(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best language & grammar books

I too would like to be a published writer at some point, so I completely identify with your questions. I am 27 and sometimes wonder if it's too late for me as well but I have to keep telling myself that it is never too late. It's possible that your writing could only get better with age, as you are able to draw from more of your life experiences.

Here are some tips and recommendations that I have found to be useful:

• Read a lot and write a lot. Reading a lot will help you get an understanding of what works and what doesn't, what to do and what not to. You will be able to see good writing from bad writing and it will help you increase your vocabulary and get an understanding of formatting techniques although don't worry too much about that until the end. You have to be willing to write a lot as well. It will give you practice and teach you the best ways to get your ideas onto paper. Don't worry if it makes sense or not or whether or not it is part of the story you want to create, just get as much of it as you can out.
  
  
• You will have to put the time in to get the results. Writing is an extremely time consuming task and it can be difficult to find motivation especially if this is something you are doing on the side while still working a full time job. This is one of the things I struggle with, trying to find the time or energy to do the writing. Writing is a very energy-consuming activity for me and it requires my complete attention. Finding that can be difficult.
  
  
• Writing is rewriting. Don't be afraid to go back and rework everything once you get it out. Revisions will only make your work stronger.
  
  
• Don't use long or big words just to sound "smart" or "eloquent" or to make your work longer. More often than not, the first words that come to mind will be sufficient. Usually the most direct way to say something is the best.
  
  
• Don't show what can be said, don't say what can be shown. Try to find a good balance of not over describing the setting or provide too much description or narration. You can learn a lot just from what a character says and how they say it. Do not over-describe your setting, allow the reader to imagine things on their own, using their own experiences to create the world. Dialogue is probably the most difficult thing for me. Just be sure that your character's voices are unique and remain constant to who they are, even if the character's point of view is different than yours or what you believe in. Make sure what your characters are saying is truthful and believable to themselves. If the characters happen to be less than intelligent, show that in the way they talk.
  
  Some books I have found to be very helpful:
  
  
• Get yourself a good grammar book. I would recommend The Elements of Style. This one is quite good, comes highly recommended and has been around for 50 years.
  
  
• I am particularly a fan of Stephen King and his books. He wrote a book that was published in 2000 called On Writing. I have found it immensely helpful, a great book about the craft. I believe there is a 10th anniversary edition coming out this summer, probably with additions and updates. Half of the book, Stephen talks about how he got started, selling his first book "Carrie", stories from his life that influenced his work. The second half is his "Toolbox" section where he talks about tools and components to writing, vocabulary, grammar, dialogue, character description and development, narration, etc. It's all very frank and he tells you just exactly what you need to hear. Extremely useful.
  
  
• If you are creating an entire story (and not something short or small like poetry), you will need to have a good understanding of how the pieces are constructed, how to set up a beginning, a middle and an end successfully. I have this but have not read it yet, a book called Elements of Writing Fiction - Beginnings, Middles & Ends. So far it seems quite good and useful. When I was in college I took several screenwriting courses so this is something I already have a fairly good grasp on but it's still good to have something like this on hand to refer back to. I am more interested in writing fiction right now, as opposed to screenwriting so it is a bit challenging to change techniques. The two are very different.
  
  
• If you get to the point where you have completed a few pieces of writing and are hoping to get something published, you should probably start by picking up one of the Writer's Market books. I am interested in novel writing so that's the one that I linked to but there are different variations depending on what type of writing you are trying to get published. Just do a search on Writer's Market. The book contains complete, up-to-date contact information for book publishers, magazines and journals, literary agents, contests and conferences. There is a lot of very useful information in this book for when you get to that stage.
  
  I am certainly no expert but hopefully this is useful advice and helps motivate you to get to it!
  
  *EDIT: Added another recommended book.

I answered this same question a while ago, I'll copy/paste that response here, but just really quick, the reason you see MFAs springing up in published authors' bios is because it's still the traditional, old school route. If you get your MFA in Creative Writing, you're more likely to pursue traditional publication than a more contemporary route (ebooks, audiobooks, self-pub, etc.).

But anways, onto the main content:

---

A degree is only as useful as you make it after you've attained it.

I could have gotten an MFA (I was offered a free spot in my grad school's program—long story) but chose not to because, frankly, I didn't feel that I needed it.

Don't get me wrong: an MFA can be invaluable. But imo (I can't stress that enough, this is all through my own lens), it's mostly the experience and the ease-of-access to useful tools that makes it worthwhile; not necessarily the degree itself. In other words, the journey to the degree is what gives it value (which I suppose could be said of any degree you earn, but I digress).

When you go for an MFA, you get (most obviously) incredible amounts of workshopping and feedback on your pieces; this is pretty essential to a growing writer. Just look at the weekly critique thread here, workshops/critiques are what people crave and you'll have consistent access to quality critiques. You really can't find that anywhere else.

In an MFA, you will absorb a lot of information regarding craft and nuance—all things that you could surely find on your own, but are consolidated and streamlined nicely for you in a program geared towards creative writing.

By extension, you also get immediate, intimate, and prolonged access to successful and published writers (instructors, guest writers, temp/visiting writers, etc.), whose brains you can pick quite freely.

And lastly (probably the "most" important thing for aspiring writers), you're given a 'better' platform from which to get published. You'll have all these connections that you can work, and they'll do what they can to help you get in (all the while improving your writing in a sustainable environment).

So, just to sum up quickly, what are some important things an MFA gives you?

• Workshops: Feedback given and received (both are very useful; do not underestimate the utility of being a good and articulate reader first and writer second; I can elaborate on this philosophy if you'd like, just ask :D).
  
• Networking: Like-minded peers to collaborate with, and instructors who are invested in your success (befriend as many people as you can; you never know if a peer is gonna be a breakout writer).
  
• Knowledge: Easy access to a ton of information ranging from style to craft.
  
• Guidance: You have a schedule. This seems like a no-brainer, but everything is laid out for you, and there is a logical progression to the things you will learn. You don't have to create your own lesson plans, you're walked through it by seasoned and skilled writers who are proven craftsmen and craftswomen. Also, you'll get advice from these same people who've been in your position before.
  
  Now here's the thing: all four of these things are attainable without an MFA. It'll take more effort on your part, but it's doable.
  
  You can workshop—either on your own, or as part of a community (like this sub). This also opens the door to networking, both with the people who critique your work and with those whose work you critique (see, beta readers).
  
  You can make your own schedule—a little harder for those who tend to procrastinate or find it difficult to self-motivate, but it can be done. Buy some books on creative writing (for example, the Portable MFA; or GWW on Fiction, etc.; I'm assuming you're interested in fiction rather than nonfiction/memoir or poetry), set a schedule for yourself (maybe M/W/F or something). Make your own lesson plan, do the exercises. It is imperative that you honor this schedule—no cheat days, no skipping (we'll talk about this in a bit).
  
  If possible, try to find a friend or two to do it with you (even if they're not great writers or really interested in it,
  but rather just want to support you)—it's always better with other people, and there's more motivation for yourself to do the exercises. Write on the days in between and the time before and after the lessons.
  
  Sure, you might not have such easy access to people in the industry without going to an MFA program, but at the end of the day, it's more often than not the quality of your writing and the execution of your ideas that will get you places. There are lots of self-published authors on this sub alone. How many of them have MFAs? I couldn't guess, but I can guarantee not all of them have one; they were just determined and diligent. They put in the time and work, maybe got an agent.
  
  Pursuing an MFA is great because it gives you constant (almost incessant) exposure to creative writing in what is usually a conducive environment: you cannot afford to put things off or to have writer's block; even if you're at a loss, you have to write.
  
  The problem with doing this solo (i.e. not in an MFA), especially if you have motivation issues, is that creative writing can be an endless time-sink. If you have writer's block and you just think, "Ah, I have no idea where to go with this, I'll just come back later," you can just go off and do something else: play video games, watch TV, see a movie, see friends... or maybe you're just a bad procrastinator. It just becomes an infinite loop of minimal-to-zero productivity.
  
  If you don't get much writing done in an MFA, you will get your ass handed to you. And you might be one of those people who can get by on procrastination, but in a CW program, it's very easy to see who is procrastinating... so your work will likely be sub-par and your ass will get handed to you anyways. Your instructors won't mince words, they will tell you straight up if your work is bad. One of my instructors gave me an anecdote of his first workshop at the famed Iowa Writer's Workshop where the instructor had the whole class workshop one of the student's works—he remained silent the whole time and let them guide the discussion. They went on for over 45 mins talking about the good and bad parts of the story, craft, etc., and after they had all finished, the instructor simply held the manuscript up and tore it in half. He told them they were all wrong and had wasted their time, because the manuscript was trash.
  
  Granted, this is an extreme case in probably the most prestigious MFA program there is, but my point stands: at an MFA, you must produce. At home, doing this alone, you can have days where you only write one page, days where you write 10, and nothing bad will come of it. Don't worry too much about quality—it will come with volume. The more you write, the better you'll get at it; likewise, the more you critique other stories, the better you'll get (which is why workshopping is so important). I'd argue that critiquing others is more important than writing yourself but that's linking back to the philosophy I mentioned above and I don't want to delve into that since it's not really relevant.
  
  When I was getting my MA in English, I had a friend who was in the MFA program (while I was still deciding if I wanted to enroll in it after I got my masters) and whenever I asked him how his MFA was coming along, he always seemed to be stressing about his deadlines and workload. He'd have to have a brand new short done by the next week; or 50+ new pages for his novel-in-progress by the week after; the entire novel draft by midterm break; the draft revised by the end of semester; all of this while writing other shorts, workshopping other people's stuff, teaching at the local high school, etc.
  
  In the military, there's a term during basic training/boot camp called "getting smoked." This is when the instructors make recruits run or do insane amounts of push-ups/pull-ups.
  
  In an MFA, your ass is going to get smoked. You're going to have to write a lot. When there's a deadline to meet and something on the line (your reputation, your grade, etc.), you'll find your motivation fast, even if you have to make it up; this isn't necessarily the case when you're your own boss.
  
  Like I said earlier, I was offered a guaranteed spot in my school's MFA program. I eventually declined, because, essentially, I'm very confident in my prose. The head of the CW department was really pushing for me to join, and I knew that if he thought my writing was that good, I didn't actually need the MFA (although I'd be lying if I said I didn't want one).
  
  Worst-case scenario, if you get your MFA (and even while pursuing it) and everything else falls through, you can get some teaching opportunities at local high schools and temp jobs at colleges. When you get your MFA (since it's a terminal degree), you can actually teach full-time at the college/university level which does have its perks. But teaching isn't for everyone (:
  
  So, TL;DR: if you're a very motivated person, you don't really need an MFA. If you need a kick in the ass, an MFA may be very helpful (and you'll get some very helpful things along the way).
  
  Also: money. It sucks, but it's a factor.
  
  If you have any other questions, I'm all ears. Good luck!
  
  ~b

I totally understand. I need some structure as well.

I've bought so many creative writing books, and I've realized the best ones are the ones used in college classrooms.

