just another dead poet

grammar- back to basics

So, my new job that I will be starting in a few weeks requires that I copyedit author’s manuscripts. In an effort to ensure proper preparation (and also due to the fact that I always over-prepare in an effort to fend off anxious night/daymares about impending doom & failure…) I’ve decided to get a head start on some grammar exercises using Maxine Ruvinksy’s Practical Grammar: A Canadian Writer’s Resource, along with helpful tidbits on the ‘net like this one.

It’s odd to note that the only reason I have fairly upstanding grammar skills as it is, is solely due to my passion for reading. I don’t remember spending a whole heck of a lot of time on grammar & punctuation in school… and once I got to University it was just ‘assumed’ that you knew the rules, exceptions, etc… when —in reality—some professors claimed to be far less than grammatical masters. So there is a great potential that even if, like me, you hold a Master’s degree in English Literature— you’ve been making and re-making the same mistakes your entire life with no one there to catch them. 

I would suggest this book to anyone who desires to “abandon the strategy of guessing” to improve his/her writing, and demystify the ‘rules’ of a language that seems to come as second nature.