Question:
I'm looking for a tutorial in English Grammar. English is my first (and
only) language and I'm looking to improve my usage. All of the software I've
encountered is for English as a "second" language. I need software that will
take me from the basics on up. I have graduated High School and am currently a
Junior in college. I feel that my knowledge of the proper rules is lacking.
Does anyone know of software that might be appropriate? If so, where can I find
it?
Answer:
The first thing I'd advise you to do is to have a serious think about:
(a) what you mean by "the proper rules";
(b) what it is exactly which you consider yourself to be lacking (e.g.
is it that you can't decide how to phrase certain ideas, or that
you can't decide how to punctuate, etc);
(c) why you consider lacking this to be detrimental.
It may be that what you need, rather than a "tutorial in English Grammar",
is simply the time to sit down with some actual pieces of writing intended
for particular audiences and to consider how and why these pieces of
writing appear to be effective (or not) at fulfilling their particular
intentions.
"Tutorials in English Grammar" have an uncanny nack of reducing people's
ability and willingness to think intelligently about the language by
offering as a substitute for such intelligent reflection sets of mechanical
rules set within a frame of despotism. The danger arises when people
read such tutorials without attempting to reconcile what they are reading
with actual practice observed among authors of what is generally considered
to be effective writing. I certainly find it slightly alarming when
we get to the stage of ranking the blue squiggly lines drawn by
Micro$oft Word et al. above the judgement of speakers of the language...
As far as concrete recommendations go, then Swan's "English Usage" is
a reasonable compromise between understandability and accuracy. As well
as having the basics covered, Swan attempts to touch on some fairly
delicate and fairly advanced topics. If his work has a shortcoming, it's
that it is at times hampered by its insistance on couching things within
an unnecessarily traditional grammatical framework.
You should also read Crystal's "Making sense of English usage", which
will help you to be more critical when looking at other works on English
usage and hopefully abate some of the hysteria.
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