Books for Writers: Improve Your Grammar with Easy Grammar Plus Revised

Books for Writers: Easy Grammar Plus 

Want to write, but aren't sure of your grammar skills?

I recommend Easy Grammar: Plus by Wanda C. Phillips.

Maybe interesting trivia: I homeschooled my son through high school. The previous edition of this book was his high school English book, so I am very familiar with it. 

The author used the book to teach middle-grade students but let's face it. Math is math, and English is English. It doesn't magically change from one grade to the next. 

At the same time that I was busy homeschooling my son, my husband was enrolled in collegiate courses at a private school. He and his fellow students had a really hard English Grammar course. On occasion, my son and I would go to hubby's school and sit in the library to work on homeschool courses. 

What I found was that this book covered the same material as my husband's more difficult to understand textbook. Many of his fellow students asked to review the material in Easy Grammar: Plus. 

I also learned that my personal grammar skills needed refreshing. For instance, I had been taught about prepositions from probably about the fourth grade, but I never understood what they were or why they were important to understand.

The preposition bingo game included in the book made it easy to learn the prepositions. My husband's instructor made it even easier. "A preposition is anything a rabbit can do to a hollow log," he told his students. "It can go over, under, through, around, at, with, beyond, within, without, in, and out." Each of the bolded words is a preposition. There are many, many more prepositions, though. The book will help you learn fifty prepositions. 

Why is it important to understand prepositions? Knowing the prepositions in your writing make it easier to properly punctuate sentences. This book starts by teaching prepositions, then uses those to help you understand the parts of a sentence. Once you understand the parts of a sentence, punctuation is much easier.

I could spend hours telling you the good things about this book, but here are the most important:

1. Instruction pages for each skill teach grammar using examples
2. Student practice pages help internalize the material
3. Solution pages indicate how well the material is understood

And they are all in the same book! You don't have to buy a student workbook AND a teacher's book to have the answers. To keep from having to make copies, I did purchase a student workbook for my son to use. This also allowed me to keep a record of his work in a book rather than on individual papers that could be easily lost. In the end, I used the book to refresh my grammar skills and learn those concepts that illuded me through all the years of English courses I took in school.

Several years later, I taught computer courses in a career-oriented college. To keep from having so many classes, the school made a deal with the state governing body that each class would require written papers from the students. This deal meant that the school didn't have to require English for their degree to be state-approved. Unfortunately, this left students with very little instruction, since instructors still had to cover the mandated course material.

The first edition Easy Grammar Plus

To help the students in my classes, I took this book to school. We played preposition bingo a few times. Then, because the book gives teachers permission to make copies of the student pages for students in their classes, I made copies to give to those students who needed extra help. 

I let them grade them themselves since it was extra work that wasn't part of their course grade. It kept me from having extra work and gave them the help they needed to turn in papers that met the basic grammar criteria. Most of my students loved it and took advantage of the option. Some even purchased a copy of the book for themselves.  

I still have my first edition copy on my bookshelf (see the book at left). When I have a grammar question, I get it out and work a few pages until I absorb the information.

Sometimes, you can find a new copy of the first edition, but often the price is two or even three times the cost of the new edition. After reviewing both, I can't see enough difference to warrant the higher price.

For writers or editors needing to learn more about grammar, or even just to refresh your skills without the cost of a class, Easy Grammar: Plus is an excellent choice. The more you understand about grammar, the better your writing or editing. 

In my opinion, this book should be on every writer's bookshelf. 

Later,

Wolf's Claim in Large Print

Large Print Wolf's Claim Available

Wolf's Claim is now available as a large print paperback. The text is set at 16 points to make it easier for readers who have difficulties with books printed at 11 points.

Every two to three weeks, I have scheduled one of my Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series to publish as a large print book. This will ensure all twelve are available by Christmas (book 12 coming soon!).

As mentioned in a previous posting, the price for the large print books will be the same as the pricing for the regular print paperback books.

WIP Progress: Wolf's Duty

Wolf's Duty, the final book in the first set of 12 books, is still going strong. I have changed the focus of this book, somewhat, and plan to cut a scene that took the book into a difficult direction to work through. As soon as I determine what, if any, part of the scene can be salvaged, I will post the cut on my blog.

If you remember from Wolf's Huntsman, the birth of a Royal is difficult. When Ophelia was born, Nate, Koreth, and Nadrai played a significant role in helping Janelle through birth. Remembering this, I have made some changes in the plot since Janelle is soon to deliver a son. Nate, as a loving mate and father, would refuse to leave Janelle at this time.

Other News

My next series is tentatively titled Tala Ridge Werewolves. This will be a young adult series based on Terrell's Colorado pack. The kids are going to public school. There are about fourteen children (not really sure, yet), only four or five of which are teens.

I still need names for most of them. If you would like your name to be used for one of the children, please comment below. When the writing begins, I'll select which names to use and add a reply to your comment to let you know. 

Thank you!