This one is my favorite. You can do a writing exercise from it everyday, and you'll improve greatly. Unfortunately it's pricey at $67 (try to get a used version at half the cost).

What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers (3rd Edition)

What's great is that each chapter builds your skills gradually, starting with exercises to write good intro sentences, then to character development, point of view, dialogue, interior landscape of characters, plot, element of style, revisions, learning from the greats, etc.

The authors have said this has been the best way to see improvements from their students, and it's been working for me. Unlike other writing exercise books, this one has a clear structure, and moreover, they really go in depth in explaining the exercise and it's goal -- the technique it's trying to develop.

What I find especially helpful is that the book includes student examples for most of the examples. I own many writing exercises books, and so often I need to a clue on how to execute the exercises or I'm lost. The book also comes with short stories to study, too.

I was so skeptical about the book, since it isn't cheap, but the reviews on Amazon won me over. Read those reviews -- so many people recommend the book.

Note, if you can't afford it, there is the original, much cheaper version. It's much smaller, and doesn't have as many student examples or extra content (like the short stories), but it's costs way less. I'm guessing this was the original book before they expanded into a college textbook. I also own it also and it's still good. It's nice to carry around with me if I don't want to take the much larger newer version.

My other recommendation is this book:[The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing by Alice LaPlante](
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Story-Norton-Creative-Writing/dp/0393337081/)

LaPlante is great at explaining the little nuances, the details in what makes creative fiction work. She goes into more details, and has writing exercises at the end of each chapter, including a short story to read. So she gives more theory of how good writing works. She avoids flowery or abstract advice found in so many other books.

I found it an excellent companion to the "What If" book.

This book is also used in college courses, and it's thick! Lots of material. Fortunately, however, this version I linked is around $13. This is the same exact book as the college version for $52 (named "Method and Madness: The Making of a Story").

Lastly, this isn't a college writing book, but just a bunch of really helpful exercises on how to improve as a writer.

Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark

What I like is that he gives examples to his exercises, too, from books, newspaper articles, etc. I really love all of Roy Peter Clark's writing books.

Anyway, good luck. I was in a deep writing funk. Depressed I wasn't improving, and I decided to write everyday using exercises from those books, and it's helped me so much.

Edit: typos.

My First Impressions

Okay, I can’t stop thinking about your expressed desire to write for a living. From what I’ve read and heard, get ready for a shock of harsh reality. Writing is not so lucrative, and it is difficult work as well. So that said, I empathize with your heartfelt desire. Let’s see what I might add.

Also, I don’t want to forget to acknowledge the passion and depth portrayed in a story unlike anything you would ever want to write. Nice work!

The Scope

With everything I say, take it for what it’s worth. I’m no expert. I only want to keep my skills sharp by helping others. Feedback on my feedback is always welcome--I want to learn also.
I don’t put much stock in the whole telling verse showing concept. Faulkner told some great literature. And besides, why must everyone write in a stock format anyway. Do what you feel is right and what fits your creative mode.

Mere Suggestions

If you want to be a writer by profession, I would suggest taking the long way home and not hitting the drive thru. I know what I’m saying is cryptic, but there is a metaphoric point behind it.

Many times we want to pull up, order, and hit the road before our food is cold in the bag. When it comes to writing, we find the drive-thru convenient and flashy, but when we get home our food is often stale and dry. Quick courses are beneficial in many respects, but I’ve found that a hard study will open new avenues of depth and precision that were once beyond our present conception.

My advice, if you want write, I mean really write and be successful in writing: step back and study. Take a grammar class or get a grammar book. Understand the components of language we know but hang around us with and unfamiliar plume of foggy understanding. Nail them down and use them.

Then, take a course in creative writing or get some books relating to the creative craft.

I’m not a salesman, but I’ve been one in the past, so beware. Here is a regimen of books I’ve found very helpful in my quest to achieve your expressed desire.

This is a great textbook that approaches English grammar from a linguistic framework. Forget about the old Latin-based grammar rules, this book will teach you the practical aspects of grammar as they relate to writing.

Next, I’ve read all of these and they provide a broad understanding. Each book brings a unique voice to the creative approach. I encourage you to take hold of them all.

Imaginative Writing: The Elements of the Craft

The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing

The Practice of Creative Writing: A Guide for Students

Take them for what they are worth. I apologize for not addressing any specifics in the piece you posted, but I thought this the best place to start.

Humble apologies and encouragements . . . dwrightjones

I took 3 years of Japanese in high school (I went to a 3-year high school), and although we learned vocabulary and our teacher (a 72 year-old Japanese man) told us a lot of great stories about Japan, when I got to college and started learning real Japanese, I found that I'd learned essentially nothing in high school. I had a fantastic teacher in college who was great at explaining the nuances of the language in a way easy for English speakers to understand. The most important thing to remember when learning Japanese is that it is not like English at all. Most early learners (even those with several years of experience) will try to translate from English literally into Japanese. This will almost never work. Even for fairly simple constructions like 私の名前は"name"です, you will learn that this is not the best way to say such things in Japanese.

But even with a great teacher in college, you still need a lot of personal time working on the language if you hope to achieve more than textbook understanding. I didn't discover r/LearnJapanese until after college, but this would've been a prime resource to have. Also, in case your professor hasn't made you do so already, there's a few books you should pick up to help your learning.

Makino's three book series on Japanese grammar is exceptionally helpful for understanding constructions in Japanese (like your ～ほうがいい and ～んです). A good Japanese/English reference dictionary, like Sanseido is also very helpful, but should not be your primary resource for learning the language. These books are good when you can't think of a single word (especially from the English-to-Japanese side). Also, when you get proficient enough in the language, a Kokugo Jiten (a dictionary written in Japanese, with definitions for Japanese speakers) will become your best tool. There are some companies which make good ones, like the aforementioned Sanseido, as well as the version I use, published by Shinmeikai, but I can't find one readily available online for purchase right now.

Are you asking whether you could learn new language with this method? Its best you follow a language learning system for that.

It worked for me with english because I grew up learning it from childhood and obsessively read nearly hundred or more novels in my teen and young adult phase.

>What did you do/what was your method?

To put it in simple words, its basically taking great writers work, and imitate their content. For example here's
from the book The scarlet pimpernel first paragraph, chapter 3:

>Feeling in every part of England certainly ran very high at this time against the French and their doings. Smugglers and legitimate traders between the French and the English coasts brought snatches of news from over the water, which made every honest Englishman's blood boil, and made him long to have “a good go” at those murderers, who had imprisoned their king and all his family, subjected the queen and the royal children to every species of indignity, and were even now loudly demanding the blood of the whole Bourbon family and of every one of its adherents.

Now rewrite this paragraph to your own liking randomly like this:

>In nearly every part of new york, the feeling of tiredness ran very high against the southerners and their army. Runaway slaves and legitimate human traffickers between the two high parts of texas bought news from over by carts and by doves, which increased the animosity of the northerners towards the slave owners and made the northerners blood boil, and some of them even wished to have "good go" at those war mongers, who had imprisoned even the little black children in dark slave rooms, subjected their parents and the northern soldiers who tried to save them with every known piece of indecency, and were even now demanding the blood of the whole confederate army and every one of its supporters.

Yeah, this doesn't make much sense if you read it too much, but as you can see, I imitated that paragraph with few things added and few things removed. This is how you learn to write effectively. The more you imitate the great writers, the more your own writing will improve.

>How did you use this for English?

The only way you could have mastery over writing is to seriously finish reading books like these and apply its concepts everyday until you get better:



This is a classic book on sentence writing and gives you tons of examples and explanations, although it can get quiet challenging to read it in first try.



This book is quite challenging read and at times very hard to comprehend, but read it one chapter at a time slowly.

Next, this book gives you a basic introduction to the field of rhetoric, which is something that writers in this sub don't usually talk very much, but its one of the biggest things you should focus on if you want to improve your writing to the advanced level from basic and intermediate level.

Finally, this book is the one you should definitely read, and this book is the one that basically inspired my initial comment.

When I was a teenager, I was aware that English was not the international language, despite everyone saying it was. I decided that it would make more sense to simplify English. Internet searches on the subject revealed Basic English, which was a failure, and then to Esperanto, which was reportedly not.

So one afternoon I spent a few hours with the Fundamento of Esperanto and Teach Yourself Esperanto (which is out of print, but is still the best language textbook I've seen). And that was about it. I was reading Esperanto.

There was still a lot more to learn, but I was reading it. The agglutinative nature meant that I only had to have a little vocabulary (mostly acquired that same afternoon) to start. The grammar was simple enough that even if I encountered a complicated text, all I had to do was look back to my learning materials.

Once you make it that far, you are officially a crazy person as far a the world is concerned.

"There are at least hundreds of thousands of people who speak it, maybe millions!"
"Where are they?"
"All over the world!"
"I've never seen them."
"I'm one of them."
"Yeah, but who are you going to speak it to?"
"Anyone else in the world who speaks it."
"Sounds useless if no country speaks it."
"That is missing the purpose of an international auxiliary language. It is easy enough that anybody can learn it in practically no time at all."
"If it was that easy, everyone would learn it."
"I DID, BUT YOU WON'T."
"Well, if everyone isn't speaking it, there's no point."

Over and over and over. People either don't know about it or think that no one speaks it at all. Then they treat you like you're talking about your imaginary friends. Then when you explain that it really is what everyone is looking for and they refuse to try. Because the truth is that not only are they not interested, but they will look for any excuse to perpetuate their disinterest. And others are such bigots for their own language (I'm looking at you, English and French speakers) that they just can't stand the idea of their own language not being the standard.

All modern Esperanto speakers have this experience, and in many ways it has affected the Esperanto culture. It was different in the old days. Esperanto was a grand new idea. There were people from all walks of life who picked it up, and it grew like wildfire. Then Nazis said it was a Jewish thing, the US said it was a communist thing, and the communists didn't even need an excuse. The momentum was lost, and let us not forget, people were killed for it.

Now, though there are many Esperanto speakers, the body of Esperanto speakers is different. Before it was a great blending of idealistic intellectuals, writing poetry and translating Tolstoy. Now it is mostly hippies. Lots and lots of hippies, and now the movement is seeing more and more attention from language-dabblers.

And, you know, hippies aren't all that bad. Nor are language dabblers. They are great allies in the movement, and the change is as much a reflection of global culture as Esperanto culture. But the difference is very notable.

As for me, my studies have been limited to dictionary lookups and occasional browsing of grammar guides since then. I had to give up Esperanto for a while because its vocabulary was similar enough to Spanish at times for me to mix them up at times. Even so, those few hours of study and dabbling bit of practice have left me able to understand Esperanto about as well as I understand Spanish (which I'm not perfectly fluent in, but I am competent enough to converse and exist in Latin America entirely without English.) I think that's a pretty amazing testament to Esperanto. I just wish that there were more people using it across the world so I would have more that I could do with it.

Alright, here goes nothing! Kinda Long list, sorry for wall of text!

