Books on Grammar

Lafayette

Lafayette

Man of Artistic Fingers
Joined
Jun 14, 2016
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Phoenix, Arizona
I have a program attached to Microsoft Word called ProWritingAid which I like quite a lot. However, there are times (for instance) it tells me to use a comma, but it doesn't always explain why to my satisfaction. I'm not too fond of doing things mechanically. I want to understand why I'm suppose to do it.

Can someone suggest some good grammar books leaning toward creative writing for me to buy?

I will appreciate it very much if you can.
 
Can't help with a grammar book, but we do touch on a lot of grammatical issues in The Toolbox, including posts on commas The Toolbox -- The Important Bits and The Toolbox -- The Important Bits

That, I think, will give you a start, and best of all it's free!

If there are grammar issues which you can't find covered there, raise them as questions in Writing Discussion. That way, if we get some definitive posts, I can copy them across to both Toolbox threads so if in the future others have the same concerns the answers are in one place.
 
The Judge said:
Can't help with a grammar book, but we do touch on a lot of grammatical issues in The Toolbox, including posts on commas The Toolbox -- The Important Bits and The Toolbox -- The Important Bits

That, I think, will give you a start, and best of all it's free!

If there are grammar issues which you can't find covered there, raise them as questions in Writing Discussion. That way, if we get some definitive posts, I can copy them across to both Toolbox threads so if in the future others have the same concerns the answers are in one place.
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Thank you. I will look into the Tool Box to see what I use.
 
Phyrebrat said:
I swear by Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. It’s a thin, easy read and reference. It’s nice to have a physical thing handy when I’m writing.

It still, however, has not been able to facilitate an understanding of semicolons.
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I think I had a copy when in college, but I don't remember it going into detail. Does it?

Thank you.
 
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For specific rule sets, here is a list of style guides to peruse, List of style guides - Wikipedia
[To be forthcoming, I have not used any of the reference above.]

As a general rule, I feel the biggest issue is often lack of punctuation. Once there is sufficient punctuation, the selection of the right symbol is less important. The same words can often be punctuated differently to give differing feels to the text. As long as the reader gets sufficient hints to be able to parse the phrasing, I feel it is okay to select the appropriate punctuation marks intuitively.
 
Lafayette said:
I think I had a copy when in college, but I don't remember it going into detail. Does it?

Thank you.
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I went to Amazon and downloaded the e-book version. It led me to another e-book which I also downloaded: Quick and Easy English Punctuation by Richard De 'A Morelli.

I chose 'A Morelli's book because it covers more examples of commas.

Thanks again.
 
tinkerdan said:
Strunk and White.

Amazon.com: The Elements of Style: Annotated Edition eBook : Strunk Jr., William, McGill, James: Books

Buy The Elements of Style: Annotated Edition: Read Books Reviews - Amazon.com
www.amazon.com
And
Gregg Reference Manual
I use the Gregg because some of my editors were using that style guide while editing.

An alternate to Gregg...is Chicago style.
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I will look into these books and put some of them on my Amazon wish list.
 
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