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Manual Labour


I missed Booking Through Thursday last week as I wasn't very well but thought that I would have a go this week so here you are:


Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

Well I have just had a quick scan of my shelves and the only thing I can see is a Dictionary and Thesaurus which to be fair is always by my desk and regularly used. I think that the only time I have had a writing guide was when I was trying to write my university dissertation but to be fair it really did not help much! I did English at University so I probably did have a lot of grammar guides a few years ago but they have since gone to better homes. I believe that the English Language has SO many rules and regulations that it is just better to learn th e basic rules and then try and get on as best as you can; you do not want to have to keep picking up a book to check. I am sure that several people will disagree on this point!
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Comments

gautami tripathy said…
As for as writing guides go, I never used those. Only recently I bought too books on writing poetry. One is by Mary Oliver..I love it. Other I have conveniently forgotten after going through a few pages!

My BTT post!
8 May 2008 at 04:51
Anonymous said…
Remember a lot of those 'rules' and 'regulations' were never meant for English at all but have been brought over from Latin. The real rule is to be able to be understood.
8 May 2008 at 08:04
Megan said…
The thing I like the best about grammar is finally being old enough to abuse it. Many great writers abuse grammar and whenever you tried to point it out in English class the teacher assured you they knew well enough to break the rules now. So I think I am at that point, or I am not being graded anymore so I pretend to be at that point.
8 May 2008 at 10:43
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