Monday, November 14, 2011

Grammar Girl's 101 Words to Sound Smart


Title: Grammar Girl's 101 Words to Sound Smart
Author: Mignon Fogarty
Series: Quick and Dirty Tips
Publication Date: November 8, 2011
Publisher: St Martin's Girffin
Website: quickanddirtytips.com

Grammar Girl's 101 Words to Sound Smart is filled with interesting words. Each one is clearly defined but not with the clinical precision of a dictionary. Instead, Mignon Fogarty provides interesting background on the origins of most of the words and gives concrete examples of how the usage may have changed over time. Each word is also accompanied by a quotation or two showing it being used correctly. These quotations were very fun to read and their sources ranged from journalists to politicians to popular authors and television shows.

Some of the words contained in this book were familiar to me but Fogarty pointed out subtle nuances of usage that I was unfamiliar with. Other words were completely new. While I do not see myself regularly interjecting these words into my reviews or other writings, I will be keeping this book on hand as a reference guide for those occasions when an extra special word is needed.

The one thing that I found to be missing from this book is a pronunciation guide for each word. While Fogarty is discussing the usage of these words in writing, I still like to know how the word should sound in my head as I am reading it.

I received a copy of  Grammar Girl's 101 Words to Sound Smart (Quick & Dirty Tips) from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.




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1 comment:

  1. I could use some new words! I might not be picking this one up anytime soon, but it would be fun to browse through this and grab some words to make myself sound smarter :D Great review :)

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