YouTube

• Learn Italian with Lucrezia
  
  
• Tia Taylor (More culture than anything; but American Girl who lives (or lived) in Italy for awhile. While I feel like she tries to make videos JUST for views, some of her earlier ones are very informational!
  
  
• Debby Arts: I really enjoy drawing, and I came across her one day. Her main youtube channel is in English, but she does have an Italian version.
  
  
• FavijTV is a decent gamer youtuber. I don't watch him that often, but decent none-the-less.
  
  Twitch.tv
  
  
• Rengoland (my personal favorite, super chill dude, also fluent in English but streams in Italian for his viewers)
  
  
• Paoloidolo
  
  Sites
  
  
• I believe Uni. of Vermont Italian
  
  
• Italian Grammar Exercises!
  
  
• Reading of Italian Passages This site has everything though.
  
  Here are all of my books that I bought, I can't find some of the old ones that were given to me though!
  
  
• Practice Makes Perfect: Italian
  
  
• English Grammar for Students of Italian
  
  
• 501 Italian Verbs
  
  
• I love this buy, I dislike Anki Vocabulary Cards
  
  
• Same thing as above, but grammar
  
  
• Regret this buy, but I own it: Living Language
  
  
• This is a picture vocab book. A SIMILAR ITEM (i.e. not this one specifically) was given to me when I first was learning Italian. Picture Voacb Book
  
  
• Grammar cheat sheet
  
  
• And I have some school books from uni classes I took.
  
  Italian movies I recommend
  
  
• Benvenuti al Sud
  
  
• Benvenuti al Nord
  
  
• La Vita è Bella
  
  
• Un americano a Roma
  
  
• La grande Guerra
  
  
• Il Postino
  
  Others
  
  Other resources include the free ones that are giving in the language resources! I also go over to /r/Italy and /r/Italianlearning and read topics and help others with Italian!

In addition to university-level classes (where I started learning Japanese), I found that the Japan Times Dictionaries of (Basic / Intermediate / Advanced) Japanese Grammar were invaluable resources to get the core aspects of the language all up in my brain-meats.

Basic

Intermediate

Advanced

I can't comment with any degree of certainty about online learning opportunities, but I do know that Skype chats with native Japanese speakers are popular, as well as any number of browser and smartphone-based kanji flashcards that will help with listening / speaking / writing.

I highly recommend getting a Bachelor's Degree in anything (possibly with some study abroad in Japan), then applying for something like the JET Programme, which will give you more of an immersive opportunity to live and work in Japan. Japanese is one of those annoyingly alien languages to the English-language brain where the best study results will come from full immersion--and even then, it's faaaaar from easy. I've been studying the language for 20 years and fluency always seems out of reach. But you might brain better than I do, so don't let that discourage you!

1. Right off the bat, your title. Just call it "June Wedding." Drop the letter A.
   
   
2. Be sure to do your sluglines properly. Formatting can throw people off. Your first slug should still indicate whether it is night or day.
   
   
3. Try to avoid bizarre comparisons. If you compare you should make it simply and understandable. What does it mean "Greek chorus"? Don't be vague and intellectualy superior. You're not writing a novel.
   
   
4. Watch out for dialogue. Make it natural and make it clear. First line you say "2007," where "the year 2007" would sound much better. A number alone could mean many things. This is really just tightening up your screenplay.
   
   
5. You have excessive use of flashbacks and the narrator's voice. Keep it limited. You must make the audience feel like they are not observing a story, but rather that they are a part of it. Too many flashbacks and too much speaking over, while it can come in handy, may suck your audience out of their fantasy.
   
   
6. Honestly. I don't know what MOS means. Probably a good idea to take that out.
   
   
7. Do not do SMASH CUT! No one does that. I've never seen that in a professional screenplay, nor is it something I do. Leave it out. "Cut To:" is fine.
   
   
8. You need to get into the action and tension quicker. As I am reading this, I am finding myself bored. You gotta hook the audience in a little. Make it more exciting sooner. You do have some action, but it comes way later on, and we are not set into it gradually.
   
   
9. Conflict, conflict, conflict, and there isn't enough emotion. You need to push your audience to the edge, you need to jerk 'em around, and make them feel what everyone else is feeling. These characters of yours are talking about what? Not much. Unfortunately, it's too subtle.
   
   
10. Your screenplay first and foremost needs structure. It's too unbalanced. Don't stretch out the exposition and back story so long.
    
    
11. As far as I can tell there's nothing at risk. Risk is a basic part of life, and we all have something to lose. It seems like these characters are living in a world of zero consequence. Sure, some words are exchanged, but not much other than that.
    
    
12. You gotta make your characters more distinct. It feels like there is one person, who is playing everyone. Although that's how real life probably is, your screenplay needn't be like that. Give people quirks. Give them characteristics that help the audience separate them.
    
    
13. It appears that your screenplay really starts around page 72 or so, we find out who is cheating, and then everything starts taking off. You might not want to do this, but if you start from there, and then write about the consequences following you could make a great story.
    
    
14. Every good story has some humor in it. Try and have some laughs to give the audience a break.
    
    
15. Make us care about these people (your characters). Why do we care about them?
    
    To conclude, your main problems here are: lack of structure, action, conflict, risk, loss, suspense, humor, and unique characters.
    
    Now, that might seem harsh, but it's not to discourage you. I think you can write. I think you have that ability in you, like most, but what you lack is keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, and making them scared, and happy, and emotionally involved. I highly suggest that you pick up some books on writing and read them. That's my main advice. It's not that you have to follow exactly what they say, but once you know the rules you can break them, and shape them to your liking.
    
    Anyway, good luck in the future! Keep on writing.
    
    Pick this up, if you can:
    
    http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Fiction-Practical-Acclaimed-Creative/dp/1582343306/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382945522&sr=1-1&keywords=gotham+writers+workshop
    
    It's just the basics, however, can come in handy.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

There are two books that I recommend reading. On Writing by Stephen King and The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White. I have learned a lot from both. One of the best pieces of advice from King was; read a lot and write a lot. It seems too obvious to be helpful advice, but I started a reading regiment that matched my writing regiment. Soon I was studying books as well as reading them, and I learned a lot more about wordplay, grammar, and vocabulary.

As far as grammar is concerned, I want my writing to communicate my emotions to the reader. That's my ultimate goal. Sometimes that requires perfect grammar, sometimes that requires breaking the rules. Take The Road by Cormac McCarthy for example. He's basically thrown all grammar rules out the window for the sake of his story, and it's an excellent story.

One of my writing professors told me there are three rules to breaking rules, and they have become my favorite rules of all. They are:

1. You have to know you're breaking a rule.
   
2. Your audience has to know you're breaking a rule.
   
3. Your audience has to know that you know that you're breaking a rule.
   
   If you can accomplish those three than it's a safe bet you haven't lost your reader. However, readers will put down a book just because of the grammar, so we must be diligent.

I wouldn't bother. Have an interest in the language, sure! but don't try to learn it like you would a real-world language, because you can't really. You have to learn one of the Neo-Sindarin languages, which are contentious and no one agrees on which one is best, as you can probably imagine. If you like the version spoken in the Peter Jackson movies then I'd recommend getting hold of a copy of David Salo's A Gateway to Sindarin - it's not a "learn Sindarin" book per se, but it is a comprehensive grammar of the language as it appears in the movies. Personally, I think that Salo went a bit too far in his analysis of the consonant mutations and he, quite unbelievably, misanalysed one of the phonemes (he cites Sindarin <lh> as /l̥/ when it had already been known for some time to be /ɬ/).

Sindarin's vocabulary is nowhere near large enough to make every-day conversation, unless you want to talk about Middle-earth as if you live there... then by all means dive in! It's a good language to have an interest in and study it from an academic view, but not as a language to try to become fluent in and say "hey, I speak Elvish - mae govannen!"

You could, however, learn Welsh which has a phonetic inventory almost identical to Sindarin (even /ɬ/), very similar consonant mutations and other similar grammatical features, and it's a language spoken in the real world by real people, should you wish to speak with them. So you could (depending on where you live) claim to speak Elvish and then just speak Welsh...

Short term (i.e. your paper): Get a draft to your teacher early and ask how you can improve it for your final draft. You'll want your teacher's opinion as early as possible if it's a good grade you want. Proofread it yourself and have others proofread it if possible.

Long term: The Elements of Style

Some other advice:

• Good academic writing doesn't mean fancy or indirect, it means clear and concise.
  
  
• Make becoming a better writer your goal if you want to really improve. Your work will be better and your teacher will sense your genuine interest when you approach them for help.
  
  
• Take advantage of your teacher's help even if you don't like them.
  
  
• Ultimately, getting better at anything is up to you, and that means putting time in.

I started writing Pokémon fanfics back when I was in junior high. Now I'm 26, I'm a produced playwright with some awards under my belt, and I'm doing a second draft of my first novel.

The way you start writing is two fold.

1. Write a lot. Every day. Maybe it's ten minutes to start. Maybe you start with journaling. Just spitballing about characters, plots, whatever. That will evolve into writing actual content.
   
   
2. You need to read a lot. A lot. What do you like to read? When I was in college, I read everything from Shakespeare to Stephen King. Find an author your like. Mimic their style at first. It will evolve into your own quickly.
   
   Two books you need to read:
   
   "The Elements of Style"
   http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005IT0V8O?ie=UTF8&redirectFromSS=1&pc_redir=T1&noEncodingTag=1&fp=1
   
   Free on kindle.
   
   Next is Stephen King's "On Writing." You can find that one somewhere. That book inspired me and gave me a good writer's toolbox. I still go back to both of them.
   
   Last piece of advice. Write for you. Write things that you like. At first, it won't matter what other people think because they won't be reading it. Only share stuff when you feel like getting your story broken. The good part about a broken story is that you can always fix it, but it's painful. Writing is 90% rewriting. It's what makes it feel like work.
   
   But writing is one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. It got me through a lot of tough times. It still does. I would be happy to help you in any way I can. Feel free to message me privately (I'll figure out how this works on mobile).
   
   The world needs more writers because writers are adventurers.

First, I would check to see if the language requirements are for entering the program or if they are for achieving candidacy. I know it varies widely by program, but if it is a candidacy requirement (or even maybe a requirement to be fulfilled by the end of the first year), the program you enroll in might have a path to achieving proficiency that doesn't require remedial language courses or self-instruction.

That being said, I am doing this right now. I would recommend a healthy dose of Duolinguo, but also some French for reading books. Karl Sandberg's French for Reading is an excellent resource that is aimed at the academic. Additionally, I have heard that Jacqueline Morton's English for Students of French is great, too. I have also picked up a few side-by-side French/English novels to practice on. After about a month of this (maybe 3-5 hours a week), I am already feeling like I could struggle bus my way through the exam if I could beg another half hour out of the proctor.

There are some informal extension courses offered by some universities for rather cheap, as well. Just googling "French reading summer online" or something like that makes a bunch of them pop up.

Lastly, in the next few weeks I am going to be rounding up some music theory/musicology articles in French that have English translations (or perhaps the reverse) so that I can practice. PM me if you want me to send them to you when I get them.

