Why is English grammar important?
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Just take a look at the cover of this magazine about celebrity Rachael Ray. The texts says:
“Rachael Ray finds inspiration in cooking her family and her dog”
Of course, what the sentence is supposed to mean is that Rachael finds inspiration in her dog, her family and her cooking. Instead, the sentence sounds like Rachael likes to cook her family and her dog for dinner!
Good grammar can save you from misunderstandings like that. Grammar involves a set of rules you use to form sentences in any language. Grammar rules tell you things like why you walk slowly (not “slow”), and when to say “they” or “them.” Without grammar, it would be very difficult for people to understand one another.
So learning English grammar is important, but it’s not always easy to start. Where can you get all the information you need, and how can you learn all of the rules (and the exceptions to these rules)?
Well, you can start right here with this list of 14 English grammar learning websites!
Smart Steps for Learning English Grammar
Even with a list of great resources, learning will be easier if you follow specific steps.
1. Have a goal. Having a goal helps you create focus. Choose a specific goal for your grammar learning, such as feeling comfortable for a job interview, or fixing your spoken mistakes in the past tense.
2. Break that goal down into smaller goals. Now that you know what you want to achieve, you can figure out how to get there. Let’s say that you want to fix your past tense mistakes. First you will need to figure out what those mistakes are. To do that, you can ask others to point out your mistakes when you speak, record yourself and listen carefully, work on the past tenses you’re less familiar with and more.
Whatever you’re working on, you should find a way to break it down into smaller chunks.
Top 10 English Grammar Books In The World 2017
3. Focus on one topic at a time. Don’t try to learn everything at once. Instead, learn one rule at a time and practice, using and reviewing that rule until you know it so well that you could teach it to someone else.
4. Study a few minutes a day. You don’t need to study for hours to learn English. All it takes is five to 10 minutes a day, as long as you use them wisely.
Each day, you can read a grammar rule, do a few exercises and then practice it for the rest of the day. The next couple of days, use that rule while writing and speaking to make sure you didn’t forget it. Look for examples of that rule while you read, watch or listen to anything in English.
Follow these steps, and before you know it you’ll feel much more comfortable with English grammar.
How to Use This List of English Grammar Resources
We’ve put together a list of some awesome websites where you can find grammar rules, test your skills or quickly look up a grammar question. This list is not comprehensive, which means it doesn’t contain every single grammar website on the internet. That would be one huge list!
Instead, you’ll find a good mix of useful resources for any kind of grammar learning you want to do. You will not (and should not) use all the websites. Instead, look around and find a couple of sites that you like.
Then, and this is important, actually use them. Bookmark the website on your computer and your phone, download the app if there is one and include one or two in your learning schedule. Doing so will make sure that you visit the websites regularly and continue to learn from them.
Grammar Bytes
Grammar Bytes has bite-sized (mini) grammar lessons and exercises presented in a really friendly and sometimes silly way. Interactive exercises let you test your skills, and they also contain easy-to-understand explanations with the correct answers.
The site also posts a daily grammar workout on its Twitter account.
5 Minute English
The design for 5 Minute English might not be very fancy, but its explanations are clear and to the point. The site has some great information about common grammar questions and mistakes, like this page, which explains when to use “listen” and when to use “hear.”
FluentU
One of the best ways to learn English grammar is by hearing it used in real situations. The more English you listen to, the more grammar you learn—without even memorizing the rules first (although that definitely helps).
On FluentU, you have access to a huge library of real-world English videos, along with clear definitions, examples and more for all words used in the videos. The more you watch, the more you learn!
While browsing our hundreds of awesome videos, you’ll have the freedom to choose which ones are most relevant to your personallearning experience.
FluentU actively teaches you new words and grammar rules while you watch. There are interactive subtitles—click on any word for an instant definition, grammar info and examples.
FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.
For example, if you tap on the word “brought,” then you see this:
You can learn any video’s vocabulary with FluentU. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.
Keep practicing with these videos, and you will see great improvement in your ability to use English correctly, the way native speakers do.
Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet, or download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play stores.
British Council
The British Council is a great resource for all language learners, especially if you’re learning British English. There is a huge amount of information here about any kind of grammar you may need to know.
Just choose your level and then you’ll get several specific grammar topics to explore.
Grammar Girl
Grammar Girl is both a blog and podcast that provides short, friendly tips to improve the grammar in your writing. Grammar Girl (also known as Mignon Fogarty) makes learning grammar fun and simple with memory tricks. This makes it easier to remember and use difficult grammar rules.
