I would hate to live in Grammar; there are just too many laws. Okay, so grammar is not a place, but it sure does have a lot of rules, laws, and—worst of all—exceptions. My Dog Bites the English Teacher is a handy guide to keep computerside for double-checking all the rules you think you know, but for which you might need a second opinion.
I love Love LOVE My Dog Bites the English Teacher. Any writer would love a resource that takes his or her side in an argument with an editor. I got my copy of My Dog Bites the English Teacher just as I was debating whether I should address a number of changes an editor made to one of my reviews. The changes were incorrect, but I was so thrilled to be backed up by My Dog Bites the English Teacher that I let the matter drop.
I am not the world’s best grammarian. If I were, I’d be writing the book, not reviewing it. One of my “I wonder” areas is dialogue punctuation. It’s in the book! Also in the book are all of the things that bug us when we’re perusing social networks: subject-verb agreement, pronoun agreement, punctuation, and homophones (e.g., there/their/they’re, its/it’s). Author Marian Anders offers solutions to everyday grammar problems, as well as some of the more complex. She titled her tenth chapter “Traditional Grammar—Not for the Faint of Heart.”
Anders, a twenty-year veteran of teaching grammar, composition, and literature to college freshmen and sophomores, provides writers with the absolute essentials of good writing. In My Dog Bites the English Teacher, she provides the reader/writer with clearly stated, simple lessons followed by practice. The last chapter is “Additional Practice,” which could also be titled “Geek’s Paradise;” if you’re as geeky as I, you’ll delight in working on this section. (I still miss my tenth-grade <i>Warriner's</i>.)
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