Raves and reviews
The Observor:
This grammar book is light-years ahead of what you’d read in eighth-grade English. With vivid, contemporary examples of what to do and what not to do, it’s fun to read.
American Way:
Probably the hippest grammar guide ever written, this book shows how to write for results, wholesome or subversive.
Library Journal:
Hale, editor of the hip Wired Style, has put together a writing/grammar manual that is fresh and fun. The basic rules are here, and they are well explained. The “sin” from the title is partly advice on when and how to break these rules. The other sins are examples of oft-repeated mistakes. Readers will not be told how to write a novel, a poem, or a newspaper article, but if they are writing one this guide will help them use effective and artful language. The examples range from Dr. Seuss books to John F. Kennedy’s speeches to commercials, and a short bibliography of books on writing, grammar, and language is included. Easy to understand and appealing to a broad range of readers, this book is highly recommend for all libraries.
Amazon.com
You gotta love a grammar guide that calls verbs “moody little suckers” and adverbs “promiscuous.” Constance Hale relishes prose that is deliberate, beautiful, and bold. Go ahead and break the rules, she says; just know the rules first, and know why you are breaking them. For illustration, Hale hails Walt Whitman and Roger Angell, and rails upon Alexander Haig and the Gump’s catalogue. She hauls in Joan Didion to make a case for writing in the first person, Mark Twain to promote the killing of adjectives, C.S. Lewis to advocate showing rather than telling, and Loudon Wainwright III to lament the abuse of the word like. But Hale has no problem making her own points. “Euphemisms,” she says, “are for wimps.” She dismisses a particularly heinous example of scholarly prose as “a bunch of big words thrown into an Osterizer.” Even other grammarians don’t escape her derision: “Get a grip,” Hale says. “Hopefully as a sentence adverb is here to stay.” But what distinguishes Sin and Syntax most is its enthusiasm for prose that takes risks. “Even if you have to check with a lawyer,” says Hale, “isn’t a kick-ass piece of writing worth the effort?”
Andrew Rasanen on Amazon.com:
Well structured, as it must be, Hale’s guide presents both the nuts and bolts of grammar and the considerations of style that cannot exist without a sound grasp of grammar. The book begins each section simply, with the “bones” of the part of speech being explained, puts on the “flesh,” and elucidates the “cardinal sins” and the “carnal pleasures” of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and so on. Even when the going gets heavy, as in her discussions of attributive nouns or appositive phrases, her clear, conversational tone smooths the way. She concludes with reflections about voice, lyricism, melody, and rhythm. One of the best features of her book is a glut of choice passages from the likes of Nabokov, Joan Didion, George Orwell, Jamaica Kincaid, and many others. Her well-read reach extends to rap lyrics and the wine labels written by the flip, clever copywriters at Bonny Doon Vineyards. The collection of quotations alone makes this book worth owning….You close the book understanding how the rich inventiveness of English is rooted in its complex grammar and vocabulary, which are the reasons it can be so flexible, so magical-the reason, in fact, that language creates reality. Includes a helpful appendix describing other grammar guides.
Rev Dr Wizzleteets on Amazon.com:
This is a good book. I learned a lot. My writing style is better.
Daphne Gray-Grant on The Publication Coach:
A grammar book that’s hip — how’s that for an oxymoron? People frequently ask me to recommend books about grammar. In truth, I’m not a grammar fiend (as a proofreader I work with will readily confirm!) But I do enjoy reading about the subject which probably brands me as a loser. So if you’re willing to take the advice of someone who wears a metaphorical pocket protector, let me heartily recommend Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale.
I like this book because it covers more than grammar — and because it’s funny and flexible. Hale is not the kind of gal who’s going to get her knickers in knot over rules. In fact, she’s all for breaking them (the catch is that you need to KNOW you’re breaking them.) She’s hip, at least as far as aging baby boomers are concerned: She parses Charlotte Bronte next to Muhammad Ali; she quotes Bob Dylan in her discussion of the verb “lay” and Dr. Seuss in her examination of rhyme and onomatopoeia. The book also has the best explanation of who vs. whom I’ve ever seen in print. (pages 163 to 164.)
Hale is a former editor of Wired Magazine (and also the author of Wired Style which Newsweek described as “The Chicago Manual of Style for the new Millennium”).
I like the way the book is divided into three main parts with a set of chapters devoted to various parts of speech — nouns, pronouns, verbs, etc. — a set to sentences, and a set labeled “Music” covering voice, lyricism, melody, rhythm.
Now I have to tell you, back when I was in grade 6, Sister Mary Rosa never felt rules were made to be broken. Nor did she care to hear about “music” in grammar class. That Constance Hale does, makes her my hero.
December 30th, 2009 at 6:33 am
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