Grammar Girl is used by native speakers as well, so you can be sure it will help your English sound more natural. You’ll learn about English grammar rules as well as punctuation, writing style and even business tips.
You can find her podcasts on Apple and Spotify, or you can get a free month when you sign up with the code GRAMMAR using Stitcher.
English Grammar 101
Do you prefer learning with a textbook, but don’t want to carry one around all the time? You’ll love English Grammar 101, which is set up like a grammar textbook.
Each easy-to-understand lesson (or chapter) only covers one topic at a time, and is followed by an exercise section to test your understanding of the topic. The short length of the chapters means you can spend a few minutes a day on one grammar rule, and learn a lot within just a short time.
Alison English Grammar Courses
Not everybody likes to learn alone. For those of you who would prefer to learn in a classroom, you might to try an online course. Alison has a number of free online courses for learning English grammar. These courses usually involve watching videos and then doing assignments.
The best part is that you can often interact with (talk to) the other students and the teacher. So if you have a question or want to practice with someone, you can.
Education First’s English Grammar Guide
Education First’s grammar guide is very well organized, and is a good starting place to learn how to use parts of speech. The rules themselves are short and use many example sentences to show how everything works.
If you learn better through examples than through rules, this is an excellent place to start.
Oxford English Grammar Course
This website is meant to be a companion to the Oxford English Grammar books. Even if you don’t use those books, this is still a good place to practice your grammar.
There are no explanations of the grammar rules, but there are many interactive grammar exercises to make sure you really understand each rule. Use this website to practice the rules you’re learning somewhere else, or to find out what you need to study more.
Daily Grammar
Daily Grammar is simple both in look and content. The website has over 400 lessons on parts of speech and parts of sentences, which you can go through in order, or you can use the glossary to look up a term.
Daily Grammar also posts lessons to their blog, along with exercises for practice.
EnglishClub
EnglishClub is another website with grammar lessons, and the writing on this one is especially easy to understand and friendly. Some lessons have quizzes, and others have special tips that explain commonly misunderstood facts about each topic.
Grammarly Tips
You may have heard of the Grammarly spelling and grammar checker. It doesn’t just check your mistakes in your writing, but will also explain them to you so you don’t make the same mistakes again.
They’ve also collected a ton of rules, facts and tips on every possible grammar topic you can imagine. Explanations are written in a blog-like way: personal and using full paragraphs instead of a few lines. Because of its more advanced English usage, it’s a fantastic resource for more advanced learners.
Grammarly is not an English learner website—it’s a website for native English speakers who want to improve their grammar. Because of that, the tips might be a bit overwhelming for beginner/intermediate learners.
English Page
English Page is not organized as well as some of the other websites on this list, but it has some of the best English grammar exercises you’ll find. The exercises here don’t just ask you to choose a correct answer from a list—you have to write the answer yourself.
This gets you to actually use what you learned, and to practice instead of just memorize. There’s an excellent section with grammar rules as well, with lots of sample sentences.
YouTube
Visual learners, we haven’t forgotten about you! For those of you who prefer to watch someone explain the rules instead of reading them, YouTube has plenty of lessons to offer.
Some great English grammar lessons can be found on EnglishLessons4U, Let’s Talk and many other channels. For lessons on something specific, search YouTube for “[topic] grammar lesson” and you’ll find many options.
Which of these websites will join your bookmarks/favorites? Hopefully you’ve found a couple of sites that you’re excited to start using. Remember to use these websites together with other English learning methods. Good luck!
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn English with real-world videos.
Children seem to have fun doing just about anything…
…even reading!
But they probably love books so much because children’s books are simply so entertaining (fun) to read.
Lucky for you, children’s books are also perfect for English learners!
Reading is an excellent way to improve your English, and kids’ books make it easy and enjoyable to get started.
The images are colorful and memorable, the language is simple and the messages are important for people of all ages. And that’s why we have put together a list of 10 classic children’s books for you.
Why Learn English with Children’s Books?
- Memorable images. Many children’s books use pictures to illustrate what is written. They do this so that kids can understand the story better. These illustrations (pictures) can be a huge help to you when learning English. By associating (connecting in your mind) a new vocabulary word or phrase with a picture or an object, it is much easier to remember.
- Words in context. Similarly, words used in a real situation (in context) are also much easier to remember. Since the language in these books is quite simple, it is easy to know what is going on. Therefore, when you come across a word that you don’t know, you can often use the story’s situation and images to understand the word’s meaning (without using a dictionary).
