--- title: English Grammar & Style description: Good writing starts with command of grammar and style. You will learn the parts of speech, sentence structure, punctuation and usage, and the style guides that make prose clear. category: literature-writing subcategory: non-fiction-writing difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/english-grammar-and-style --- # English Grammar & Style Good writing starts with command of grammar and style. You will learn the parts of speech, sentence structure, punctuation and usage, and the style guides that make prose clear. ## Available Resources 5 Books • 1 Courses • 1 Websites ## Books ### 1. The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century **Author:** Steven Pinker A cognitive scientist's account of why some prose is readable and some is not: the curse of knowledge, classic style, syntactic trees, coherence. Closes with evidence-based verdicts on disputed usage rules, replacing inherited superstition with linguistic evidence. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143127799?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** writing-style, prose, usage, editing, cognitive-science ### 2. Garner's Modern English Usage (5th Edition) **Author:** Bryan A. Garner Alphabetical usage dictionary covering thousands of contested points, each judged against corpus frequency data and a five-stage Language-Change Index rather than assertion. The standard desk reference for editors, lawyers and professional writers working in American English. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0197599028?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** usage, american-english, style-guide, editing, reference ### 3. Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (12th Edition) **Author:** Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup A diagnostic method for revising sentences: put characters in subjects and actions in verbs, manage old-to-new information flow, then control emphasis, concision and cohesion across paragraphs. Exercises follow every principle, which is why writing programmes assign it. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0134080416?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** writing-style, revision, clarity, sentence-structure, composition ### 4. A Student's Introduction to English Grammar (2nd Edition) **Author:** Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, Brett Reynolds The one book that answers 'how does English actually work' instead of 'what should I not write'. The accessible companion to the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, describing how English syntax actually works: word classes, clause structure, complements versus adjuncts, coordination. Descriptive rather than prescriptive, and openly critical of traditional rule folklore. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1316514641?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** english-grammar, syntax, descriptive-grammar, linguistics ### 5. Style: Toward Clarity and Grace **Author:** Joseph M. Williams Williams diagnoses why prose reads as dense and supplies repeatable revision rules built on subjects-as-characters and verbs-as-actions. Readers can rewrite tangled sentences and paragraphs into clear ones instead of guessing from vague style advice. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226899152?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** prose-style, sentence-structure, revision, clarity, editing ## Websites ### 1. Purdue OWL: Grammar Purdue University's Online Writing Lab maintains free reference pages on parts of speech, subject-verb agreement, tense, articles, punctuation and sentence construction, each with worked examples and exercises. The standard first-stop grammar reference for American students. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/grammar/index.html **Tags:** english-grammar, punctuation, writing-reference, exercises ## Courses ### 1. UQx: English Grammar and Style University of Queensland's WRITE101x covers grammatical principles, word usage, punctuation, and sentence and paragraph structure. After finishing, you can name the parts of a sentence, correct common usage errors, and edit your own writing for clarity. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.edx.org/learn/grammar/the-university-of-queensland-english-grammar-and-style **Tags:** grammar, writing, punctuation, style, edx ## Podcasts ### 1. A Way with Words **Author:** Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett Nationally syndicated public radio show and podcast, on air since 1998, in which lexicographer Grant Barrett and word-origins author Martha Barnette answer listener calls about etymology, slang, grammar, regional dialects and old sayings, explaining where expressions come from and how usage changes. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://waywordradio.org/podcasts **Tags:** etymology, english-usage, slang, dialects, vocabulary --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/english-grammar-and-style