Booking Through Thursday: Grammar
Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?
Here's a confession...I own exactly one, a college writing guide. I only use it to remember the difference between MLA and APA formatting. I don't use dictionaries, I use the spell-check on my computer. I don't use a thesaurus, I use the thesaurus tool on Microsoft Office.
It's kind of shameful, actually, because I profess to value good grammar. I mean, I do find it important, but all of the "formal" rules of grammar get lost on me. You could say mine is a more "intuitive" grammar. I just know if things look or sound correct. Since I'm fairly well-read, it usually works out. At the very least no one calls me on it. ;-)
Comments
I have the Oxford English Dictionary and Thesaurus, Foyle's Philavery (A super nice book full of rare and not often used words), Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors (more spellings and usages) and How Novels Work by John Mullan, which is all about structure and technique.