Later,

Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series

Books for Writers: The Emotion Thesaurus, Second Edition

Books for Writers: The Emotion Thesaurus, Second Edition

Did you ever read the Hardy Boys series or the Nancy Drew series? 

As a kid, I think I read every one of them. I know I read all I had access to. They were my favorite books at one point in my life. I recommend these books to any young person who loves to read. Or those you wish would develop a love of reading.

At the time, I didn't have a problem with the following dialog indicators:

• He/She blared
• He/She demanded
• He/She screamed
• He/She chortled
• He/She laughed
• He/She snickered
• He/She cried
• He/She twittered
• He/She giggled
• He/She boasted

There were more, too. While it is true that some of these are perfectly fine, such as 'she screamed' or 'she cried,' many of the others are simply not possible.

You try laughing and talking at the same time. It's almost an impossibility. For that reason, it makes more sense to use a period than a comma in this sentence: "I can't believe you did that," she laughed.

Instead, this would make more sense:

She laughed, her arms wrapped tight against her chest as if to hold her amusement inside. "I can't believe you did that!"

Some have said using the tags mentioned above is simply laziness. I don't know if that's true. After all, that's what most of us grew up reading. It could be that it's what we've internalized while growing up as readers. However, richer, more intense writing requires more.

Tags can be overused, too. He nodded. He shrugged. These are two of the tags I have to watch out for in my own writing. The more tired I am when writing, the more often these show up. The thesaurus is helpful in coming up with new ways to say the same thing. Instead of 'he bowed his head,' maybe 'he stared at the tip of his boot' or 'he raised one shoulder' would be better.

Dialog Tags

Dialog tags are phrases that intuit a character's action before, during, or after the character speaks. It provides richer, more satisfying prose to the reader and helps the reader know who is talking without the constant use of 'he said' or 'she said.' Even so, the occasional 'he said' or 'she said' tag is useful when it is otherwise difficult to know which character is speaking.

When I first learned to use dialog tags, I used the suggestions in The Romance Writers' Phrase Book to come up with some of my own dialog tags. For an author in the early years of my writing efforts, that book was a fantastic tool. I still recommend it. Unfortunately, it is pretty limited.

I blogged about this book last year. If you're interested, you can find blog entry below Reviews of Writing Books on my Author Helps page.

The Emotion Thesaurus

Then I found The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglist.

In many ways, this book is more helpful than the Romance Writers' Phrase Book. There are more categories.

The categories for each emotion are broken down into definition, physical signals, internal sensations, mental responses, cues of acute or long-term responses (this emotion), may escalate to, cues of suppressed (this emotion), and writer's tips.

Wow! That's pretty comprehensive coverage for each emotion.

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression, Second Edition (Expanded)

Then, the second edition of The Emotion Thesaurus (Expanded) was published in 2019, with even more emotions listed.

The categories for each emotion are broken down into definition, physical signals and behaviors, internal sensations, mental responses, acute or long-term responses for this emotion, signs that this emotion is being suppressed, may escalate to, may de-escalate to, associated power verbs, and writer's tips.

As comprehensive as the coverage for terms was in the first edition, the information provided for each term in the second is even better.

So, how are these used? You could copy and paste whole phrases from the book, but that isn't the best use for this thesaurus. For best practice, read the entire two pages for the emotion you're trying to evoke in your writing, then think about it within the context of your scene.

Which character is feeling the emotion? Which character is the viewpoint character? To stay in POV (point of view), you need to make sure whatever dialog tag you use is one that is directly observable or 'feelable' by the POV character.

For instance, your character can see that someone's face turns red and his or her lips tremble, but unless the POV character is a telepath or empath, he or she cannot know what the other person is thinking or feeling directly.

Does the person's face turn red because she's angry or because she's embarrassed? Are his lips trembling because he's afraid or because passion has overcome him? Your POV character can assume, but not know unless the other character specifically states it.

As the author, you know, or should, how your character will respond to a situation. Read the appropriate thesaurus pages, then visualize your character responding in the scene. Write what you visualize. This makes it your writing, rather than just a copy and paste situation.

My Recommendation

I highly recommend the second edition of The Emotion Thesaurus. However, don't just read the entries for the specific emotion you want to show in your writing. Take the time to read the first chapters in the book, too. These chapters will teach you the importance of showing emotion in your writing. You will learn more about:

• The Power of Emotion
• Character Research: What to Know to Write Authentic Emotion
• Using Dialogue to Write Emotion
• Subtext: What Lies Beneath
• Additional Ideas for Brainstorming Fresh Emotion
• Common Problems with Writing Nonverbal Emotion
• Using the Emotion Thesaurus

For years, I taught computers and coding. If I were to teach a class on writing fiction, I would require my students to have a copy of The Emotion Thesaurus, Second Edition. In my opinion, it's a tool that should be on every writer's shelf. Or even better, sitting next to the keyboard ready for use.

Dialog tags can be fun to write. Check it out. You may be surprised that you find it fun, too.

Later,