Pinckert's Practical Grammar: A Lively, Unintimidating Guide to Usage, Punctuation and Style

by Robert C. Pinckert

Takes a fresh look at the English language, explains the differences between formal and informal usage, and covers diction, punctuation, sentence structure, rhetoric, and style

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Chris Norbury · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave up on this book about 3/4 of the way. Up to then, Pinckert did a respectable job of demystifying grammar, although his bottom-line advice (the way I understood it) is that a writer should adjust her writing to either a "Formal" audience or an "Informal" audience. That said, he explains that we're free to write pretty much the way we want to write, and the rules can be bent or ignored at will because the only ones judging your writing are the English professors and grammar Nazis who believe every writer should follow the same rigid guidelines that some self-proclaimed experts devised sometime long ago.

The last third of the book read like so much rambling about things other than grammar--good paragraphs, writing and revising, persuading(?), pleasing(?). He didn't follow his own advice and tell me an engaging story that kept my attention.

Not a great start to my reading year.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very dated, both in the practical grammar advice it gives (for instance, the "Choosing Words" chapter) and in the examples it uses. One such example that made me laugh is when Pinckert urges writers not to discount the rhetorical device of personal attack and then says: "A fault in our politics is that the personal attack on politicians is avoided even when appropriate" (187). Ha! How times have changed. There is very little discussion of actual grammar rules and more talk of it being a "game." I understand what Pinckert is getting at, but I think a more thorough discussion of actual grammar would help one know how to effectively break the rules. A lot of his advice is not universal and something that you would have to decide whether or not to use. Therefore, it is not truly helpful for the beginning or amateur writer; however, I think the skilled writer would also not find much helpful in this book as it's largely practical advice they already know. There are much better, more current books on the subject.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't actually finish this book. And I rarely do not finish books, regardless of how much I hate them. This guy is an idiot.