# Recommend me a good grammar book or website **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 7, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-grammar-book-or-website/363525 "2006-07-07T17:54:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diamonds02](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Diamonds02](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diamonds02)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-grammar-book-or-website/363525/1 "2006-07-07T17:54:24Z")
Oh grammar geeks of SDMB, would you help me locate a good book or website? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-grammar-book-or-website/363525/2 "2006-07-07T19:45:53Z")
[The Transitive Vampire](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679418601/102-0176185-0259372?v=glance&n=283155) by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. Not only good, but fun to read. And avoid Lynn Truss’s **Eats, Shoots & Leaves** – she knows nothing about grammer; it’s filled with errors. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-grammar-book-or-website/363525/3 "2006-07-07T22:44:11Z")
_[The Elements of Style](http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/wordsandlanguage/fr/elementsOfStyle.htm)_, by William Strunk Jr. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-grammar-book-or-website/363525/4 "2006-07-07T22:45:17Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > And avoid Lynn Truss’s **Eats, Shoots & Leaves** – she knows nothing about grammer; it’s filled with errors. Does she know how to spell it? 😛 (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-grammar-book-or-website/363525/5 "2006-07-08T01:29:03Z")
Truss’ book is meant to be humorous more than primer in nature. I sure as hell wouldn’t bring it with me as a reference for my work. There are a lot of fair grammar sites out there and a lot of really poor ones. Accordingly, I tend to stay away from recommending any one over advising based on specific questions. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-grammar-book-or-website/363525/6 "2006-07-08T02:26:36Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > _[The Elements of Style](http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/wordsandlanguage/fr/elementsOfStyle.htm)_, by William Strunk Jr. A standard reference book, but for grammar, I’d recommend [The Elements of Grammar](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0028614496/sr=8-1/qid=1152325539/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-9359793-0444147?ie=UTF8). Note that the two together are cheap. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-grammar-book-or-website/363525/7 "2006-07-08T03:03:25Z")
Since I’m a journalism major, this also has AP style thrown in the mix: [http://www.longleaf.net/newsroom101/](http://www.longleaf.net/newsroom101/) ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-grammar-book-or-website/363525/8 "2006-07-08T15:01:21Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > A standard reference book, but for grammar, I’d recommend [The Elements of Grammar](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0028614496/sr=8-1/qid=1152325539/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-9359793-0444147?ie=UTF8). Note that the two together are cheap. You can actually find the 1918 edition of [Elements of Style](http://www.bartleby.com/141/) online, at Bartleby. For American usage in book form, i highly recommend [Garner’s Modern American Usage](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195161912/qid=1152370818/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/002-4460282-9236840?s=books&v=glance&n=283155). ---
**Author:** ![MizQuirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@MizQuirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizQuirk)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-grammar-book-or-website/363525/9 "2006-07-09T11:36:29Z")
You might take a look at [www.grammarboard.com](http://www.grammarboard.com). Their forums are fun, and full of good advice. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-grammar-book-or-website/363525/10 "2006-07-13T04:32:14Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > _[The Elements of Style](http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/wordsandlanguage/fr/elementsOfStyle.htm)_, by William Strunk Jr. Uck, uck, uck. There ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-grammar-book-or-website/363525/11 "2006-07-13T04:34:46Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > _[The Elements of Style](http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/wordsandlanguage/fr/elementsOfStyle.htm)_, by William Strunk Jr. Uck, uck, uck. There’s some style advice in it that’s useful - _if_ you’re a good enough writer to know not to take their advice too seriously - but a lot of other stuff that’s sheer nonsense. Strunk was a bit of an old crank, and unless you’re prepared to ignore half the book - and if so, you don’t have much need for it - you’ll discover the incredibly poor advice to, for instance, exclusively use “persons” and not “people” as the plural of “person”. It’s interesting as a cultural touchstone, as it’s such a widely-known book, but it’s a terrible place to go to get actual advice on writing.