Doing Grammar

by Max Morenberg

Book Overview

This practical and compact guide is invaluable for students in advanced grammar courses and essential for all readers seeking to discover how the English language works. The author employs insights from contemporary linguistic theories and builds them into a coherent system firmly rooted in traditional models. Focusing on the idea that students learn grammar by actually "doing grammar," he provides down-to-earth explanations about the composition...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195138406
• ISBN13: 9780195138405
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 8.1" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

An Excellent and Practical Guide To Grammar

I first read and worked with this book on my own about 9 years ago and it really clarified grammar in a practical, "real life" way for me. It has helped me both as a writer and a reader. As a writer I found more options for expressing myself by having more tools to work with and as a reader it helps me decipher endlessly complex sentences that can resemble a linguistic maze. By being able to break down those complex sentences to their basic constituents, one can clearly see which parts of the sentence are functioning as core ideas, and which are functioning as embellishment. This book is very user friendly and is in my opinion an excellent self study guide with an interesting variety of exercises. Highly recommended

Buy this if you want to know more than the parts of speech.

*Doing Grammar* is an excellent instructional manual for anyone who already knows the basic differences between nouns, verbs, pronouns, etc., and really wants to understand how sentences are put together (and how to take them apart). Although it's presented in textbook format, with exercises at the end of each chapter, don't let that turn you off. The writing is clear and unpretentious (with a fair number of typos, however), and the learning progresses at a satisfyingly fast rate. Accessible, intelligent, and rewarding.

Learn Max Morenberg's grammar & double your writing options

To any fellow grammar atheists: I hated grammar as a kid. I was taught grammar by traditionalists in a manner reminiscent of morality lessons. And I was the grammar atheist. The results were ugly. And so I expected grade school to end my grammar career. But then, this summer, I decided to apply to Ph.D. programs in business and this requires taking the GMAT. So I registered for the test, took a pretest, and 80% of my errors were - you guessed it - grammar errors. So I wandered through my local Border's grammar section and I found one book that looked a little different - blue, and written by a guy named Max. So I sat down with my cappuccino and inside Max's book I found a grammarian with a mathematical mind. He said screw trying to memorize grammar; instead, understand grammar as the system by which the English language operates. Max said that you know twice the grammar that you think you do. If you are a native speaker, all you really need to add to your current knowledge is the system by which grammar works. And so I have learned Max's system and I recommend it to you. If that's sufficient for you to add 'Doing Grammar' to your cart, great. But there's more. Eight weeks after that purchase, I got a perfect 800 score on the GMAT. And I now teach other people how to improve their GMAT scores (if you live in the Palo Alto CA area, email me for details). But more important than my GMAT score is that I am now cognizant of twice as many options in my writing. It's said that H.L. Mencken learned the English language inside out to be acutely aware of his options. Well, I'm on my way to understanding my options too. Thanks Max.Shawn Berryshawn_berry@yahoo.com

A Definitive Grammar Book

As an English teacher who used this book in college during my Structures of the English Language class (and an admitted grammar-o-phile), I can assure any prospective buyers that this book is both easy to understand and thoroughly comprehensive. Presented in textbook format, it does require a little audience participation, but for the person wary of grammatical inadequacies, this is the book for you.Morenberg approaches the diagramming (no! keep reading!) from a different perspective, namely a "bottom up" method, so readers understand the construction of the sentence the way they see contractors build a house... from the foundation to the roof. Beginning with parts of speech (anyone can handle that, right?) and ending with the total sentence, you as a reader will learn all the names and labels and rationales in the language you use so effortlessly... what pitfalls exist, and WHY are they pitfalls? Do you know all the verb tenses? Do you know why it's wrong to end a sentence with a preposition? It really is, too, and Morenberg will show you why.Maybe you don't care.But the hallmark of an educated person is the ability to use our language accurately. Others notice grammar weakness even if you don't care (and you must just a little or you wouldn't be reading this review). In my field, I've decided against hiring those who can't even speak properly in an interview, and I never ever patronize businesses with errors in their advertising or business literature. It DOES matter.This book is very, very simple to understand while, at the same time, tremendously valuable in its information and accuracy.Go for it! Let me know how you like it.

A first-rate introduction, but a few problems

Morenberg sets out to show you English grammar the way it really works, and not as a bunch of mindless, unconnected rules. Its real strength is that it starts from a fairly basic level (it helps to understand basic parts of speech, but that's all you really need), and by the end gives you the tools to analyze most sentences in the real world with a scheme that sticks generally to traditional terms, although it has been updated with more recent insights from linguistics. The coverage of the more complex structures is, to my mind, invaluable, since syntactic understanding becomes truly useful when it can help real-world writing problems, and that means being able to cope with any structure that might come your way. Morenberg's treatment of tense alone sets it far above traditional grammars without delving into the formidable technical apparatus of linguistic theory. I've used the 2nd edition of this book for several years to teach grammar to future teachers, and it has worked well, but the more I teach it, the more I have problems with some of Morenberg's presentations. One of his major themes in the book, is the importance of constituency (the way words, phrases, etc. work together as units). This is a key concept in syntax, and his stress on this point is one of the book's strengths. But he doesn't always follow his own principles. His treatment of the "main verb," for example follows the (flawed) understanding of traditional grammar, even when some of his own example sentences make it clear that what he treats as a constituent does not, in fact, function as a unit. In a few other places, e.g., his treatment of gerunds, he adds what seem to be needless complexities without fully explaining the motivation. If he had borrowed a few more ideas from contemporary linguistics, his presentation could have been more consistent. The third edition doesn't touch these problems, but does add fuller explanation to many other points, as well as answers to fully half the exercises. Despite my reservations, which are minor, this remains the best book I know of for its purpose. The explanations and exercises suit the book for use in self-study.