British Council: English Grammar gives explanations on everything grammatical; pronouns, possessives, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, nouns, phrases, clauses & sentence structures.

There is a book called English Grammar for Students of Russian but in the long run knowing English grammar inside-out is your best bet if you want to learn another language after Russian.

To stop getting distracted, reward yourself when you reach a goal in Russian to motivate yourself to carry on, also use Reddit to your advantage if you're ever back on Reddit why not pay /r/russian a visit?

I can't seem to find any reviews for Hugo Fluent in 3 months, Colloquial Russian is a very complete & comprehensive book on knowing no Russian to being conversationally fluent, so it's a good book to use as your main reference. Check out /r/Russian's wiki on getting started. for more help on getting started.

All the resources you've mentioned above, put emphasis on different aspects of Russian e.g. Grammar, Vocabulary, Orthography. I'd work through it one chapter at a time, try to practice/implement what you've learnt whenever you can & if it helps write down any notes. This is what I do with Icelandic & it seems to work.

Here's a step by step guide on using Assimil it uses Assimil: Dutch as the example but you can easily use the same process for Russian. Hopefully this helped :)

No problem! Later today, when I get some time, I'll check through my notebook. I might not have anything useful, or I might not be able to remember the exercises I was writing for, but I'll see if I can find anything.

One exercise I saw on here, actually, looked interesting. What you do is give your student an ending, and then he was to write a story from the beginning that uses the ending.

/u/oneder_woman mentioned maybe finding some things for your student to read that would help him with writing. The Elements of Style by Strunk and White is really considered the most essential, authoritative book on the more technical parts of writing. I'd also recommend On Writing by Stephen King. I don't really care for King as a writer, haven't read any of his other books and don't plan to, but I think it's a great book for writers. It really helped me understand the writing process more, how you think about coming up with story ideas and then how you go about executing them and writing a story. It's a memoir about his life as a writer, but he also writes about his tips for becoming a better writer. I read it for my senior writing seminar in college, but I noticed my cousin was reading it for an AP writing class as a high school senior, so it's good for younger students too.

I've also heard Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury and The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner are good. I haven't read them personally, but I know those are two great authors.

Hijacking top comment: while both of these are good, neither one will really force you to confront challenges and issues in your own writing except in a very general way.

To make it three, I would add "The Making of a Story" by Alice LaPlante. It is, by far, the absolute best book on writing I've ever read: it has small "teaching" sections discussing certain concepts (metaphors, characters, voice, etc.) followed by exercises with examples, and then accompanied by a wonderful selection of short stories that really captures the best of that concept. It's a thick book with a lot of work if you do the exercises, but it's definitely worth it. It's like a DIY advanced college creative writing course, and it's helped me so, so much. The author teaches at the MFA program at Stanford so she not only is a great writer, but also a great TEACHER, which distinguishes her from the other two books mentioned.

Reddit apparently doesn't know about it, unfortunately, which is why I only very recently discovered it on an Amazon recommended books list! It really deserves a wider readership.

Amazon link for the lazy:

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Story-Norton-Creative-Writing/dp/0393337081/ref=asap_B001ILKBC2?ie=UTF8

I almost bought this last week, but can't justify the cost right now (I'm working at a pretty slow pace so probably can't rent it). I ended up buying two other books:

1. Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Italian Grammar
   
2. Easy Italian Reader
   
   They're being delivered today so I'm not sure if they live up to the reviews; I can update my thoughts on them later.
   
   EDIT
   
   These are my first thoughts after working through the first few pages of each book.
   
   

• Practice Makes Perfect: Seems like it's going to be great as a general overview, and the review questions are actually tolerable unlike the countless French homework assignments I suffered through in high school. It's hard to judge at the moment because I've already been using Duolingo for a while so obviously the first few chapters are going to be pure review for me.
  
  
• Easy Italian Reader: This book focuses more on reading passages; after reading small chunks of text you read and answer questions completely in Italian, and so far this is exactly what I was looking for; something that would allow me to practice reading stories and passages in Italian without being forced to read young children's books (hoping to read the first Harry Potter book in the near future). It's a bit dry (the first story focuses on two friends and their school life and whatnot), but I think it's perfect for someone who wants to start reading Italian early in their studies.

Just do it. Just put it out there. Some of the worst stuff I have written, that I still call "trash fiction", is the stuff people loved best. Some of the best stuff I have written has gotten the harshest critiques. The point, here, is to be careful of becoming "married" to things, that is, being unwilling to change it if someone has a valid critique.

Basically, take everything that is said to you about your work, process it as feedback rather than attack, and use it to help your writing get better. If someone took the time to critique your work, rather than defending the work, thank them for the criticism. Take the criticim, apply it, and see if it makes your work stronger. If it does, keep it, if not ignore it. Rough criticim has helped me immensely.

I also cannot emphasize how much a few writing classes and good books can help. Check out On Writing Well by William Zinsser, and Sin in Syntax by Constance Hale. Worth their weight in gold.

Feel free to inbox me with your stories. I promise to be thorough, yet non-douchy! Here's my online portfolio , if you want to check out my stuff. :)

EDIT: A comma.

I go through phases. Sometimes I read poetry (nothing in particular, usually a trip to the library looking for collections instead of one single author). Sometimes I read fiction. Sometimes I read non-fiction.

The other part of the equation is to make sure you're reading actively. It doesn't matter how much you read if you don't really understand it. Pay attention to the way the author says things.

An issue I have with just reading nonfiction books on a particular subject (ie. philosophy as you've stated) doesn't really help if the books are dry. You're wanting to learn how to turn a phrase--you don't get that from a lot of non-fiction. The philosophy part might help you look at the world differently or become more aware of things outside your own point of view, but they don't usually help you understand how to write a crafty sentence (or lyric). In other words, it might give you something to write about, but not how to write about it!

Something else that might help is to read books about writing. Not textbooks, but books about grammar and style. I also recommend books written by successful authors on their own writing.

Two books that I have next to me pretty much always are:

https://www.amazon.com/Sin-Syntax-Craft-Wickedly-Effective/dp/0767903099

and

https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Eloquence-Secrets-Perfect-Phrase/dp/042527618X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483465760&sr=8-1&keywords=elements+of+eloquence

Of course, you can also enroll in a creative writing course. Having guidance and feedback is worth more than most people think.

As long as you put your desire and hope in the act of writing itself, as opposed to the desire of wanting to have written something, you will do well.

I would suggest a few pieces of light reading, a few pieces of heavy reading, and some listening for you too.

Light reading:

Stephen King's "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" This book is not meant as a book of lessons so much as the formula that assembled one writer. It's short, it's heartfelt, and it has some wisdom in it.

The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. - This is a short book, it gives a good starter set of rules that we accept for communicating with one another in the English language.

Heavy Reading:

Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell. - This is a short book but it is very thick with information and esoteric names from all cultures. Why is that? Because it deals with, very succinctly, the fundamental core of nearly all human storytelling, Campbell's "Monomyth" premise can inform you all the way from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Star Wars a New Hope

Writing Excuses This is a Podcast about writing by Brandon Sanderson, of "Mistborn," "Way of Kings," and "Wheel of Time" fame, Howard Taylor, the writer and artist of Schlock Mercenary, a webcomic that hasn't missed a day for a long while, Mary Robinette Kowol, a Puppeteer and Author of "Shades of Milk and Honey" and Dan Wells, from the "I am not a Serial Killer" series It has been going on for more than a decade, and nearly every episode is a wonderful bit of knowledge.

Many professors/teachers praise this book for French grammar and all its intricacies. However, I bought it way back when I first started studying French and opened it maybe once or twice. Honestly, I think about.com has the best explanations for grammar points. Whenever I come across a weird grammatical structure or am trying to form a sentence a certain way, I google some key words related to it (ex. pendant vs. depuis) and about.com always has the best explanation. If you're just a learner/student of French, I would stick to google/about.com. It's really the best source and all you need plus it's free.

Syntax as Style by Tufte is the best for sentence level mechanics. By far.

On Writing Well by Zinsser is the best for non-fiction.

If you're interested in fiction, Story Engineering by Brooks is the one I usually recommend for structure. But you might use Knight's Creating Short Fiction for that purpose. Or Save the Cat by Snyder.

People often recommend Elements of Style by Strunk and White. It has the benefit of being very short and direct. It will make your writing better, if you're a beginner. Your essays will read more smoothly. But I don't like recommending this book because it lacks nuance and is sometimes wrong. If you just want to improve your writing as quickly as possible, get this book. If you actually care about language, get Virginia Tufte's book instead.

Well, I should say that I learn best when I understand the grammar, both for comprehension and composition. It's like a logic puzzle for me. Plain immersion doesn't do it for me. There's a reason why French school children are drilled in written grammar - it's quite different from spoken. Moreover, I am a firm believer in learning hard core grammar to prepare for standardized language testing - it counts for about 30% of any test, at least. It's the middle section in the TCF.

So, I found french grammar books written for French students - it forces you to work completely in French and improves comprehension faster, I think. It also introduces you to French cultural stuff at the same time. Something like the Grammaire progressive du francais series.

I did lots of random online French website conjugation exercises. There are plenty of them, although they look like sites from 1998.

For listening, I used the TV5 Monde website mentioned above a lot for preparation, first with videos and then just the listening exercises. And then as I started to feel confident, I did their online timed tests. BTW they closely match the real TCF material because they provide the content for the test!

I watched French movies with French subtitles, not English. And I watched French news online - their accents are quite clear.

However, within 60 days of the test I generally listened to radio online, with transcripts if I could find them. Video news becomes a problem because you build a false sense of comprehension for testing. TCF listening tests are audio-only, no video.

Finally, when you get stuck on a grammar point, as I still do, I highly recommend either English Grammar for Students of French or Side-By-Side French and English Grammar.

Good luck!

1. Make sure you brush up on the language point you're teaching. Have examples prepared beforehand that you can present to your students, and a way of explaining it that is concise and easy to understand. Practical English Usage by Michael Swan is quite a useful resource.
   
   
2. Have a good lesson plan prepared, but don't be a slave to it. Parts of the lesson may take more or less time than anticipated, depending on student interest, how long it takes to grasp something, etc. As you gain more experience you'll get better at estimating how long particular stages of a lesson should last.
   
   
3. Don't be too hard on yourself if you have a bad class. It happens. Reflect on it to see if there was anything you could have done differently, but don't dwell on it too much. Move on.
   
   Bonus tip - trying to get the students to speak English can be a struggle, but there are ways to motivate them. One method I use is to have a yellow and red card to hand, like a football referee. If a student uses their first language too much, they get the yellow card. If they do it again, they get the red card and have to do a forfeit - something like singing a stupid song or press-ups. Perhaps let the class take a vote on what the forfeit should be - that way no-one can really complain if they have to do it.

Unfortunately, there's not really one standard way to learn Tolkien's languages, so some courses disagree with each other, and it's important to watch out for what the author of any given course decided vs. what Tolkien intended.