- Simple vocabulary and grammar. Even though I will say below that some of the books have “advanced” vocabulary, they really are not too difficult. They are just harder than the very basic words that are most common in children’s books. For example, you might already know the word “smart,” but one of these books might say “clever.” It has almost the same meaning, but it is a higher level vocabulary word.
- Great life lessons. Most children’s books teach children how to grow up and be a good person. However, even as teenagers and adults, these lessons are still true and important. Children might not fully understand or appreciate (value) the meaning behind the stories. However, as adults, these stories can have new meanings to us.
- Reading them is fun! The stories are enjoyable and the pictures help you make sense of the words (besides being nice to look at).
English learners can get frustrated when they choose books that go above their reading levels. By focusing on children’s books first, you should have a very positive and successful learning experience.
If you enjoy this type of entertaining language learning, you can get a similar experience with FluentU. FluentU offers authentic English videos, like movie trailers, music videos, inspiring talks and more, that’ve been transformed into a language learning experience.
Each video comes with interactive captions, so you can instantly get definitions for any unfamiliar words. There are also flashcards and exercises to help you remember them. So when you’re taking a break from one of the great books below, check out the FluentU free trial to keep learning while having fun!
10 Classic Children’s Books for English Learners
These books are ordered from easiest to more difficult.
1. “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown
“Goodnight Moon” doesn’t really have much of a story. The book is just a description of certain things like kittens, a mouse and a quiet old lady. There are also mittens, a toy house and even a cow. The author introduces everything in the beginning and then says goodnight each of them at the end.
“Goodnight Moon” uses repetition of the same sentence structures with different vocabulary, which is great for English learners. For example, one line in the book reads, “Goodnight room. Goodnight moon. Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.” This is really helpful for learning a lot of new words.
Most of the story is made of short two- and three-word sentences, which is why I have listed it as the easiest book here.
2. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle
“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is about a caterpillar who eats more and more food during a week. The book starts with a little caterpillar who comes out of its egg and starts searching for food. He does this every day.
In the beginning, the caterpillar eats healthily, such as fruit and vegetables. Later, the caterpillar begins to eat junk food more and more, until its stomach hurts. Because of this, the caterpillar decides to eat something good again and it feels better. In the end, the caterpillar wraps up into a cocoon and soon becomes a butterfly.
This children’s book is great for learning essential English words, such as numbers, foods and days of the week. Once again, repetition is very important for improving your English, and this book has lots of great repetition.
3. “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” by Laura Numeroff
“If You Give a Moose a Muffin” is about a moose who always wants something more in his life. First, he wants a muffin. Then he wants some jam to go with it. When he’s finished eating, he wants some more until they’re all gone. Then, he asks you to make more, and more…
This book is one of the shortest on the list, and its language uses a lot of future tense. This means most of the sentences have the verb “will” in them. For example, “If you give a moose a muffin he’ll want some jam to go with it.” This book is especially helpful for learning future tense and its contractions (he’ll, you’ll, etc.).
If you like this book, you’ll probably also like “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” written by the same author.
4. “Curious George” by H.A. Rey and Margret Rey
“Curious George” is very famous series about a monkey named Curious George. The word “curious” means to be interested in knowing more about something. Curious George is a little too curious, which causes humans to catch him and bring him to their big city.
There, the monkey creates all sorts of problems. He calls the fire department, ends up in prison (jail), escapes from prison, is carried into the sky by balloons and eventually, he arrives safely in the zoo.
This book uses a lot of short, simple sentences, which makes it very easy to read for English learners. For example, “One day George saw a man. He had on a large yellow straw hat. The man saw George too.” As you can tell, the sentences are very short and choppy, which is what makes “Curious George” a great read for both children and English learners.
5. “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein
In this story, a boy loves to play in an apple tree, and the apple tree loves when the boy plays with her. The boy gets older, though, and doesn’t play in the tree anymore. Later in life, he comes back to the tree to ask her for help in life. The tree helps the boy because she loves him. In the end, the boy comes back to the tree one final time as an old man, and uses the tree’s stump (the short part that’s left after a tree is cut down) to sit, making the tree happy.
This book has such a deep meaning, and it is fun to read at the same time. This book uses its simple words to create one clear idea, making it an easy read.
6. “Corduroy” by Don Freeman
“Corduroy” is the story of a little bear who is for sale in a toy shop. He has lost one of his buttons, so no one wants to buy him. This makes him very sad because he wants to be taken home by a child. Corduroy decides he needs to find a new button if someone is going to buy him.
