Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay: Practical Advice For The Grammatically Challenged
That tireless verbivore Richard Lederer is at it again, this time providing, in cahoots with coauthor Richard Dowis, a quick-and-dirty grammar guide. In a time when Sing and Snore Ernie says, "It feels good to lay down," and Columbia University professor Edward Shapiro employs awhomwherewhois called for (in his bookShakespeare and the Jews), we are clearly in need of Lederer and Dowis to set us straight. InSleeping Dogs Don't Lay, the authors steer us away from problematic words and phrases (such asAren't I); remind us of definitions we may have, er, confused (of, say,flotsamandjetsam,podiumandlectern,proneandsupine); and teach us to usecomprisecorrectly.But Lederer and Dowis are hardly anachronous sticklers. Their section on grammatical myths advocates the judicious splitting of an infinitive, using a preposition "to end a sentence with," and even, sometimes, embracing clichés. "Different from" is almost always right, they say, but "if your ear tells you otherwise, choose different than." Their "rule" concerning comma use states that "If the addition or omission of a comma makes the meaning clearer, add it or remove it even if doing so seems to violate some other rule." How refreshing it is to encounter grammarians who do not live in a vacuum, who know that "connotations are often more important than definitions, and that the true meaning of a word or phrase is the effect it has on readers."--Jane Steinberg--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.