That being said, I'm a huge fan of Ardalambion – the Quenya courses they have are fantastic, though a bit dense with linguistic concepts (but he teaches terminology as he goes, and the ideas are worth knowing).

For Sindarin, I've had some good experiences with Your Sindarin Textbook but it's not nearly as detailed or as easy to follow. You may also hear about David Salo's Gateway to Sindarin. Salo's the linguist who worked on the Jackson movies – his work is good if you're looking for movie Sindarin, but it's pretty non-standard regarding the Sindarin of the books.

Of course, there's also /r/Quenya and /r/Sindarin, both of which have excellent resource lists.

Practice. Practice. Practice. I'd suggest starting with writing.

Try to write an article which describes some complex thing you already understand so that someone unfamiliar with the topic could also understand it. Write the first draft. Then edit it. Then edit it again. Keep editing it until you're confident that the content clearly relays the information in a concise manner. Then do it with a few more topics.

Going through this process should help train your brain to sort through many pieces of information, identify the most important ones, and translate your understanding of them into words. The more you do it, the easier it will become. As your brain gets faster at breaking down complex concepts into communicable chunks, it should eventually improve your verbal communication as well.

For a general primer on writing more clearly, Strunk and White's Elements of Style is beyond compare. The Kindle edition is currently free.

I have a name book (this is the one I have, but it's pretty easy to find lists of baby names online for free if you don't need names for different cultures), so I just try and find one that sounds nice and rolls off the tongue. Past that, as much as possible I just try and make sure I don't have two main characters with names that start with the same letter or sound very similar, just so it's easier for the readers to keep them all straight.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say yes, a VAST majority of speed reading and accelerated learning courses are based on the general principles put forth by Evelyn Wood. It will take some practice and like any worthwhile acquired skill, there will hills and valleys and plateaus of reading speed but it will kick in. Throw in mind-mapping and eventually you'll start creating images in your head as you head almost as if you were mind-mapping but not drawing it out.

I add in mind-mapping for a few reasons:

• You have to process the information in a different way. Reading is an auditory process while drawing something out and making pictures is much more of a creative, visual process.
  
• You have to review the information - the act of creating a mind-map is essentially reviewing the information
  
• They can be interesting to create associations (anything with sex or personal interests are great)
  
• When I need to recall information, I can mentally "see" where that 'thing' was on the mind-map that I drew
  
  Amazon link for Evelyn Wood - don't bother with the reviews

Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale. It is about the parts of language, rather than punctuation, but it's amazing. It will teach you the "right way" and the "wrong, but awesome" way to write.

Edit: I feel that I should add that I have read this book through twice. It's not often I can just read a book about grammar, but this book is very well written, in my opinion. She makes language fun.

First, you will have to convince me to release my secrets.

Okay I am kidding. But a while back I wanted to get really good at winning arguments. I bought books and learned the logical fallacies. When I tried to go into debates and the person I was debating would say "I believe god because no one has proved he doesn't exist" nobody was impressed when I would respond by saying "Oh that's the negative proof fallacy" Nobody cared if it was fallacy or not, the argument satisfied their need to believe in god. Study and application of formal fallacies work better in academic situations.

This taught me one important thing. People will not give up a position until they are emotionally ready to. No amount of logic in the world can overcome an emotionally committed believer. Ask anyone who converted from theism to atheism and I bet you the first traces of their atheism came with some sort of emotional realization or question ("Why does god allow suffering to exist?"). This means if you want to convince someone, you need to have what I might call "emotional foreplay" which does not need to be strictly logical, but opens the other persons mind to your position.

Once you have the person warmed up, you can start to present logic arguments. People love to be "logically correct", it makes them feel smart. Emotional readiness makes them feel righteous, logical correctness makes them feel intelligent. But remember that during your logical presentation you should still have an eye on their emotional readiness to accept your argument. Sometimes people go back to being emotionally not ready.

Also you have to know when to give up. Sometimes there are true believers who you could never convince in any worthwhile amount of time. It is useless to try and convince in private, but public debate can be good if you have an audience. With true believers, the goal is not to convince them (you wont, and if you try you will just be frustrated) it is to publicly shame them, and by extension shame what they represent. Don't make it too blatant, or the observer will see what you are doing and chose the other person out of pity. Pretend to come off as someone willing to compromise, someone reasonable. If you can walk the fine line between "too far" and "not enough" you will get to a point where the crowd sees you making perfect arguments, but your opponent will be unconvinced and become extremely frustrated, making them lash out. At that point, you win. Be careful when you do public shaming because it makes bitter enemies.

Also be aware of context. If you use shaming privately, you are doing it wrong. The right type of debate tactic for the right situation is needed.

EDIT: If you still want to learn about logical fallacies, I recommend this book for everyday arguments.

Sounds like you're looking for curriculum. So google grade level, common core ELA and see what you get. I usually use the California framework to skill build for my boarding kids. Definitely gunge your student's ability level and decide if there skills are at grade level. I've had kids like the one your describing come in a few grade levels below where they needed to be. One good tip is to do an essay and make a list of things to work on with your student so you can show them improvement over time. That way you can manage expectations. Anyhow, here's a list of resources I use:

Use this one to build topical lessons: https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Academic-English-Third-Longman/dp/0201340542/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=oshima+writing+academic+english+3rd&qid=1562233499&s=gateway&sr=8-1

​

And this one to load up punctuation: https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Book-Grammar-Punctuation-Easy/dp/1118785568/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=blue+book+of+american+english+and+grammar&qid=1562233598&s=gateway&sr=8-2

​

This series is also awesome for building lessons: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=elements+of+literature&crid=3EMT7657D9UI&sprefix=elements+of+liter%2Caps%2C451&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

The two main groups of penmanship styles are Palmer and Spencierian. You can buy workbooks for both off of Amazon. Personally Spencierian is easier for me, but realize both are technically "cursive." Which I rarely use.

The book that I instead learned from was Lettering for Architects & Desginers. I realized that I always wanted my print writing to look like my mother's. She learned how to write in a drafting class. I did some research and that was the book that I found.

The 3 tips that I took to heart from my time learning Spencierian script were:

1. Slow down.: Seriously. If you do nothing else just slowing down will help a lot.
   
2. Think through every stroke. You need to make sure you have enough room to complete every letter and that all of your letters are roughly the same scale.
   
3. Practice everyday. Instead of writing "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" over and over again I copied famous passages and poems. Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, the lyrics to Aerosmith songs. Pick something that interests you and use that.
   
   Hope this helps.

I recently finished a book entitled, Sin & Syntax that is quite good - a lot of fun, and goes over not only the basics, but also artful writing.
Otherwise, if you read a lot of books with very good grammar/writing you'll tend to pick it up - I don't mean to make any unfounded judgments on your taste, but, as a general comment, read something like The Anatomy of Melancholy instead of Dan Brown. (At least, I think his writing is dreadful.) Otherwise, one comment suggests learning another language, and that is definitely a step in the right direction if you can manage it - I recommend Latin.

An em dash is a fermata, a grand pause. Think about the power there—how much that can do for the cadence of your prose. I would call it the most dramatic of the marks.

Semicolons are used to set apart two very related sentences, sure, but if that’s the case, why not use a period? Any two sentences next to each other, we expect as readers, will be closely related. Two sentences separated by a semicolon are of equal weight, and the semicolon is a sort of intellectual play. The two sentences feed off one another; their meanings play off one another like two kids seesawing. My rules for determining whether to use a semicolon: It feels right (I want to, I like it, my intuition urges me to); The two sentences are really very similar in meaning and play off one another; I could, theoretically, switch the order of the sentences, even if I wouldn’t. If you can’t switch the order, you might be looking for a colon, instead.

Above I use semicolons in their other capacity, which is to set apart items of a list in which at least one of the items in the list is complex (contains a period, comma, parenthetical expression, etc).

I cannot overstate how wonderful Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style by Virginia Tufte is. If you’re trying to learn to write artfully, get yourself a copy today.

I hate to say it, but maybe you should invest some more time in reading. You will learn something about story structure from examples.

As for grammar and punctuation, there are certainly resources for that. You might also want to read this, the ebook is free.

If you can write humor, that's actually a better start than some people who have come here asking, basically, "what's funny?" That's pretty much impossible to teach, I think.

Yes, this is a good precipitating event. However, I suggest starting the story even before this, so you can establish some backstory and characters. Show the relationship between the main character and her brother. Maybe hint at her father's abuse. Get the reader invested in the characters a bit before this event.

Also, I suggest you work on your grammar and punctuation. Make sure to break up your story into paragraphs. Every time a different character speaks, or there is a change in character perspective, start a new line.

I suggest the book, "The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing." It's a great guide on how to effectively create a story.

You've got a great creative mind, you just need to refine how you put it on paper.

Book here: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0393337081/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_jHFvDb7GQPGQH

I'm on the same journey, friend. I started with ordering some nice gel pens, and that helped. But I moved on to an entry level fountain pen, the Pilot Metropolitan Fine, and it has really sparked my love for writing. I ordered some Spencerian Script workbooks here and the theory book here, and already started last night with taking it slow and working on my grip. I wish you luck!

Well that's a great reason to start learning! You would probably consider learning the Spencerian principles– it was the handwriting style taught in schools in the US from about 1850–1930 and was developed both for fast long-form copy and beauty of stroke. There's a great little theory book that you can buy on Amazon for $5 (slightly more expensive if you get the package with 5 copy-books included for practice). I highly suggest it– good on you for doing something nice for your mom.

Enjoy!

Sounds like a Fallacy of Composition: when one "infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole."

Alternatively, it can be a Hasty Generalization, if only after drawing a few marbles from a container, one were to conclude that all marbles must be like the drawn ones.

Recommended fallacy book: How to win every argument. The examples used are often quite amusing.

Every comment in here is amazing advice to start, but I'd also like to add in the Gotham Writers' Workshop book. It runs you roughly $5-15 on Amazon, but offers you a good way to hone and practice your narrative skills by offering you a diverse story selection with exercises that are geared towards making you think, imagine, and create.

Link to book: Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide from New York's Acclaimed Creative Writing School https://www.amazon.com/dp/1582343306/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.MruzbS4CWM04

If you're applying to a CELTA course, I'm sure that there's more to your reasons than "I like to teach." For example, think about these:

Why did you decide on CELTA instead of Trinity, SIT, or a no-name course?
Why have you chosen the field of ESL/EFL instruction? What makes you think you can succeed at it?
Why have you decided to start your career with CELTA (or, if you're already teaching, why have you decided to take it now)?
Are you taking the CELTA because you want to be employed in a particular market that requires it (e.g. Europe)?

As far as English grammar goes, I didn't have much knowledge of pedagogical grammar when I did the CELTA and it wasn't a problem. You'll be able to brush up on individual grammar points as you teach them. I highly recommend Michael Swan's Practical English Usage. It has about everything you'll ever need to know presented in a fashion which will help you explain it clearly to language learners.

Here's what I'd say are the three best ways to learn the language.

• jan Pije is a pretty controversial figure in TP circles, but his lessons remain the most accessible way to learn the language.
  
