We are, unabashedly, grammar geeks as well as gurus… meaning that we can chit chat about the whimsies of comma placement for hours (this is not an exaggeration). With that in mind, below you’ll find some of our favorite books on the topic. We think of these not just as style guides, but as literature:

1) "Lapsing into a Comma: A Curmudgeon’s Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print–and How to Avoid Them " by Bill Walsh

No writer’s or editor’s desk is complete without a battered, page-bent copy of the "AP Stylebook." However, this not-so-easy-to-use reference of journalistic style is often not up-to-date and leaves reporters and copyeditors unsatisfied. Bill Walsh, copy chief for the "Washington Post’s business desk, addresses these shortcomings in "Lapsing into a Comma." In an opinionated, humorous, and yes, curmudgeonly way, he shows how to apply the basic rules to unique, modern grammar issues. Walsh explains how to deal with perplexing situations such as trendy words, foreign terms, and web speak. He does not advocate tossing your AP Stylebook, but he does encourage using your head and not blindly adhering to formal rules. "A finely tuned ear is at least as important as formal grammar," he says, "and that’s not something you can acquire by memorizing a stylebook." (ps: Check out Walsh’s tongue-in-cheek "The Elephants of Style: A Trunkload of Tips on the Big Issues and Gray Areas of Contemporary American English" as well)

2) "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" by Lynne Truss

Who would have thought a book about punctuation could cause such a sensation? Certainly not its modest if indignant author, who began her surprise hit motivated by "horror" and "despair" at the current state of British usage: ungrammatical signs ("BOB,S PETS"), headlines ("DEAD SONS PHOTOS MAY BE RELEASED") and band names ("Hear’Say") drove journalist and novelist Truss absolutely batty. But this spirited and wittily instructional little volume, which was a U.K. #1 bestseller, is not a grammar book, Truss insists; like a self-help volume, it "gives you permission to love punctuation." Truss also gives some surprisingly simple and clear-headed grammar advice regarding commas, "Don’t use commas like a stupid person." Enough said.

3) "Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English" by Patricia T. O’Conner

Written by Patricia T. O’Conner, an editor at the New York Times Book Review , Woe Is I gives lighthearted, witty instruction on the subject most of us dreaded in school–grammar. Discussion is brief and concise, and much more engaging than the grammar books you may remember. With chapter titles such as "Woe is I: Therapy for Pronoun Anxiety," "Your Truly: The Possessive and the Possessed," "Verbal Abuse: Words on the Endangered List," "Comma Sutra; The Joy of Punctuation," and "Death Sentence: Do Cliches Deserve to Die?," O’Conner proves that even grammar can make for entertaining reading.

4) "Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose" by Constance Hale

You gotta love a grammar guide that calls verbs "moody little suckers" and adverbs "promiscuous." Constance Hale (Wired Style ) 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. In Sin & Syntax , Hale examines the elements of grammar from four angles: the "bones" (the grammar lesson), the "flesh" (the writing lesson), "cardinal sins" (what she calls "true transgressions"), and "carnal pleasures" (the beauty that results from either "hew[ing] exquisitely to the underlying codes of language," or not). "Euphemisms," Hale says, "are for wimps."  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?"

5) "Comma Sutra: Position Yourself For Success With Good Grammar" by Laurie Rozakis

Boost your language libido with Comma Sutra! Filled with quickie faux pas fixes and kinky wordplay, this irresistible, offbeat grammar guide is instant grammar gratification. Bestselling author and grammarian Dr. Laurie Rozakis will show you how to:

One of the most common queries we receive is about the correct usage of the words "effect" and "affect"… Both so similar, and yet so different.

Here’s an easy rule of thumb for not mixing the two up:

"Effect" is usully used as a noun, e.g.: "One effect of coffee is to wake a person up."

"Affect" is usually used as a verb, e.g.: "I was greatly affected by the seven cups of coffee I drank this morning in seven minutes flat."

What is poetry’s muse? Love, beauty, nature, the extremes of human emotion and endurance … Yes, all of those. But in two poems at least, the inspiration behind the flow of words has been … the noun.  See below:

The Grammar Lesson

by Steve Kowit

A noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does.
An adjective is what describes the noun.
In "The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"

of and with are prepositions. The’s
an article, a can’s a noun,
a noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does.

A can can roll - or not. What isn’t was
or might be, might meaning not yet known.
"Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"

is present tense. While words like our and us
are pronouns - i.e. it is moldy, they are icky brown.
A noun’s a thing; a verb’s the thing it does.

Is is a helping verb. It helps because
filled isn’t a full verb. Can’s what our owns
in "Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz."

See? There’s almost nothing to it. Just
memorize these rules…or write them down!
A noun’s a thing, a verb’s the thing it does.
The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz.

                                     ******

Permanently

by Kenneth Koch

One day the Nouns were

clustered in the street.
An Adjective walked by, with

her dark beauty.
The Nouns were struck, moved,

changed.
The next day a Verb drove up,

and created the Sentence.

ps: This poem was actually read at a wedding.

… in the English language (according to a study conducted by the Daily Record in the U.K.) are:

1.) Definitely (Definately)

2.) Prejudice (Predjudice)

3.) Sacrilegious (Sacreligious)

4.) Indict (Indite)

5.) Manoeuvre (Maneouvre)

6.) Bureaucracy (Beaurocracy)

7.) Broccoli (Brocolli)

8.) Phlegm (Phleghm)

9.) Consensus (Conscensus)

10.) Unnecessary (Unecessary)

And here’s a bonus word…

11.) Misspelled (Mispelled)

The research found that 57% of people judge others on their spelling. So you’d better mind your p’s and q’s!

Here’s another bit of word trivia for you. Can you list three words in English that begin with "Dw…" 

Tough one, isn’t it?!

The words are: Dwindle, Dwarf, and Dwelling

We get a lot of queries on the proper way to write "email/e-mail." It  varies depending on which style guide you follow, but according to the Chicago Manual of Style, most dictionaries, and the major newspapers — "e-mail" is always written with a hyphen. That said, many tech magazines like Wired tend to run "email" without the hyphen … So, if you’re a techie, that’s the path you’d choose. The truth is that for every grammar rule, there’s always a differing opinion (in fact, there’s a raging debate on whether "copy edit" has a
hyphen or not). The most important thing to follow in editing is consistency and common sense … the rest, in most instances, is just a call you make.

You might have noticed the little quote on the right-hand corner of our home page, "All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath." This was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the celebrated American author, in a letter to his daughter. People have all kinds of theories about what he meant; some say he was talking about how writing plumbs the depths of the unconscious, tapping into the netherworld of our hearts and minds. But we think this quote is really about how writing, all good writing, has to be tight… That tight feeling you get when you swim under water, urgently trying to get to the other side. The greatest prose is taut; it propels you forward, perhaps even leaving you gasping for breath.

On another note, did you know that the Brad Pitt movie, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," is based on a Fitzgerald short story? And, despite being one of America’s most celebrated authors, at the time of his death, Fitzgerald’s books were out of print ? He died broke and an alcoholic in 1940 at the age of 44. You can read more about this interesting man below:

Life and times of F. Scott Fitzgerald