An updated edition of the classic tip-a-day grammar guide from New York Times bestselling author and creator of the Grammar Girl podcast, Mignon Fogarty. One hundred million podcast downloads say it all: Mignon Fogarty's kicky, practical, and easy-to-remember advice about style and usage has won her fans around the globe. Her first book, Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, hit the New York Times bestseller list, and her weekly grammar podcast has been hailed by USA Today as "authoritative but warm." Here in tip-a-day form, Grammar Girl offers 365 lessons on language that are sure to inspire. Chock-full of bite-sized writing tips, fun quizzes, and efficient memory tricks, The Grammar Daily gives you the tools you need to improve your grammar and become an even better communicator, one day at a time. This revised edition of the book, previously published as The Grammar Devotional, has been updated throughout with new lessons and revised content to reflect shifting concerns in style and usage since initial publication.

At long last someone has produced THE practical guide for teaching analytical writing Compose Yourself lays out everything a teacher needs for teaching the art of clear, complete and well-organized writing in the content areas. In fact, I would purchase this guide for students as well as teachers-and not just for high school, but for both middle school and college as well. -Dr. Katherine Nolan, Education Consultant Finally, a book on how to teach analytical writing in all subjects. And the toolbox I was thrilled to find templates, rubrics, and clear-cut examples for descriptive, process, and persuasive writing. Compose Yourself is a must have for all teachers. -Susan King, Magnet School Administrator, Tampa FL, MSA National Board, National Presenter We are perceived by how well we write. Currently our nation's teachers are struggling to find time and tools to teach thoughtful, logical expository writing. Compose Yourself is a simple, straightforward writing guide for all subject area teachers working to improve their students' analytical, expository writing skills. Compose Yourself must find a place in the toolbox of our nation's secondary teachers. -William F. Roberts, Assistant Superintendent Hacienda La Puente Unified School District (California) Compose Yourself A Guide to Critical Thinking & Analytical Writing in Secondary School is a quick and easy guide to teaching and learning critical thinking and analytical writing at the secondary level, regardless of the subject area. It is perfect for teachers, parents, and students who want to go beyond the worksheet to strengthen their thinking and writing skills, better learn and retain information, and improve overall academic performance. After using this guide, students will be able to write clear, concise, analytical responses to complex, real-world questions in all subjects. This resource includes step-by-step processes, copious examples, writing checklists, helpful tips, and black-line masters, all to help all students improve their thinking and writing. Amy Rukea Stempel has been zealously working in education and education reform since 1989. Prior to founding Lightbulb Learning Services, which specializes in the alignment of curriculum to academic standards, literacy development, and classroom/school leadership, she has led standards and curriculum development projects for the Education Trust, Edison Schools, Inc. (formerly the Edison Project) and standards development efforts for the Council for Basic education. In addition to experience in education policy, Ms. Stempel has also taught literature in the International Baccalaureate program for many years and has happily lived the harried and stimulating life of a classroom teacher. Ms. Stempel's prior publications include, Gaining Traction, Gaining Ground: How Some High Schools Accelerate Learning for Struggling Students, Standards for Excellence in Education (contributor), Where in the World Are We? The Need for International Benchmarking, Six Case Studies of Performance Assessment, and Standards: A Vision for Learning. Many years ago, Ms. Stempel completed a B.A. in English from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.A. in Liberal Studies (with concentrations in literature and history) from Georgetown University.

Millions of people around the world communicate better thanks to Mignon Fogarty, aka Grammar Girl, whose top-rated weekly grammar podcast has been downloaded more than 40 million times. Now she's turning her attention to improving our vocabulary—one smart word at a time—with Grammar Girl's 101 Words to Sound Smart. Are you often stumped for the perfect way to say or write something? Do you find yourself using the same words over and over? Grammar Girl to the rescue! This handy reference guide contains 101 words that will enhance your writing, adding nuance, subtlety, and insight. Using these words in speeches, you'll sound confident and articulate—a skill that will benefit you for years to come. Full of clear, straightforward definitions and fun quotations from historic luminaries such as Leonardo da Vinci and Charlotte Bronte as well as contemporary notables such as Dave Eggers and Rowan Atkinson, this highly useable guidebook gives you the ability to speak and write eloquently at any occasion, setting you up for a lifetime of success.