• If you want to support Sonja Lang, the creator of TP, learn it through her book, Toki Pona: The Language of Good.
  
• If you'd much rather learn through videos, jan Misali's 12-part series is pretty good for that.

Back in September I decided two things I wanted to get into fountain pens and I wanted to improve my handwriting. Before September it had been 15-18 years since I had written anything but my signature in cursive. I think I'm doing pretty good but I'm still not happy with it.... but I think I'm at the point were I wont see any more rapid improvements and I just need to keep writing and it will come over time. But if anyone has any ideas on how to improve my handwriting I'm open ears. I'm thinking about ordering Spencerian Penmanship book and workbooks. Anyone have any thoughts on them or others I might try?

What I did was duolingo and a grammar book (I used this http://www.amazon.com/Practice-Makes-Perfect-Complete-Italian/dp/0071603670/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422064174&sr=8-1&keywords=italian+grammar , not free obviously but I think it's worth it to make sure you get an analytical knowledge of the grammar) to get started, eventually move on to listening to people on youtube like this guy http://youtu.be/4xXT-ysjrKE?list=PLTvJgY2rGJY8c5MzWbfjrPP2E5-I6F_Hd who makes videos for learners

Then I moved on to reading fables and passages from the Bible. Lingocracy is useful for that. I also started adding the words I didn't know onto memrise and using that daily.

I haven't pursued Italian as much as I should but I gained a moderate amount of reading comprehension doing that within less than two months.

There's a way, sort of, J.R.R.Tolkien has left all his linguistic writings on the Elvish Languages in 7 big boxes, (thousands of pages per box) and Christopher Tolkien has later referred to them naming as Quenya A, B, up to Quenya G, for they can be specifically identified. Yes, not a couple of boxes, but even 7, my mellyn (PE: 22, p. 141).

Be aware, though, that if you do not have a particular background, these pages will be likely not understandable, sadly...

Regarding what you can hear/read online:

In real life it is simple. If you do not follow the rules of English grammar you are not writing or speaking in English. If you don't follow Tolkien's rules you are not writing his elf! Anyone who visits the websites dedicated to Elvish languages (Eldalie, Quenya.101, Ardalambion, etc.) or reads the books dedicated to them (those of David Salo, Ruth S. Noel, Pesch, Comastri, etc.) trying to learn Quenya or Sindarin, will be baffled by the array of many different and conflicting grammar rules. These sites and books never agree with each other. Why?

Because every author has invented his own rules.

We read from many writers (Drout, Pesch) and on the net that there are many “neo-elvish” languages: the neo-quenya and neo-sindarin. But it is not correct, neo-elvish languages do not exist or rather are not languages. Writing: Something wure mi expectatione [sic] does not mean that whoever wrote it is the creator of a neo-english language, the same with: Alaghioru saranno alboro dormirenene [sic] won’t make you the creator of a new neo-italian language. To create a neo-language one must first of all be a linguist, know the rules of a Tolkien elven language well and from there build a new elven language. What a job! Those who build what they call neo-Sindarin and neo-quenya only rarely mention Tolkien's grammars and almost never explain what they do (for example, I change this thing written by Tolkien, because I invented a certain new rule). What they build are not languages. They distort the little of what they understand about Tolkien's logopoeia at will.

I don’t think you’ll confuse toki pona and German because they’re pretty different.

Learn the pronunciation, words, and grammar like you might with any language. Keep in mind that the grammar is pretty different than English and the words might be different than you’re used to because they all have multiple meanings.
I’d suggest getting the book if you can but you can also check out free user made courses online like Pije’s site.

I’d also suggest joining a chat group like on Discord or somewhere else so you can speak with and learn from multiple people who are proficient in the language.

Good question. I've never learned the language itself, only learned some about it. But there are plenty of websites about Esperanto to help you on your way. A quick google gave me this book as a good self learner: Book

​

Enjoy and have a good one!

I haven't read that book, but if you want a great book that shows you different writing techniques, aimed at improving your craft, then get The Making of a Story by Alice LePlante. It not only talks about technique, there are also short stories by quality writers which are then analyzed in order to explain the techniques. For a book on craft, you cant go wrong with this one.

If she loves languages for language sake, then she probably would love the toki pona book. It's been the most fun language resource that I have ever bought.

https://www.amazon.com/Toki-Pona-Language-Sonja-Lang/dp/0978292308

The Negative Trait Thesaurus, with the Emotion Thesaurus, Positive Trait Thesaurus and the Emotional Wound Thesaurus.

Also Careers for Your Characters: A Writers Guide to 101 Professions from Architect to Zookeeper which "Provides over one hundred descriptions of occupations that can be used for writing fiction, detailing the daily life, jargon, and salaries of such fields as dentistry, entertainment, law, and architecture."

And The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook is good for times when I can't get online to find names.

Master Lists for Writing is also a good one.

The Psychology Workbook for Writers

Creating Character Arcs Workbook

Thinking Like A Romance Writer: The Sensual Writer's Sourcebook of Words and Phrases A friend got me this for Christmas, mostly to laugh at, but I thought I'd add it anyway.

See, the thing is, repeating what I say doesn't do anything. Learning to argue will make you a much more interesting person. I strongly suggest Thank You for Arguing and This gem of a book.

The latter requires a good deal of reading comprehension to truly gain anything from it, so good luck.

I third this. It's probably the best single book. http://www.amazon.com/Esperanto-Teach-Yourself-Revised-3rd/dp/0844237639/ref=la_B001KI9TGC_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416982334&sr=1-1


It's out of print, so prices are high, but there is a PDF floating around the internet than you can google for.

Also, go to Memrise.com and sign up for "Speak Esperanto Like a Native 1" course. Memrise is a godsend for language learners.

I've got a copy of French for Readng which I've found helpful. Its focused entirely on increasing reading comprehension and French-to-English translation skills, plus it briefly reviews grammatical rules covered by other materials.

Also, English Grammar for Students of French is an excellent resource for improving your grammatical foundations in both English and French.

I like Micheal Swan's - Practical English Usage.

You probably could read it to learn grammar, but I teach ESL and find it's a great reference with clear explanations and examples.

I studied Esperanto before coming to Pitt and was disappointed that there are no clubs in the area (I looked).

It's been a very long time since I've studied Esperanto, but "Ja mi povas paroli gxin, aux, almenaux, mi povos paroli gxin denove"

I won't be here this summer, but if I'm here next year we should see about getting together and practicing. My book of choice, that I still love quite strongly is this one http://www.amazon.com/Esperanto-Teach-Yourself-Revised-Edition/dp/0844237639. You can find the most recent edition's pdf online somewhere <.<

I imagine you're a freshman?

If you're interested, you should PM me your facebook or pitt e-mail :p

I honestly can not even begin to thank you enough. This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much, again.

EDIT: Found The Elements of Style Kindle edition for free!

>I am in high school. In europe high school grades matter a lot. And I know it. I am pretty smart I guess but I don't know how to study.
>
>I need to study to achieve better grades. B's and C's arent really enough. And I dont usually study because I don't know how to study.
>
>What study method should I use to study guys?
>
>I've tried reading and taking notes (aka copying from the textbook and altering the word order sometimes),doing exercises isn't working. I want to understand the material and get better grades and learn but idk what to do
>
>What should I do?

I learned note taking from a book called The Evelyn Woods Speed Reading and Learning Program . It absolutely changed everything about how I approached every class. I feel I retain more, and when I choose to I can crank up to about 700wpm when I'm reading and still retain most of the information. (Real speed readers who actually train for it can read 1400+ wpm. JFK was known for reading 1-3 novels a day.)

>Kanji Pict O Grapix

total crap book IMO -- once you get kanji study going you don't need such an obvious hand-holding -- if you want to learn kanji, you've got to learn around 2000 for it to be useful, and your brain quickly gets used to how kanji works, especially if you learn the kanji from simplest to most complex (this is basically the Heisig method).

The question is why you only have 40 days.

If you're going to Japan in October (best time to go!) for a week or two you should work on your numbers from 1 to 100, being able to understand them spoken at you, since that is pretty common occurrence (eg. "sen-happyaku yen").

If you're going to power through something, the first two books of the Japan Times dictionaries of grammar would be my recommendation.

http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Basic-Japanese-Grammar/dp/4789004546

http://www.amazon.com/A-Dictionary-Intermediate-Japanese-Grammar/dp/B001PS7NL0

The content of these books is easily the first two years of college Japanese.

The LearningJapanese subreddit should have more, better advice for you.

Have fun! Japanese is NOT as hard as the people say IMO. It's a pretty rational, regular language and listening comprehension is TONS easier than Chinese, and speaking is tons easier than Chinese and French.

Its closest analogue is Spanish, but I think it's easier than Spanish, since the verbs are so regular and there no noun gender -- and no noun plurals or articles for that matter, either -- spanish can have el gato or los gatos, while Japanese just say "neko" and that's the end of it.

One of my favorite books when it comes to Linguistic Anthropology, and it touches on language conservation issues:
We Share Walls

This is my favorite Linguistic Anthropology Reader, tons of articles that really make up the base of the field: Linguistic Anthropology Reader

A fun read even if you don't like Evolutionary Psychology: http://www.amazon.com/Grooming-Gossip-Evolution-Language-Dunbar/dp/0674363361

Two things helped me : first, a cross-referenced grid, like a multiplication table, with genders on the x-axis and endings for soft/hard adjectives on the y-axis

the second thing was to go back and study my native grammar, in this case english, in a book called 'english grammar students of russian'

https://www.amazon.com/English-Grammar-Students-Russian-Learning/dp/0934034214

good luck - it is a human language after all, and you are human - you are capable of doing this

I found this book on speed reading in the bargain bin at Barnes & Noble a while back, and it solved the problem for me.

Basically, active reading > passive reading. It's not hard to do, improves your concentration, and speeds up your rate and comprehension, even if you don't get to the point where you can read a page a second.

Depending on what language you want to learn, there may be a book that explains the grammar you'll need for that language by connecting it to English. For example: German,
Spanish, Russian.

If there's a term that you're unfamiliar with, you can also poke around on Wikipedia to get a better idea behind some of the concepts. But when things get too technical, just keep looking up unfamiliar terminology and you'll be on your way.

For a little bit of fun, check out:
Split Ergativity,

where you can see this gem of a sentence:
>An example of split ergativity conditioned by tense and aspect is found in the Hindustani language (Hindi/Urdu), which has an ergative case on subjects in the perfective aspect for transitive verbs in the active voice, while in other aspects (habitual, progressive) subjects appear in the nominative case.

A good general resource is this site (particularly the 'links of interest' section if you're looking at the real world history). It should be more than enough if you're writing a typical high school paper or low level college paper. You'll probably need more for a hardcore research paper though.

I'm assuming your prior knowledge is pretty limited if you even think you can write much about Dwarvish or Black speech. Dwarvish has the most vague of grammar outlines less than a page of vocab, and Black Speech has less than that. You could talk about Elvish all day though.

