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Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay: Practical Advice For The Grammatically Challenged - Hardcover

 
9780312203634: Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay: Practical Advice For The Grammatically Challenged
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For years Richard Lederer has enthralled fans of the English language with his keen insights, commonsense advice, and witty presentation. Now Lederer has teamed up with Richard Dowis to take readers on another journey through the world's most wonderful, albeit perplexing, language. How many times have we all heard the word viable used in company meetings? Lederer and Dowis show us how "viable," somewhere along the line, was extracted from medical books, where it literally means "capable of living," and placed into the business lexicon, where it means...well, who knows?

The authors clear up once and for all the confusion between lay and lie and put to rest some common myths about language. The book's finale is a ten-minute writing lesson from which everyone, from rank amateur to seasoned pro, can benefit. These and dozens of other features make this book pure pleasure for language buffs, writers, and teachers. Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay is useful and authoritative as well as fun to read, with humorous touches often popping up where least expected and most needed.

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Review:
That tireless verbivore Richard Lederer is at it again, this time providing, in cahoots with coauthor Richard Dowis, a quick-and-dirty grammar guide. In a time when Sing and Snore Ernie says, "It feels good to lay down," and Columbia University professor Edward Shapiro employs a whom where who is called for (in his book Shakespeare and the Jews), we are clearly in need of Lederer and Dowis to set us straight. In Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay, the authors steer us away from problematic words and phrases (such as Aren't I); remind us of definitions we may have, er, confused (of, say, flotsam and jetsam, podium and lectern, prone and supine); and teach us to use comprise correctly.

But Lederer and Dowis are hardly anachronous sticklers. Their section on grammatical myths advocates the judicious splitting of an infinitive, using a preposition "to end a sentence with," and even, sometimes, embracing clichés. "Different from" is almost always right, they say, but "if your ear tells you otherwise, choose different than." Their "rule" concerning comma use states that "If the addition or omission of a comma makes the meaning clearer, add it or remove it even if doing so seems to violate some other rule." How refreshing it is to encounter grammarians who do not live in a vacuum, who know that "connotations are often more important than definitions, and that the true meaning of a word or phrase is the effect it has on readers." --Jane Steinberg

About the Author:
Richard Lederer is the author of more than a dozen books on language and literature. He speaks and lectures throughout the country and is often a guest on radio and television.

Richard Dowis, a former journalist and public-relations executive, is the author of a recent book on speechwriting. He is president of the Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature, a two-thousand-member organization of language lovers and word watchers. Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay is the second book that Lederer and Dowis have cowritten. The first, The Write Way, was published in 1996.

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  • PublisherSt. Martin's Press
  • Publication date1999
  • ISBN 10 0312203632
  • ISBN 13 9780312203634
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages224
  • IllustratorMcLean Jim
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