Book Review: The Glamour of Grammar: A Guide to the Magic and Mystery of Practical English

The Glamour of Grammar: A Guide to the Magic and Mystery of Practical English. Roy Peter Clark. New York: Little, Brown, 2010. 294 pp. $19.99 hbk.It doesn't matter what the topic is-chickens or global economics or yoga: people who are passionate and knowledgeable about their subject make for a good story. Add good writing and a sense of whimsy to that passion, and you almost can't miss.With fifteen books on writing and editing behind him, Roy Peter Clark's passion for writing is well known. For those who don't know him personally, however, the title of this book should hint at the whimsy. There really aren't many people who can make a 294-page discussion of grammar fun, mysterious, and magical, but the Poynter Institute's longtime oracle of all things wordish does it by reminding us of the power and magic of language.Putting the glamour back into grammar is Clark's goal. Wordsmiths already know the joy of language (as Clark discusses in his first chapter, reading dictionaries is fun), but not everyone may recognize the etymological connection between "grammar" and "glamour.""Was there ever in the popular imagination a word less glamourous than grammar?" Clark asks, turning to the Oxford English Dictionary for explanation: "The bridge between glamour and grammar is magic," he finds. "According to the OED, glamour evolved from grammar through an ancient association between learning and enchantment." Once, grammar was not just about language and, eventually, writing, he says, but all forms of learning, including "magic, alchemy, astrology, even witchcraft."Good enough. It's not about rules, then. Let's consider grammar the incantation to invoke the magic of language, and see that punctuation, syntax, usage, spacing, pacing, and the rest all are the ingredients to make the magic work.The central ingredients, of course, are words, but Clark urges writers not to bog down in rigid convention. Sure, spelling counts because comprehension matters, but "learn seven ways to invent words" to make use of their music, he suggests; crossdress parts of speech, and spend some time in a thesaurus-"a word from the Greek that means 'treasury.'"Clark's passion for his craftalso turns even the smallest elements of language into powerful alchemy-he spends a fifty-page chapter on "Points," the traffic signals of sentences that Clark calls "the ligaments of meaning and purpose." The man can wax poetic-and convincingly-about periods! The full stop is a rhythmic device in language and in writing, after all, reminding us that writing is language, after all-an aural art that must be heard like music in order to be understood and appreciated. Short sentences, Clark suggests. Slow the reader. Build suspense. Magnify emotion.Of the many disconnects between the too-often estranged wordsters in English classrooms and journalistic newsrooms, perhaps none is as focused as the use of the comma. Leave aside dependent clauses and wasteful strings of modifiers (the road to hell is paved with adverbs)-what about a comma before "and"? …