|
Welcome to your GrammarBook.com e-newsletter.
|
You turned my night into day. I found your GrammarBook.com website out of great need. I shall return! Thanks again.
—Nan M.
I am doing a proofreading course and since reading The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation I feel much more confident.
—Karen M.
I always learn something new from your
e-newsletters.
—Linda G. |
|
|
Beware the Internet
Our Virginia: Past and Present
is a fourth-grade history textbook that was in wide use in Virginia’s schools until a few years ago. Then it was found to be rife with misspellings
and blatant falsehoods, such as: The Confederacy consisted of twelve states (actually eleven). The United States entered World War I in 1916 (it was 1917).
These are bad enough. But to assert that African American soldiers fought for the South in large numbers during the Civil War is a lie that trivializes
slavery.
When did schools become facilities for poisoning children’s minds with disinformation?
The author’s explanation: she did her research on the Internet.
That’s a foolhardy move, as I recently found out firsthand.
I wanted to use a quotation by Mark Twain, which I thought went like this: “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the
difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” This version is endorsed by numerous online “authorities.”
Right before my deadline, I just so happened to pick up Dick Cavett’s book Talk Show. I was amazed that four pages in, Cavett ran the same
Twain aphorism, except that his version was different—and, as it turned out, correct. Here it is: “The difference between the almost right word
and the right word is … the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” I still had time to make the change, but
I was shaken.
I had it backward: “between lightning and a lightning bug” was the way I’d always heard it, and it never occurred to me there was
anything “off” about it.
I typed four words into my search engine: “Mark Twain ‘The difference’ ” and immediately saw page after page of websites featuring
the quote, exactly as I’d remembered it—in other words, exactly wrong!
I went to a slick-looking site called quotationspage.com, which had it wrong. Iwise.com, an elaborate, visually striking site, loused it up.
Thinkexist.com, whose motto is “Finding quotations was never this easy,” blew it. Great-quotes.com, with its many sponsors and high production
values, botched it. So did Progress.org, with its Twain page by author Norman Solomon. (Solomon went on to write The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media. Now that’s an irony Twain would appreciate.)
These were all impressive websites with an aura of authority, and they were all wrong about something that should be easy to get right—a famous
saying from an illustrious American writer. The Internet will get you if you don’t watch out—or maybe even if you do.
—Tom Stern
Because of the e-newsletter’s large readership, please submit your English usage questions through GrammarBook.com’s “Grammar Blog.” |
|
Free BONUS Quiz for You!
[[firstname]], because you are a subscriber to the newsletter, you get access to one of the Subscribers-Only Quizzes. Click here to take a Who, Whom, Whoever, Whomever Quiz and get your scores and explanations instantly!
Happy Thanksgiving
In celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday, we will not be issuing an e-newsletter next week. We will resume on November 30. We wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving, and we hope you have a wonderful time with family and friends.
More Good News for Quiz Subscribers
We are pleased to announce that we have added even more quizzes to help you challenge yourself, your students, and your staff. We added quizzes to existing categories and created some new categories such as “Confusing Verbs,” “Subjunctive Mood,” “Comprise,” “Sit vs. Set vs. Sat,” and “Spelling.”
We reviewed and strengthened every quiz on our website to ensure consistency with the rules and guidelines contained in our eleventh edition of The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.
If you think you have found an error in a quiz, please email us at help@grammarbook.com.
“So convenient … hundreds of quizzes in one click.”
[[firstname]], Subscribe to receive hundreds of English usage quizzes not found anywhere else!
- Take the quizzes online or download and copy them.
- Get scored instantly.
- Find explanations for every quiz answer.
- Reproduce the quizzes to your heart’s content.
- EASY to use.
- No software to download.
- No setup time.
- A real person to help you if you have any questions!
Instructors and Employers: we make your life easier!
- Assign quizzes to your students or employees.
- Students log in from anywhere.
- Scores are tallied and compiled for you.
- You decide whether to let students see their own scores and quiz explanations.
- Let GrammarBook.com take the hassle out of teaching English!
“Fun to test my skills!”
“The explanations really help … thanks!”
Your choice: Subscribe at the $29.95 or $99.95 level ($30 off - previously $129.95).
“I download the quizzes for my students who don’t have computer access.”
Subscribe today to receive hundreds of English usage quizzes not found anywhere else!
“Makes learning English FUN!”
 |
Don’t need all the quizzes at once?
You can now purchase the same quizzes individually for ONLY 99¢ each. Purchase yours here. |
Get Yours Today!
Get Amazon’s No. 1 Best-seller in Four Categories!
No. 1 in Grammar
No. 1 in Reading
No. 1 in Lesson Planning
No. 1 in Vocabulary |
The Blue Book of Grammar
and Punctuation
by Jane Straus, Lester Kaufman, and Tom Stern
The Authority on English Grammar!
Eleventh Edition Now Available
Have You Ordered Your Copy Yet?
An indispensable tool for busy professionals, teachers, students, homeschool families, editors, writers, and proofreaders.
Available in print AND as an e-Book! Over 2,000 copies are purchased every month!
Order Your Copy Today!
- Hundreds of Grammar, Punctuation, Capitalization, and Usage Rules
- Real-World Examples
- Spelling / Vocabulary / Confusing Words
- Quizzes with Answers
If you live in the United States or Canada, order The Blue Book through Wiley.com and get 30 percent off and FREE shipping! Simply go to bit.ly/1996hkA and use discount code E9X4AYY.*
For those of you who live outside the U.S. and Canada, although the publisher is not able to offer free shipping, you will get 35 percent off to help offset your shipping costs. Simply go to bit.ly/1996hkA and use discount code E9X4A.*
*Offer expires December 31, 2016.
|
Wordplay
Learn all about who and whom, affect and effect, subjects and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, commas, semicolons, quotation marks, and much more by just sitting back and enjoying these easy-to-follow lessons. Tell your colleagues (and boss), children, teachers, and friends. Click here to watch. |