If you're able to get your hands on A Gateway to Sindarin then half your paper is finished already. (Disclaimer, David Salo seems like a decent author and linguist to my amateur eyes, but he has a nasty habit of making educated guesses and treating them as fact. But as a general introduction to a complete beginner it's an amazing book.)

Other than that it's hard to recommend any singular sources that can help much beyond having complete familiarity with Tolkien's world and published books. Stay the hell away from lotr.wikia and related sites, but honestly Wikipedia itself gives a decent overview here. Just be sure to only get ideas from there and back them up yourself from the source material.

> Wow, is this really true?

From what I've been told about current theory </disclaimer> Yes. Although it had less to do with hunting and more to do with climate change (migration). <disclaimer> I realize when talking about evolutionary forces, everything kinda comes down to hunting and mating. But more directly: climate.

Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language is an excellent, readable book that was required for anthropology.

Glad you asked! It is a made up language constructed by Sonja Lang beginning in 2001. It's unique in that it only has 120 words in the entire language, making it more of a pidgin than a full-fledged one (and easy to pick up!). However, you can still be quite expressive...you just have to learn to think about things differently.

Website: http://www.tokipona.org

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sitelen/

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toki_Pona

Book: http://www.amazon.com/Toki-Pona-The-Language-Good/dp/0978292308

)

nut sure what do you mean by complete but The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation is pretty comorehensive in my opinion:

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: An Easy-to-Use Guide with Clear Rules, Real-World Examples, and Reproducible Quizzes https://www.amazon.de/dp/1118785568/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-qISCbRT379VQ

http://www.amazon.com/Evelyn-Seven-Day-Reading-Learning-Program/dp/1566194024

I read this book last week and it has honestly helped me a ton staying with reading. Even if you don't want to speed read at 'super sonic speeds' like the book describes, it gives you a ton of tips to how to stay focused.

For example, I underline with my finger as I read. It is confusing the first few pages you do it, but once you fall into the habit of doing it, you stay much more focused for a longer period of time.

Duolingo

English Grammar for Students of French

French videos? I've never used this, but it looks fine

FSI might be a little easy

These grammar charts

Also, for practice with a teacher, you could try a website like italki

Yes it is. But it also has some vocabulary and other notes included to help develop your Italian beyond the grammar.

Practice Makes Perfect Complete Italian Grammar

I have several methods depending on if I am the Dungeon Master or the player.

If I am the player, I will ask if there are any cultures unique to our own world within the DM's campaign. If my character is from that region or culture, I will refer to real world names. I use the Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

If I am the Dungeon Master, I use my own home-brewed campaign that I have been shaping and refining for the past few years. It has its own local languages with variations of real world names. I will usually make lists of these local names to hand out to players creating characters.

When I make non-player characters, I will either develop the character around their name or the name around the character. For non-important characters, I use custom 100-name charts. Roll some d10 dice and pick out the results from the charts.

Here is an example of one of my recent characters to use as a DM. I have a local language I am working on in my language with surnames based on Scottish surnames. The surname 'Dour' in Scottish means 'from the water.' I changed it up using my languages grammar to 'Dorve.' Lowborn men and women in my setting rarely earn family surnames. They usually are referred to as x from y. Think Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo of Vinci. I do the same in my setting with its language. Dorve don Vestavia. Dorve of Vestavia. From the water of Vestavia. Vestavia is a city in my setting with a very large river, so this character lives in the city near the river.

Sorry if that was an overload of information, but I am one of those people that likes realistic names in a setting. To accomplish that as I DM, I use custom languages. Otherwise, I research real world cultures and languages to name my characters.

I recommend The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: An Easy-to-Use Guide with Clear Rules, Real-World Examples, and Reproducible Quizzes: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118785568/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_8k..BbTMSGQQY.

The instruction is straightforward, and the practice sets are very helpful.

> With all of this being said, I'm very traditional in my grammar when writing academically, to the point of writing subject pronouns after "to be" verbs and the use of "be" in the present subjunctive rather than an indicative present conjugation.

Could you please provide us with a simple pair of contrasting examples that would show what you mean by 'the use of "be" in the present subjunctive rather than an indicative present conjugation'?

.

------

ADDED:

> While "them" as a singular object pronoun is often used conversationally, it isn't specified as a singular pronoun in books like The Blue Book of Grammar. Colleges and college professors often refer to books of grammar like these.

Is "The Blue Book of Grammar" the same book as the one by Jane Straus, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation?

Have you read any of the more recent books on rhetoric and debate? I am referring to books such as Thank You for Arguing and How to Win Every Argument. What do you think of such books? Do you have any texts which you would recommend?

Grooming, Gossip, And The Evolution of Language written by Dunbar provides a lot of interesting insight and theory of our communication and relationship histories. I read it for an Anthropology of Communication class and highly recommend it to anyone interested by this topic!

If you're interested in a book there's

Artful sentences: Syntax as Style by Virginia Tufte

which goes over lots of lovely usage examples.

sample pdf

amazon

Because English is crazy like that.

Source: ESL teacher.

On a more serious note, if you're looking for a good reference, I highly recommend Practical English Usage by Michael Swan. This is the bible for people like me.

lernu is fantastic, and the canonical book is TIY Esperanto (I wouldn't get it from Amazon, since their cheapest is $40 for used, I just linked so you can find the ISBN and whatnot).

Consider a meetup group (that one's in the Bay Area), having actual people to speak with is a huge plus.

This is an excellent series. I linked to the intermediate book, but there are beginner and advanced versions as well.

A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar

How about Writing Fiction from the Gotham Writer's Workshop. It's got a good bit of useful advice about everything.

I'll second Zinsser.

Finally, maybe something literary criticism-ish and structural. How about Reading Novels by George Hughes?

I have to admit I don't care for either King or Strunk&White. Sorry.

Hello. Actually, it does not make sense in English with the blank. ‘Est-ce que Marc en France?’ means ‘Is it that Marc in France?’, which is incomplete. The blank would be ‘is’, which is ‘est’ in French. So, the correct answer should be ‘est-ce que Marc est en France?’.

Also, ‘ils sont’ and ‘elles sont’ are the same thing, except ‘ils’ is masculine and ‘elles’ is feminine.

I highly recommend ‘English Grammar for Students of French’ by Jacqueline Morton for clear explanations, translations, and comparisons of French and English grammar.

I bought this book for that very purpose.

Even if you don't use any names directly out of it, it's a good starting point to help you realize what kind of name you want.

Sounds like this book is right up your alley. The language you choose won't matter if you don't understand its grammar, in fact that's what seems to be happening with your German. When you're comfortable with explanations of English and German grammar, only then should you move on to something more alien.

You might try English Grammar for Students of Russian. It's a good resource to help with the basics of the language, if that's what you need.

I would add to that the argument by Robin Dunbar he makes in his book: accents help to quickly recognize if someone else is part of your in-group (family, community, region, etc.). As such, accents are deemed to be a mean to establish trust between people on a certain level.

a book that highlights and examines great sentences: Artful Sentences

For me, I'm not even gonna break into the library because I'd be there all day. This comes to mind though: "Roaring noon."

Obligatory

Obligatory 2

Depending on how dedicated I am, I'll (a) make a naming language and give my characters meaningful names or (b) generate a bunch of feasible-sounding names by hand, in Python, or with Zompist's /gen/ and assign them to characters as I see fit.

There are some questions to be answered: How are people's names structured? For example, Swedish naming convention is three given names referred to as "forenames" and a family name, and a person can choose to go by any of their forenames casually and by their family name formally. In Japan, it's just one given name and a family name, and people almost always are referred to by their family name with an honorific title outside of close friends/family. In Arabic, it's traditional given name followed by a bunch of optional parts with cultural significance. In the U.S. your given name is your default name, but if you hate it you can go by a middle name or a nickname. In Thailand people usually have a one-syllable nickname that they almost always go by, but people can conceivably have long-ass Sanskrit (?) names too.

What's important to your people? That's what their names will be.

Otherwise I'll open up my copy of The Character Naming Sourcebook and knock off some mythological Polynesian name.

Intuitively, practice is the key.

I don't know shit but here are some resources you might be interested in:
Online Berkeley Rhetoric 10 course:
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details.php?seriesid=1906978535

Book:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Every-Argument-Abuse/dp/0826498949

You can get the kindle version for free too! https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005IT0V8O?storeType=ebooks

Every EFL/ESL teacher should have a copy of Practical English Usage by Michael Swan. It is the ultimate language analysis of English.

Here's an abbreviated excerpt of a section from that book that addresses the issues in that above example sentence you gave:

>281 infinitives (3): without to
section 2: after let, make, hear, etc

>Certain verbs are followed by object + infinitive without to

>They include let, make, see, hear, feel, watch, and notice.

>ex: She lets her children stay up very late. NOT She lets her children to stay up very late.
ex: I made them give me the money back. NOT I made them to give me the money back.

>...

>For more information about structures with make, see 335.

If you can't get the book, you're looking for when to use to or not with infinitive verbs, which should be very easy to find online material for.

Amateur. Why don't you call up my friends Strunk and White?

This. Actually you might find the pdf for free since it's quite old, this is from IAMPETH.

Some fun books to start with:

Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by Lynne Truss

Sin and Syntax, Constance Hale

Websites:

• WordReference Japanese language forum
  
  
• Jeffrey's Japanese English Dictionary Server
  
  
• ALC J<->E word / sentence dictionary
  
  Books:
  
  
• Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
  
  
• Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar
  
  
• Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar
  
  
• Nihongo So-Matome Series (Good as a JLPT Study guide)
  
  

The book that immediately comes to mind is How to Win Every Argument by Madsen Pirie. It's quite witty and really covers all of the fallacies well. The title is a bit cliche but that's how you sell books I guess. It's solid content

My other books are unfortunately in storage right now so I can't go to the shelf, but if I get a chance I will update this post with the titles, I need to review some of them anyway..

https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Italian-Vocabulary-Thematic-Approach/dp/0764123955

https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Makes-Perfect-Complete-Italian/dp/0071603670

This will get you to B2, maybe C1. It's what I used when learning Italian, and at this point, I just find online Italian chats to refine my vocabulary, grammar, and what not.


I found it effective to learn the basic grammar before I began vocabulary study. I would write English words with Italian grammar in order develop my grammar skills.

Couple those with Duolingo.

I plan on using the German editions of those while I take German 1 and 2.

Good luck!

(Also, please pardon any poor writing in my response. I'm a bit tired and I'm not focusing very hard)

EDIT: You can find those books cheaper.

Good start! If you're serious about learning cursive though, get this book. Get it right the first time so your muscle memory remember the right stuff! I really wish I got the book in the beginning so I can stop finding out more fundamental things I do wrong as I get more and more into calligraphy..

This series of book I've heard is good for English speakers understanding foreign grammar for the first time:

https://www.amazon.com/English-Grammar-Students-Russian-Learning/dp/0934034214

Potentially helpful: https://www.amazon.com/Gateway-Sindarin-Grammar-Language-Tolkiens/dp/0874809126

I was recommended an American classic, Strunk and White's The Elements of Style for my undergraduate thesis class in Economics, we also write more technical papers and I found it very useful. It has guidelines on style and things to avoid, which adds more structure to the way you write and reduces the amount of things that you have to think about while writing.

