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Grammar for Smart People | |
Publisher: Pocket Books
Authors: Barry Tarshis
US$14.00
ISBN 0671750445
'If I am so smart, why does grammar make me feel so dumb?'. This is the question this book tries to answer - mainly by helping these 'smart people' feel less dumb about grammar. The level of the book is advanced, as it is written for native speakers of English. This means the author is happy referring (for example) to punctuation as being 'throw cushions of the language to be inserted wherever and however people feel', and suggesting that readers should not 'sweat the details'. However despite its focus on native English speakers of North America, the book is a good overview of grammar, and points out several mistakes that many native speakers often make, such as using 'less' when they mean 'fewer'.
This is a short book of 197 pages, and it is not designed to be a comprehensive study of English grammar. Rather it is a study of the grammar that native speakers most often get wrong. For this it has eight chapters with titles such as 'Avoiding Pronoun Paranoia' and 'End Games - how to tame vicious verbs'. (As you can see, the writer enjoys using his English.) However, it was a bit disturbing to find the infinitive described as a 'verb which is always preceeded by "to"' as most grammarians recognize the infinitive without 'to' in sentences such as 'Singing always makes him feel better.' where one has to ask what is 'feel' if it is not an infinitive without 'to'? The book is broken up into particular points, each with a bold heading, and the writer is quite happy to use lists if this makes his point clearer. There are also a number of black and white cartoons, which are not particularly relevant, but are quite fun and also help to make the book an easy read.
The back of the book also has a glossary of grammatical expressions, which is useful if you want a quick definition of say, the subjective, or the meaning of a 'linking word'. There is also an index, and before that an appendix which calls itself a 'crash course in grammar' which contains some information which one expects a smart person might already know. (E.g. 'Sentences start with a capital letter'.)
Who is this book for? The title explains the target audience - anyone who has suffered from a progressive education and therefore has been left uncertain of what grammar is and how it works. However a literate non-native speaker will get a lot from this book, not least a certain mischievous pleasure from correcting the English of native speakers when they make one of the common errors.
Verdict: Good, but less smart than it thinks
Assessment 6/10