Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference: The Definitive Source for Clear and Concise Writing

by Garielle Lutz

Engaging but not flip, thorough but not overwhelming, Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference is the perfect addition to anyone's desk. This guide provides:

Comprehensive grammar instruction—readers won't need any other guide

Real-world examples and errors from well-known magazines and newspapers, making the advice even more relevant

A user-friendly package with a concealed wire binding, a colored tab system, and sidebars for easy reference

Practical, thorough, and accessible, Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference speaks to a hole in the market: good grammar instruction that's reader-friendly, fun to read, easy-to-understand, and correct.

Genres: Reference, Writing, Nonfiction

347 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2005

About the author

Garielle Lutz is an American writer of both poetry and fiction. Her work has appeared in Sleepingfish, NOON, The Quarterly, Conjunctions, Unsaid, Fence, StoryQuarterly, The Believer, Cimarron Review, 3rd Bed, Slate Magazine, New York Tyrant, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, The Apocalypse Reader (Thunder's Mouth Press), PP/FF: An Anthology (Starcherone Books), The Random House Treasury of Light Verse and in the film 60 Writers/60 Places.

A collection of her short fiction, Stories in the Worst Way, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in November 1996 and re-published by 3rd Bed in 2002 and Calamari Press in 2009. Lutz's second collection of short stories, I Looked Alive, was published by the now-defunct Four Walls Eight Windows in 2003 and republished by Black Square Editions/Brooklyn Rail in 2010. Partial List of People to Bleach, a chapbook of both new and rare early stories (published pseudonymously as Lee Stone in Gordon Lish's The Quarterly) was released by Future Tense Books in 2007. Divorcer, a collection of seven stories, was released by Calamari Press in 2011.

In 1996, Lutz was recipient of a literature grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1999, she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.

In 2020, Lutz came out as a transgender woman.

Reviews

[Matt Briggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used this book at a job where I was writing about five to ten thousand words a week. For me this, is a very rapid clip. In keeping a journal I clock between 500 and 1000 words on average with the occasional 3-5K burst. This book resolved often practical grammar questions with very lucid and prospective solutions. The prospective aspect was made tenable because 1) in matters of language usage, a writer usually just wants an answer 2) Lutz and his co-writer generally presented the history and sense and analysis of why this or that solution would cause less confusion. Gary Lutz is the same writer who has written Stories in the Worst Way, and it very enjoyable to have people at working place consulting one of his books. In fact, this book was briefly stolen by the head of human resources who took various grammer tips from the book and wrote them on a white board.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great guide to grammar. I've been editing for a couple of years now, and I still learned things in this book! It will definitely stay on my bookshelf for future reference.

[J.M.J. Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very sound text for anyone who is a writer.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I got this. Amazingly relevant examples.