In case you're up to getting a book, I highly recommend David Salo's A Gateway to Sindarin. It's about $25 on Amazon.

What's your level at? I recommend the Dictionary of [Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced] Japanese Grammar, which my program uses as a supplement for material taught in class. It was originally written back in 1995, but it is packed with explanations and examples for a wide variety of grammar structures.

Definitely check out the Memrise course. 120 words, memorize them, then read through the simple grammar. Or buy a Pu~

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: An Easy-to-Use Guide with Clear Rules, Real-World Examples, and Reproducible Quizzes https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118785568/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_UP25BbNZXDEMR

http://www.amazon.com/dp/088062082X/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=37M87UPGUSQTK&coliid=I1BBWS42WUN7GY

I have this book on my wishlist because I thought it was a cool little book. Perhaps your boyfriend would be into it too!

Google Evelyn Wood. Top subvocal ~250-400 wpm, then you are getting into more linear reading. It takes a good bit of practice, but 1100 is doable by just about anyone and 2-3k is not uncommon.

That is the book I used back in the day.
http://www.amazon.com/Evelyn-Seven-Day-Reading-Learning-Program/dp/1566194024

Toki Pona is a very simple constructed language with a small vocabulary, and the creator even has instructions for a pictographic writing system and a sign language if you REALLY want to be secretive.

For funsies, here's a translation of the Sermon on the Mount in Toki Pona, that also shows a literal translation back into English to give you an idea of how a "simple" language works to communicate with a small pool of words.

I think this book is one of the better catalogs of fallacies. It is just a big catalog. It is extensive and it is written to be accessible. Students like it.

Of course, there is no shortage of resources out there. I do think this is a valuable one.

Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose

You should consider checking out Spunk & Bite, as well.

Well, writing in general with your own ideas is always the biggest plus. But if you're wanting to use a prompt book or something I suggest the 3am Epiphany or Gotham Writers Workshop: Writing Fiction

This book saved my life in college.

Not only does it teach you how to read faster and retain more, it helps you learn how to take notes and study as well.

Unfortunately, it takes more than seven days. Liars.

Practical English Usage is a grammar bible, but not exactly a text book. If you want exercises maybe murphy.

This one: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-English-Usage-Michael-Swan/dp/0194420981

But this book is only necessary if you have students that have challenging questions about English usage (high school, uni, adults, etc.).

[Spencerian Theory](Spencerian Penmanship (Theory Book) https://www.amazon.com/dp/088062082X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_6hBlyb1BTWS0E), they also sell copy books for practice, if you want to pick those up also.

Spencerian theory book

I also have the copy books

This might help

But it probably won't.

> Spencerian theory book

This thing?

I heard about siamese when I read this book http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Fiction-Practical-Acclaimed-Creative/dp/1582343306

Buy this

http://www.amazon.com/EPZ-How-Win-Every-Argument/dp/0826498949
That's all you need baby.

Not necessarily just for short stories, but I would suggest the Gotham Writers Workshop Writing Fiction Guide.
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Fiction-Practical-Acclaimed-Creative/dp/1582343306

If you are in the US:

https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Makes-Perfect-Complete-Italian/dp/0071603670

English Grammar for Students of French

Is it Transitive Vampire or Sin & Syntax?

Strunk and White

Or learn a foreign language. My knowledge of grammar grew exponentially after studying Classics.

It was a long road.

This guy is the one that handled most of the elvish in the LoTR movies:

https://www.amazon.com/Gateway-Sindarin-Grammar-Language-Tolkiens/dp/0874809126

Theory book.

For future reference.

Non-mobile: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005IT0V8O?ie=UTF8&redirectFromSS=1&pc_redir=T1&noEncodingTag=1&fp=1

^That's ^why ^I'm ^here, ^I ^don't ^judge ^you. ^PM ^/u/xl0 ^if ^I'm ^causing ^any ^trouble. ^WUT?

Lojban:

Grammar: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Lojban-Language-John-Cowan/dp/0966028325

Course: https://www.amazon.com/Lojban-For-Beginners/dp/1257372874

Dictionary: http://www.lulu.com/shop/llg/lojban-english-dictionary/paperback/product-14709640.html

Ithkuil:

Grammar: https://www.amazon.com/Grammar-Ithkuil-Language-John-Quijada/dp/B071G1XDKT

Vulcan:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/mark-r-gardner-and-the-vulcan-language-institute/the-vulcan-language/paperback/product-54300.html

Siwa:

Course: http://www.lulu.com/shop/%C3%A9tienne-l-poisson/a-beginners-course-in-modern-siwa/paperback/product-22931582.html

Grammar: http://www.lulu.com/shop/%C3%A9tienne-l-poisson/siwa-a-descriptive-grammar-2nd-edition/paperback/product-22931574.html

Na'vi:

http://eanaeltu.learnnavi.org/dicts/NaviDictionary.pdf

Dothraki:

https://docs.dothraki.org/Dothraki.pdf

Valarian:

http://wiki.dothraki.org/High_Valyrian_Vocabulary

Sindarin:

http://sindarinlessons.weebly.com/uploads/8/0/1/0/8010213/sindarin-english_dictionary_-_3rd_edition.pdf

http://www.ambar-eldaron.com/english/downloads/sindarin-english.pdf

Gateway to Sindarin: https://www.amazon.com/Gateway-Sindarin-Grammar-Language-Tolkiens/dp/0874809126

A Fan's Guide to Neo-Sindarin: A Textbook for the Elvish of Middle-earth https://www.amazon.com/Fans-Guide-Neo-Sindarin-Textbook-Middle-earth/dp/1546961259

Elvish Dictionary: https://www.amazon.com/Elbisches-Wörterbuch/dp/3608939199

Quenya:

http://www.ambar-eldaron.com/telechargements/quenya-engl-A4.pdf

150 - the book you want is Grooming, gossip and the evolution of language, by Robin Dunbar. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0674363361?cache=08ffb2ca2125067bdd4dc6a42f6ffdb5&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1405090172&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1

尾 is short for 語尾 which means something "end (tail) of a word", so in this case it works as something like a "compound verb", altering the meaning of the preceding verb.
The Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar has a good, albeit very incomplete, write-up on the most common compound verbs in its Appendix 2, so if you own this book you may want to look into it.

> The Vmasu to which another verb is affixed acquires additional meaning such as 'to start to do s.t.', 'to finish doing s.t.' 'to continue to do s.t.' etc.

It uses 'affixed' because you might also come across a 頭 which means the modifying word comes in front of other words.

Unfortunately I can't really name other sources, my teacher wrote her master thesis on compound verbs but it's only available in German.

As for the reverse triangle, I'm not sure, but I think SDream has nailed it, at least in your case these should be examples.

As for the ~watasu you looked up, as a 語尾 it means doing something.. thoroughly? I'm not really sure, but I think if you 見渡す a document you look over the whole thing, etc.

I'm sorry. By spencerian books, are you referring to this ?

Do I need to use a flex nib or a calligraphy pen to get started, or can I start with just a regular FP?

For more info about Toki Pona sound structure you can see the wikipedia page here - (though it does't make clear what's explicitly disallowed by the Toki Pona book and what tends to not happen), or chapter 9 of the official Toki Pona book itself, or the tokiponization guide by jan Sonja (there's a lot of other info there as well).

edit: Oh geeze, posts with embedded images really are awful on old reddit. I'll never do one of those again!

Write On!


Perhaps you'd like some more Sin & Syntax in your life. How 'bout adding more Spunk & Bite to your writing? Or doing something everyday that scares you?

I'd like this so I can keep my dirty paws off my phone.

That is not true at all. Those forms are found in nearly all registers of English, with only the 'going to' construction avoided in extremely formal usage.

They differ in aspect and intentionality. The time that the decision was made, and whether the action is part of a schedule (present simple) a plan (present continuous) or merely an intention (will) are some of the factors that predicate usage.

For a more thorough discussion see Swan: Practical English Usage, which is the standard text on this (https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Practical-English-Usage-3rd-Michael-Swan/0194420981)

After studying Italian for about 6 months, I decided I really needed to dive into the grammar because there seemed to be a lot of exceptions and general concepts that I wasn't fully understaning. I purchased Practice Makes Perfect and I'm almost halfway through the book. It has helped tremendously thus far.

What I've done is gone through and done all of the exercises in the chapter. I circle the questions that I get wrong and others that I think might be useful and I put them in a Cloze Deletion deck in Anki. When the sentence comes up, I have to type in the missing word or words. Here are some examples:

Front of Anki Card:

Dov'è Diane? Non l'ho [...] per mesi. (vedere)

Front of Anki Card:

Ho dato quegli stivali ai miei amici ieri.

[...] ho dato quegli stivali ieri.



This forces me to type in the missing word to complete the card. It really helps with showing what my grammatical weaknesses are exactly.

If you've learnt Spanish and Hindi then you probably will know more than many others on your course. Also, it's more important in many ways to be able to demonstrate difference in meaning rather than analysing things grammatically.

For example: How would you explain / demonstrate the difference between 'I saw the thief climbing through the window' vs. 'I saw the thief climb through the window'.

Having said that, it never hurts to brush up. I'm personally not a fan of Azar I think she tends to split and complicate things where there is no need.

Instead I'd recommend Raymond Murphy (it comes in both a British and American English version. If you get the British version it includes American grammar in the appendix and vice versa): http://www.amazon.com/English-Grammar-Use-Answers-Intermediate/dp/0521532892
and Teaching tenses: http://www.amazon.com/TEACHING-TENSES-PRESENTING-PRACTISING-ENGLISH/dp/0175559201

Most importantly, get a copy of the TESOL bible, Swan's 'Practical English Usage': http://www.amazon.com/Practical-English-Usage-Michael-Swan/dp/0194420981/ref=pd_sim_b_1

> some people probably thought your comment was disrespectful

Hmm, that gives me pause. I don't mean to be disrespectful. I am highly critical of feminism, but I am not intending to give offense.

I would like to think that people who identify overly much with feminism are offended by my ideas, not my tone, but I could be completely wrong about that.

Is there some way I could make my points, which I think are all valid, without offending people?

Do you have some suggestions or a link on writing more effectively and/or less offensively?

I have read Strunk's Elements of Style, but that was many years ago.

>Not that reddit needs to be anymore hostile and argumentative. But hey, you know that saying "Some men just want to watch the world burn."?
>
>I did some magic with the google and came up with these results:
>
>- Google Books
>
>- Amazon
>
>- Free domain PDF - Thanks /u/mybalzich and /u/8bitsince86
>
>- Super Special Google Search
>
>- Review
>
>Edit: Fixed links
>
>Edit 2: You guys should check out this small and struggling independent radio station that is trying to make a difference in the evil, corrupt, and greedy mess that is the music industry by starting from the bottom up to find talent. Radio Rebel Independent Music