I am an avid reader of June Casagrande’s syndicated column “A Word Please”
in my local newspaper, but I was especially taken with
her column on what I call the “do conundrum”
because it’s a little oddity that native speakers don’t think about, are hardly aware of.
So naturally I rushed over
to the online post and left a comment.
I thought you’d like an example of how you might do this to
broaden the exposure of your book.
The
secrets aren’t
secret. Use an anecdote or resource that will add something to the conversation and—when allowed—link back to
your book that, of course,
will
be related somehow to the topic of the blog
or article you are commenting on.
In spite
of all my advanced grammar
classes, I
had
never heard about (or
even considered) the "do"
in English until I
began to study Spanish using
Michel Thomas's CD
course. As an aside, he explained that using "do" to ask
questions is a new quirk
in
the English language and cites
the King James version
of the Bible as
an
example
of the
way
the language sounded
without
it.
By the way, I've tried other courses
and
nothing even touches Michel's
for accent reduction, understanding, and speedy learning!
But back to the "do" conundrum. You can see from this little history of my exposure of "do" in English that I appreciate more than ever June Casagrande’s column "AWord Please." Sometimes it is a refresher, but often it offers up information that is new--even for those of us who consider ourselves experts. And THAT is a lesson or two all its own. That is, the English language is so complex that we can never know it all, a lesson to keep reading columns (and books!) like that expand our knowledge. But knowing about the “dummy operator” is the kind of thing that makes grammar fun!
By the way, "do" does some other odd things in the English language, but we'll save that for another day, another post. We don't need to expose too much of our quirkiness at one time.
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits, consults, and speaks on issues of writing and publishing. Find her at http://howtodoitfrugally.com. Find the second edition of her multi award-winning The Frugal Editor: Do-it-yourself editing secrets for authors: From your query letter to final manuscript to the marketing of your bestseller. (HowToDoItFrugally Series of Books for Writers)
. Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/writers_books.htm , where writers find lists and other helps including , Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips 
on the Resources for Writers page. She blogs on all things publishing (not just editing!) at her SharingingwithWriters blog. She tweets writers' resources at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo . Please tweet this post to your followers. We all need a little help with editing. (-:
No comments:
Post a Comment