So one night, he leaves the toy shop and goes out into the big store to find a button for himself. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to find a button, but you’ll have to read the story to see what happens next.
“Corduroy” uses a lot of advanced vocabulary, such as “overalls” (the item of clothing in these pictures) and “escalator” (stairs that move). Therefore, it could be helpful to use a dictionary while you read this book. You can also learn many house-related words, like “sofa” and “furniture.”
7. “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak
“Where the Wild Things Are” is about a boy named Max who misbehaves in front of his parents. His mother sends him to his room without eating dinner. While in his room, a forest magically grows and Max meets huge monsters called Wild Things. The Wild Things try to scare him, but Max tames the them with a magic trick.
The Wild Things become scared of Max, so they call him the most wild thing of all. Eventually, Max says he must go home and he returns to his room on his private boat. When Max finally gets home again, his mother has left dinner for him, still hot.
This is one of the most classic children’s books in English literature, and is also one of the most well known. In fact, it was made into a very popular movie. Despite being a children’s book, “Where the Wild Things Are” uses some advanced vocabulary, so it is great for learning higher level words and grammar.
8. “The Story of Ferdinand” by Munro Leaf
Ever since he was a kid, Ferdinand, a bull (a male cow), loved to smell the flowers in the pasture (area of grass) where he lives. But the other bulls liked to play and butt heads. When Ferdinand grows up, he becomes the biggest and the strongest of the bulls—but he still likes to sit and smell the flowers.
One day five men come to pick a bull from the pasture for the bull fights. Ferdinand does not want to be chosen, but a bee stings him. The bee sting causes Ferdinand to jump around crazily, so the five men pick Ferdinand for the bull fights. In Ferdinand’s first fight, he lies down to smell the flowers in the arena (the place where they have the fights) instead of fighting. Because of this he is sent back to the pasture.
This is the first story on this list that has more normal language and flow instead of using poetry, rhyming or lacking a real story. It has everything that makes a children’s book great for English learners: simple and advanced vocabulary, as well as simple and advanced grammar concepts.
9. “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss
In this book, a cat named Sam really likes green eggs and ham. So he offers it to a friend, but the friends does not want to eat green eggs and ham.
They go on a train, inside a tunnel and even in the lake, but Sam’s friend still does not want to eat green eggs and ham. After Sam asks his friend many times, his friend finally tries the green eggs and ham. You’ll have to read the book to see if he liked the meal or not.
This book is a long and very entertaining poem. It uses repetition like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” does. Despite having mostly simple vocabulary, the words are used in a way that feels smart. There is a lot of rhyming and use of similar words, which is what makes this book so clever and fun to read.
10. “The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss
Written by the same author as “Green Eggs and Ham,” this famous book begins with two siblings. They have to stay inside one day because it is cold and rainy outside. They don’t know what to do to have fun, and their parents are not home.
Suddenly, a cat in a hat knocks on their door and invites himself in. The cat makes a mess while having fun and playing around. The cat leaves and returns with Thing 1 and Thing 2 inside, making a bigger mess. Will the siblings be able to clean up before their parents return? You will have to read the book to find out.
“The Cat in the Hat” is the longest of the children’s books on this list, but it is one of the best ones. The Cat in the Hat character is one of Dr. Seuss’s most popular stories. This book is excellent for English learners because of the simple language and diverse vocabulary. I recommend this book for people who want a larger knowledge of English vocabulary in particular. For example, a couple of fun words used in this story include “thump” and “bump.”
There are so many great ways to learn from children’s books as you improve your English. They have memorable images, important life lessons, useful context for remembering new words, and simple vocabulary/grammar. The next time you aren’t sure what to do to improve your English, try reading a children’s book!
And One More Thing…
If you like learning English through children’s books, then I’ve got to remind you about FluentU. FluentU lets you learn real English the fun way.It teaches you with cartoons, funny YouTube videos, movie trailers and more:
If you want to watch it, FluentU’s probably got it.
FluentU makes it simple to watch native English videos. It has interactive captions. Tap on any word to see an image, definition and useful examples.
FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.
Tap on the word “brought,” and you would see this:
Videos become English lessons. With FluentU’s questions, you can always see more examples for the word you’re learning.
FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.
The most interesting part? FluentU knows the vocabulary that you’re learning. It recommends examples and videos based on those words. You have a 100% personalized experience.
Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app for iOS or Android.
