Quick and dirty tips for better writing - Mignon Fogarty 2008

Introduction

We’re all good at something. My husband can calculate sales tax in his head, and surprisingly, it turns out I’m pretty good at teaching people about language. The revelation came to me slowly at first, and then in a tidal wave.

I had been working as an independent writer and editor for years when one day at the coffeehouse I decided it would be fun to call myself Grammar Girl and produce a short podcast with fun tips to help people remember simple language rules—the things I saw people mess up over and over again: who versus whom, affect versus effect, how to use semicolons, and other mistakes of that sort. In its simplest form, a podcast is an audio program that is available on the Internet, and producing one seemed like a fun hobby for a girl who already had recording equipment from another project and already corrected errors for a living.

And then—Holy Internets, Batman—the audience at iTunes found me, figuratively threw me on their shoulders, and yelled “Hurray!” until the national media couldn’t help but notice. Based entirely on word of mouth, the Grammar Girl podcast soon rose to #2 at iTunes, and with a little help from articles in The Wall Street Journal and CNN.com, it reached #1 and I signed a book deal.

The tidal wave didn’t stop. I was sitting at my desk one day, minding my own business, when I got a call from a producer at the Oprah Winfrey Show. She wanted me to come to Chicago and be a guest on the show to answer language questions they had received from listeners. Things like that don’t happen to girls like me! I said yes; and together my publisher and I cranked out a Grammar Girl audiobook to correspond with my appearance. It did well.

The stories continued, and the podcast was covered in USA Today, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, and many other outlets. Every time I was sure it would be the last. (How many people could there possibly be who were interested in grammar?) But so far they’ve kept coming.

All the while I have continued to put out a free show each week with a quick and dirty tip to help people write better, produce an e-mail newsletter with an additional tip, and oversee the entire Quick and Dirty Tips Network, which has grown out of the original Grammar Girl series. And of course, I’ve been writing this book.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time (too much time, really) pondering why so many people are excited about my little podcast. From what I can gather, the fun and friendly nature of the show plays an important role, and the need to write well is greater than it has been in a long time. We’re writing more often than people did twenty years ago because e-mail and text messaging have taken the place of phone calls, and blogging is a popular pastime. We’re all “professional” writers these days because our coworkers, friends, and family judge us on our writing, and we all secretly fear that we could do a better job.

This book is not intended to be a comprehensive style guide like The Chicago Manual of Style or Garner’s Modern American Usage (both useful books for truly professional writers). This is a practical guide for everyday writers. I once gave everyone on my Christmas list batteries and film; I am nothing if not practical. So I’m giving you the batteries and film of language—the things everyone will use. I won’t have my tips returned for cash or hiding on the closet shelf to be hauled out when I come over for dinner!

My philosophy is that learning about language should be fun. I’m not in this for the thrill of running a metaphorical red pen through e-mail messages or blog posts. Although writing badly is like dressing in lime skorts and an orange plaid sweater—people notice—publicly correcting a stranger’s writing is as rude as asking someone with a fashion problem “Did you think that looked good when you got dressed this morning?” I would do neither. Instead, I hope to raise the waters of good writing by distributing quick and dirty tips as widely as possible. Really, I can’t resist: I get flashes of crazy memory tricks, funny phrases, and cartoons where Aardvark (a blue aardvark) and Squiggly (a yellow snail) go on grammar adventures, and I love to share them all with you.