Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay: Practical Advice for the Grammatically Challenged

by Richard Lederer and Richard Dowis

Book Overview

For years Richard Lederer has enthralled fans of the English language with his keen insights, commonsense advice, and witty presentation. Now Lederer has teamed up with Richard Dowis to take readers... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312203632
• ISBN13: 9780312203634
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Required Reading for All of Us

"Our children need to 'score' better in math and science." Whenever I hear this plaintive mantra so common in both Canada and the U.S.A. nowadays, I want to retort with a primal scream: LET THEM BECOME LITERATE FIRST! This excellent reference book belongs in every student's backpack, in every home, in every office. (In a perfect world, every English teacher would be required to memorize it.)

I was eager, not anxious to read this book.

It was my misfortune to grow up in an educational era that lacked foucs on grammar. My papers were always returned with more red corrections than black type; however, no explaination was given to prevent further (not farther) error.Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay was the first step in my grammatical journey. It was fun, and easy to follow. I recommend it to anyone who wants to polish up on their grammar usage, or who just wants a basic grammar foundation to work from.

Lost Your Sense of Humor about Writing?

This one will put some fun back into your labors! English has become the language of commerce & computers all around the world, & it behoves us to not only become fluent, we also need to put our words in order & avoid inter-cultural confusion with worn out cliches - in short we had better get better at writing & speaking our mother tongue. So you're confused about _irregardless_ or _literally_ - do you really mean cats & dogs were dropping from the sky? Or _unique_ - neither more nor less, it simply is! What about _viable_ - what do you think it means? Well, it doesn't!Lederer & Dowis bring to bear their playful & instructive wit on such elusive fundamentals as the syntax, the apostrophe, transitive verbs, the common comma & the myriad errors to which we fall heir. With mnemonic devices(look it up!), frequent reminders to get a dictionary & use it, together with important advice on how to monitor ourselves before we hit that Send key & slather our deranged & idiomatic(not idiotic!) versions over the broadband, this witty & useful guide could become every harried writer's best friend.These two fellows have made re-learning our language fun! I'm reading along, getting more & more confused, when, BAM! They add a fillip that opens my eyes & rattles my brain.

A higly entertaining and helpful read

The authors' descriptions of common pitfalls and their advice on how to avoid making oft-repeated errors are extremely helpful, and the good humor and high spirits make the much-needed lessons all the more memorable. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wishes to treat the language with the knowledge and respect it deserves.

Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay

From the Grammar Goddess: This one is wonderful! Richard Lederer not only still finds humor in our language, he even goes over some of the rules that we all need to know but have forgotten. And he explains how to use which and that about as well as it can be explained. If you want to learn and laugh, pick up this book now!