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn English with real-world videos.
Professor David Crystal is one the world's foremost linguistic experts. His latest book, The Fight for English (published by OUP) assesses the debate over rights and wrongs in English usage, with examples from early modern English via Shakespeare and Samuel Johnson to our modern developments such as email and texting, and explains why he believes that when it comes to spelling and grammar, we should say no to zero tolerance. He chooses his favourite books on the English language.
1. The Oxford English Dictionary
If I were ever asked which book I would to take to a desert island, I would opt immediately for the second edition of the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary - or OED, as it is popularly called - and hope that the island had an electricity supply so that I could download the online version or use the CD. It is without doubt the most comprehensive and detailed account of the history of English vocabulary ever. Its process of continual editorial revision provides a voyage of linguistic discovery that, I am happy to say, never comes to an end.
2. The Use of English by Randolph Quirk
This is the book that opened my eyes - and the eyes of several generations of English students - to the range, versatility, and flexibility of the English language. It brought home the importance of always linking the study of language to the study of literature, and in its range of examples from both linguistic and literary sources it gives a perfect illustration of how the subject should be taught. There was a second edition in 1968, and in 1990 it was replaced by English in Use, which Quirk co-wrote with his wife, Gabriele Stein. But nothing could replace the freshness and impact of the original volume.
3. A History of the English Language by Albert C Baugh
This book just goes on and on. I used its second (1957) edition when I was an undergraduate and was fascinated by both the range of its coverage and the depth of its treatment. It manages to pack an enormous amount of illustrative detail into its 450 or so pages. Numerous other histories of the language have since been written, but this one holds a special place for its balanced views and accessible scholarship.
4. Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases
No name has come to be more synonymous with 'thesaurus' than Roget's. He has even become a common noun: I have 'a Roget' on my shelves. Indeed I have a dozen Rogets, as his thesaurus has now appeared in numerous editions, and has been revised, expanded, and abridged more times than any other. It was a truly remarkable work for its period, and anyone who has tried to update it or rework its content (as I have) cannot fail to recognise the enormous labour that went into its compilation. It is the best first source of reference we have for those many occasions when we are dimly aware of the meaning we want to express and are searching for the best word with which to express it.
5. Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
I have the greatest of admiration for non-specialists who take an interest in a subject and explore it with respect and accuracy, adding a level of accessibility and an individual slant that academics would do well to emulate. Few have succeeded; and none have succeeded so well as Bill Bryson in this book. It's a delightful, easy-to-read survey - though with its good humour, wealth of anecdote, and boyish enthusiasm, 'romp' would be a better word.
6. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, Jan Svartvik
This was the grammar I had been waiting for since the 1960s - the first real 'reference grammar' of modern times. If you think of a dictionary as a reference lexicon - a book in which you can look up any word you want and find out all about it - then this book did the same for grammar - or, at least, it moved closer to that goal than any previous work had done. The Quirk Grammar, as it is often called, is still the book to which I most often refer when exploring a point of English grammatical usage.
7. The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English by Douglas Biber, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad, Edward Finegan
The Quirk Grammar was comprehensive in scope, but limited in the statistical information it provided about the different styles of English usage. LGSWE (pronounced 'log-swee') was the first to start filling that gap. It provided a huge amount of data about the differences between British and American grammar, as well as about several important genres - conversation, fiction, news, and academic prose. Because its descriptive framework was largely the same as the Quirk Grammar, it proved easy to relate the findings of the two books. I'm always delving into this book.
8. The Cambridge History of the English Language (editor-in-chief, Richard M Hogg)
This amazing project was years in the making, and appeared over a decade from 1992. I'm not surprised it took so long. Marshalling some 50 academics to write major accounts of their field - in some cases, of 100 or so pages - and getting them to submit their pieces on time must have been a Herculean task. In fact, of course, some of them didn't submit on time, which is why the project took so long! But it was worth it, despite the wait: nothing is likely to match this history for its range and depth of coverage for a very long time.
9. The Cambridge Guide to English Usage by Pam Peters
If you find it helpful to go to Fowler, Gowers, Partridge, or any of the other famous pundits of the past for advice about English usage, then you will value this book. It is the first usage guide to benefit from the computer age. It is solidly based on a corpus of real data, and it is the first book to be truly international, providing information about differences between British, American, Australian, and other regional variants of English. It points the way forward towards the new, internet-fuelled genre of usage guides that will surely emerge in the present century.
10. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language by David Crystal
I am often asked which of my own books on this subject I have most enjoyed writing. It is a difficult call, because I always enjoy whatever I happen to be writing, and for that brief period the ongoing project is the most important thing in the history of the universe. But this encyclopedia was special. It gave me the opportunity to present, for the first time, a full-colour illustrated account of English, and offered me a collaboration with publisher, picture-researcher, photographer and designer which was both challenging and highly creative. And it all started because the son of a friend asked me why he couldn't find a book on the English language with pictures in it.
Even if you’re a punctilious writer who prides himself on never splitting an infinitive or ending a sentence with a preposition, chances are that you have grammar questions sometimes. We’ve all struggled to keep our homonyms, homophones, and homographs straight. Even experienced writers sometimes stop to think about “affect” vs. “effect”, or where a colon should be placed. Despite the challenges of grammar, readers are not always forgiving when glaring grammatical mistakes are made. Poor grammar ruins a company’s credibility. One study of UK consumers found that 59 percent of consumers would not use a company with obvious grammatical mistakes on its website or marketing materials. This is why grammar books, especially ones found online in this tech-savvy era, are so important for a writer.
Another marketing firm conducted their own survey. Almost all participants said grammatical errors affect the likelihood that they would use, buy, or endorse a product or service. Simply put, poor grammar will hurt your bottom line. Thankfully, we’re not left to navigate the grammar maze alone. Grammar checkers, guides, tips, and editors are now available at our fingertips for free. If you want to brush up on your grammar, check out some free resources for the best grammar books online:
1. The Elements of Style
Let’s start with the gold standard for grammar books, The Elements of Style. In its 50 years of circulation, 10 million copies have been sold, and the book has affectionately been called “The Writer’s Bible”. Time magazine listed it among its 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923. In addition to grammar rules, this grammar book is a favorite for its clear, straightforward writing advice. The authors, Strunk and White, emphasize concise writing with no unnecessary words.
When it comes to authority in the writing community, its authors have plenty. William Strunk Jr. wrote the original for his Cornell University English class. His student E.B. White expanded later versions to the guide we know today. You may know White for his children’s books, including the famous Charlotte’s Web.
Even its biggest fans, however, admit the book has some drawbacks. The biggest is that it is largely a book of style, with few hard-and-fast rules. The bold statements made by Strunk and White lead readers to assume everything they say is a rule when many statements are really about style choices.
The criticism has done little to challenge the book’s credibility, though. The New York Times called it “a splendid trophy for all who are interested in reading and writing”. It’s still a must-have addition to any writer’s library. Download a free copy of the PDF.
2. The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
The actual book version of this guide has been a favorite of teachers and students for years, and the online version is just as valuable. With clear rules and real-world examples, this grammar book is at the top of the user-friendly list. While few grammar books make for exciting reads, users prefer this one because of its engaging format.
There is a charge for full online access, but The Blue Book has numerous free resources, including grammar guides, punctuation rules, capitalization rules, and common mistakes. It’s a great free resource for the average business person, student, or teacher. You can also sign up for a free grammar newsletter, take quizzes, and watch videos about common grammar issues.
3. Grammarly
This one isn’t a book, but if you need your writing looked over, Grammarly is a great tool. According to Top Ten Reviews, Grammarly scores a 9.35 / 10 in the world of online grammar checkers. It’s marketed as your “automated proofreader and virtual grammar coach,” and boasts that it can find up to 250 types of grammatical errors. It’s easy to use and walks writers through the process of making corrections.
The platform displays a complete breakdown of your mistakes to the right of the text, and as a full-color error summary in PDF format. Users also like Grammarly because it also checks for plagiarism, a mistake that will ruin your credibility even more than poor grammar.
4. Grammar Girl
Did you ever think a grammar book would make the New York Times bestseller list? Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty made it happen. She started a few years ago with witty and engaging podcasts that covered common grammar mistakes. Twenty-million downloads later, Grammar Girl is a household name among students, teachers, and writers. She has given out her gems via Oprah, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.
Grammar Girl is more than just a collection of grammar rules. You’ll learn memory tips to help retain all those rules in a fun and engaging way. Online reviews even have readers admitting to “laughing out loud.” Plus, Fogarty goes beyond the rules to give general tips on writing techniques for different purposes, including e-mail, business letters, and blogging.
Good grammar enhances your credibility and makes the intent of your writing clearer. Gone are the days of having to thumb through an encyclopedia-sized book trying to answer your grammar questions. Take advantage of grammar books and other resources available online.