For readers of Bruce Feiler’s Walking the Bible and Kathleen Norris’s The Cloister Walk comes a powerful exploration of the Bible in translation. Aviya Kushner grew up in a Hebrew-speaking family, reading the Bible in the original Hebrew and debating its meaning over the dinner table. She knew much of it by heart—and was therefore surprised when, while getting her MFA at the University of Iowa, she took the novelist Marilynne Robinson’s class on the Old Testament and discovered she barely recognized the text she thought she knew so well. From differences in the Ten Commandments to a less ambiguous reading of the creation story to a new emphasis on the topic of slavery, the English translation often felt like another book entirely from the one she had grown up with. Kushner began discussing the experience with Robinson, who became a mentor, and her interest in the differences between the ancient language and the modern one gradually became an obsession. She began what became a ten-year project of reading different versions of the Hebrew Bible in English and traveling the world in the footsteps of the great biblical translators, trying to understand what compelled them to take on a lifetime project that was often considered heretical and in some cases resulted in their deaths. In this eye-opening chronicle, Kushner tells the story of her vibrant relationship to the Bible, and along the way illustrates how the differences in translation affect our understanding of our culture’s most important written work. A fascinating look at language and the beliefs we hold most dear, The Grammar of God is also a moving tale about leaving home and returning to it, both literally and through reading. Praise for The Grammar of God “The highest praise for a book, perhaps, is tucking it into a slot on your bookshelf where you’ll always be able to effortlessly slide it out, lay it across your lap and soak it up for a minute or a long afternoon’s absorption. The Grammar of God: A Journey into the Words and Worlds of the Bible, Aviya Kushner’s poetic and powerful plumbing of both the Hebrew and English translations of the Bible, now rests in just such an easy-to-grab spot in my library. In a word, it’s brilliant. And beautiful.”—Barbara Mahany, Chicago Tribune “Aviya Kushner has written a passionate, illuminating essay about meaning itself. The Grammar of God is also a unique personal narrative, a family story with the Bible and its languages as central characters.”—Robert Pinsky “Kushner is principally interested in the meanings and translations of key Biblical passages, and she pursues this interest with a fierce passion. . . . A paean, in a way, to the rigors and frustrations—and ultimate joys—of trying to comprehend the unfathomable.”—Kirkus Reviews “A remarkable and passionately original book of meditation, exegesis, and memoir. In Kushner’s redemptive vision, the Bible in its many translations is a Noah’s ark, and her book, too, does a work of saving. When I put it down, I wept.”—Rosanna Warren, author of Stained Glass “What a glorious book! From Sarah’s laughter to the idea of Jewish law being a dialogue and not a rigid set of rules, this is a book not only to learn from but to savor.”—Peter Orner, author of Love and Shame and Love “In this splendid book, each page is a wonder.”—Willis Barnstone, author of The Restored New Testament

Millions of people around the world communicate better thanks to Mignon Fogarty, aka Grammar Girl, whose top-rated weekly grammar podcast has been downloaded more than 30 million times. After realizing her fans were asking the same questions over and over, Mignon decided to focus her attention on those words that continuously confound the masses. In Grammar Girl's 101 Misused Words You'll Never Confuse Again, you'll learn: - When you should use affect and when effect is right- Whether you should you say purposely or purposefully- The difference between hilarious and hystericalPacked with clear explanations, fun quotations showing the word used in context, and the quick and dirty memory tricks Mignon is known for, this friendly reference guide ends the confusion once and for all and helps you speak and write with confidence.

What does it mean for the spirit world to be real? Scholars from different disciplines investigate this topic focusing on the role played by the spiritual realm in Pentecostalized Africa. The grammatical angle of their research proves to be a fruitful avenue to clarify the kind of reality or realities the spirit world has. This novel approach takes us beyond most existing research by investigating the often unaddressed assumption that we know what it means for the spirit world to be taken as real. This volume shows the importance of paying close attention to the grammar according to which people speak of spirits, Spirit, witchcraft, ancestors and other aspects of the spirit world.

Named to the International Reading Association's 2012 Teachers' Choice book list Grammar Girl Presents the Ultimate Writing Guide for Students is a complete and comprehensive guide to all things grammar from Grammar Girl, a.k.a. Mignon Fogarty, whose popular podcasts have been downloaded over twenty million times and whose first book, Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, was a New York Times bestseller. For beginners to more advanced students, this guide covers it all: the parts of speech, sentences, and punctuation are all explained clearly and concisely with the warmth, wit, and accessibility Grammar Girl is known for. Pop quizzes are scattered throughout to reinforce the explanations, as well as Grammar Girl's trademark Quick and Dirty Tips—easy and fun memory tricks to help with those challenging rules. Complete with a writing style chapter and a guide to the different kinds of writing—everything from school papers to letter writing to e-mails—this guide is sure to become the one-stop, essential book on every student's desk.

Susan M. Ryan explores antebellum Americans' preoccupation with the language and practice of benevolence. Drawing on a variety of cultural and literary texts, she traces how people working and writing within social reform movements—and their outspoken opponents—helped solidify racial and class ideologies that ultimately marginalized even the most "deserving" poor. "The links between race and the relations of benevolence occasioned much soul-searching among antebellum Americans," Ryan explains. "In a period of heated public debate over issues such as slavery, Indian removal, and non-Protestant immigration, the categories of blackness, Indianness, and a generic 'foreignness' came to signify, for many whites, need itself." Ryan puts familiar literary works such as Herman Melville's The Confidence-Man, Frederick Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom, and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin back into dialogue with a broad range of print materials: the reports of charity societies, African American and Native American newspapers, juvenile fiction, travel writing, cartoons, sermons, and tract literature. In the process, she dispels the myth that authors usually classified as literary were responding to a simple and unquestioned cult of benevolence. Rather, she contends, they were participating in the complex and often rancorous debates occurring within the broader culture over how good intentions should be expressed and enacted.Ryan's inquiry into the antebellum culture of benevolence has implications for contemporary U.S. society, resonating especially with recent debates over welfare reform, the politics of compassionate conservatism, and representations of "welfare queens" and violent urban youth. As Ryan writes, "The conversations that this book reconstructs remind us of our ongoing participation in the national ritual of laying claim to good intentions."