by Boomert - The Little Green Grammar Book by Mark Tredinnick 13 Jan 2010

Where many readers (and writers) might hesitate before picking up a large volume like Pam Peters’ excellent Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage, The Little Green Grammar Book is far more approachable for the non-specialist: reasonably concise, consciously un-academic and eminently practical. It begins with the building blocks of writing—sentences—then breaks them down into their different types and parts, explaining word order, phrases and clauses. It then narrows down into nouns, verbs, pronouns, modifiers, prepositions, conjunctions and articles. The third part is a detailed explication of punctuation (excellent on semicolons, colons and commas). This is followed by a section on troubleshooting, with common errors and tips for writers and editors. Tredinnick’s advice is based on that of recognised authorities (like Peters), and is full of examples from his own and others’ writing. Refreshingly, he isn’t afraid to admit to examples where he has broken the rules. Not even the most hardened grammarian would say that writing is a pure science—and books like this remind us that there is usually more than one way to get your message across. A fitting companion to The Little Red Writing Book by the same author.

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker