the fact that it is, despite the low price, a hardback.

At the end of the day - a great book for pedants.

The main grammar mistake I notice is when people say If iI was you instead of if I were you. As I grew up in an age when how you spoke marked out your status and intelligence I have great difficulty accepting that someone who makes grammar and pronunciation errors can be in charge.

Everything else they say is suspect. This is an outdated idea but a difficult one to shift for a lot of people.Recent reality TV stars, footballers and WAGS have been criticised mercilessly for their poor use of English and their general ignorance. It is a way of putting people down and feeling superior

This is very common along with the wrong use of them and those. Them pictures instead of those pictures.

Others are just wrong pronunciations such as anythink instead of anything. I notice supposedly quite well educated people make grammar errors.

I can't remember formally learning it at school . I suppose I picked it up just be aping my betters such as the BBC.

It can be regarded as elitist to speak properly and it can get people very fired up.

Spelling is all over the place because of the proliferation of US spellings so we are now confused about practice/ise licence/se.

It gets difficult when we come to less and fewer as in 10 items or less when they mean 10 items or fewer. that would sound too pedantic.

Grammar like spelling and pronunciation is just a stick that the educated can use to beat the uneducated. When I was at school the mere acquisition of k knowledge was a mark of intelligence.

Now we like to feel superior to those who we feel are breaking any of the above rules through sheer ignorance. Being ignorant is not a sign of lack of intelligence just a sign of a lack of education.

In these modern causal times rules are not supposed to matter but I have read and received CVs that would not even be considered because they are so poorly written. There is no excuse for that because we have spelling and grammar checks and you could get a third party to check it for you.

My main criticism of this book is no index which any serious book should have.

Two things I have noticed is the proliferation of Ha-itch for aitch. In my day only Irishmen said Ha-itch but now it is very common . Also to speak with rather than speak to. It is as though to speak to is somehow too direct.

We can't now rely on listening to the BBC to get an idea of how to pronounce words or proper grammar. If you do go around insisting on it you will be regarded as hopelessly old fashioned an uncool.

We are now subject to pleonasm.prolixity and tautology which is of course wordiness. good writing is always concise but we have language inflation. It is generally used to make what we sound important at this moment in time ( now) The Americans appear to be more prone to it than us but that might just be prejudice.

A great book to dip into but it is a bit like the comment that a gentleman should know how to play the bagpipes but doesn't. It should be there but not made a big fuss about.

A good book but one to get you thinking rather than for you to sit down and consume at one sitting.

What to say about a book on grammar? After all, it is grammar, one of the driest and most unexciting topics in the history of the universe. It is to Caroline Taggart and J.A.Wines's great credit that they do manage to occasionally raise a smile during their treatment of this subject. Not only have they treated it with humour but also with a pragmatic observation of the modern development of language and how that might affect one's interpretation of the accuracy of one's grammar.

There is no index but, crucially, the contents page is structured in such a way that it allows for easy reference when one is concerned about a particularly thorny issue.

Very good, but I can't bring myself to award five stars to a grammar primer.