Korean Job Discussion Forums

[CBP]

I'm an American, and while I love my copy of 'Practical English' by Michael Swan, it caters to British English speakers and doesn't always answer my questions. My poor old computer is so slow that I won't be able to access the Internet from my home in Korea. So when I'm looking for answers to grammar/punctuation/format questions, I'd like to be able to pluck a book off my bookshelf and easily find the answer.

Which of the following might you recommend? The Gregg Reference Manual, The Chicago Manual of Style, The AP Stylebook, The MLA Stylebook ... ?

Which dictionaries do you prefer (aside from Oxford)?

And for pure grammar questions?

Thanks!

[ChopChaeJoe]

Strunk and White has a grammar book. You can even find it to download.

[CBP]

In some ways they're old school, but I agree: it would be very useful having a copy of Strunk and White around.

(Notice the colon above? Should it have been an em dash, a semi-colon, what? See what I mean?)

Cheers!

[CBP]

(The bummer about not being in Korea yet is having to wait for everyone to WAKE UP ALREADY and turn ON their computers. Waterfalls, warm bath water, pssssssssss ... time to get up and go! And then turn ON the computer! Well, that didn't work. Ohmygosh, you're late for work! Yikes, your mother's at the door and the dog's wearing that gorgeous wool sweater she made for YOU! Psssssss ... really, it's getting rather urgent now. Too bad you're out of toilet paper.)

[TECO]

don't be an idiot.

How's my grammar?

[passport220]

"English Grammar in Use" by Raymond Murphy

[CBP]

[riley]

I keep next to my desk a copy of "An A-Z of English Grammar and Usage" by Geoffrey Leech, Benita Cruikshank and Roz Ivanic. I bought it in my first year and have found it very useful.

[CBP]

I have 'English Grammar in Use.' It's not quite the grammar reference book I'm looking for, but I'm glad you mentioned. It's great for breaking grammar down into teachable units. It might also be a good resource when addressing questions that come up.

"An A-Z of English" ... I'll look into that one. Thanks.

What about style guides?

[Woland]

These are too big for you to carry with you, but are available here.

Celce-Murcia, M. and Larsen-Freeman, D. The Grammar Book (2nd Ed.)

and

Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English.

The Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman is intended as a pedagogical grammar for teachers and is as thorough as you could wish for. Some people, I think especially those without some applied linguistics background, find it to be too much information. It really explores grammar issues and doesn't settle for simple formulas.

The Biber et al is the most complete descriptive grammar of English available today. It is based on a large scale corpus analysis of spoken and written British and AMerican English in four different registers: academic, written journalism, conversation, and fiction. Again, those without some applied linguistics background may be overwhelmed by the volume of information here, but it is written in accessible fashion and rewards dipping in here and there. It is also modeled in part on the older Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartik Comprehensive Grammar of English, which is also a great grammar book.

Another useful book is Graham Locke's Functional Grammar of English, which takes a functional perspective derived from Halliday's work. I find it very useful and again, accessible because it is intended as an introduction for teachers. It is also smaller and easier to cart around than the two big monsters above, but not as thorough.

I'm not a big fan of George Yule's Explaining English Grammar, but I know people who like it.

I also like Jeanette DeCarrico's introduction to functional grammar from University of Michigan Press (but can't remember the exact title), although I think she relies too much on fiction for her examples (which may mislead people about other genres). It comes with a workbook and is a good book for teaching beginning teachers about functional grammar.

For thinking about teaching grammar (but less immediate advice on specific grammar issues), you might try these books:

Dave Willis' Rules, Patterns, and Words. I can't say enough about how good this book is at presenting more discourse-based approaches to grammar and talking about how to teach them effectively.

Diane Larsen-Freeman's From Grammar to Grammaring is along the same lines, expanding her classic 'form, meaning, use' model for thinking about grammar and providing ways to think about using it in teaching. It is also the lightest of the books I'm mentioning here.

Finally, Eli Hinkel and Sandra Fotos' New Perspectives on Grammar Teaching in Second Language Classrooms is an edited volume whose different chapters address a wide range of approaches to teaching grammar.

I make use of all of these for different purposes, but end up looking at the the first two and the Willis most frequently.

[CBP]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I never knew I'd have such an interest in learning grammar, so your suggested books sound great.