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Commas Are Our Friends: The Easy, Enjoyable Way to Master Grammar and Punctuation
Comprised of three witty and whimsical novellas, Commas Are Our Friends may be the first book ever to teach grammar and punctuation in an enjoyable, memorable and humorous way. It is not for English majors or college professors. It is for the 138,654,718 Americans who have forgotten what they were taught in high school and would like to get it all back.
263 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 24, 2022
“Commas Are Our Friends” is actually three shorter books in one volume. The first two books were pathetic, each deserving one star. Book three was not terrible. I would have probably given it three stars on its own.
For a book written to promote better usage of the English language, the author did not consistently model correct grammar and punctuation. Some of the most glaring problems were inconsistent use of the Oxford comma (sometimes he used it, sometimes he didn’t), frequent occurrences of a sentence ending in a preposition, and lack of quotation marks around thoughts and sample sentences.
All three books had the problems listed above. In addition the first two books were exceptionally cheesy. I only completed them through sheer willpower. The first book was quite disjointed with very little real plot. The second was supposed to be a fictional history of punctuation, and it was just weird. It did not sufficiently cover comma usage. Both stories felt like he tried too hard to invent a story that would serve his purpose of teaching grammar. The third had a reasonable plot and was fairly funny.
At the end of the book a character (a teacher) says: “[Grammar and usage] must be learned from hearing correct speech, and from studying and using correct grammar and usage. Reading good literature helps,too.”
This book was not good literature.
For a book written to promote better usage of the English language, the author did not consistently model correct grammar and punctuation. Some of the most glaring problems were inconsistent use of the Oxford comma (sometimes he used it, sometimes he didn’t), frequent occurrences of a sentence ending in a preposition, and lack of quotation marks around thoughts and sample sentences.
All three books had the problems listed above. In addition the first two books were exceptionally cheesy. I only completed them through sheer willpower. The first book was quite disjointed with very little real plot. The second was supposed to be a fictional history of punctuation, and it was just weird. It did not sufficiently cover comma usage. Both stories felt like he tried too hard to invent a story that would serve his purpose of teaching grammar. The third had a reasonable plot and was fairly funny.
At the end of the book a character (a teacher) says: “[Grammar and usage] must be learned from hearing correct speech, and from studying and using correct grammar and usage. Reading good literature helps,too.”
This book was not good literature.
April 12, 2016
Funny yet helpful book about the lowly comma.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews