A WAY WITH WORDS III Understanding Grammar for Powerful Communication

In the third installment of Michael Drout's lecture series about the English language (the first two involving rhetoric and literature), the Wheaton College English professor explores issues of grammar, as well as spelling, punctuation, and the complex histories of English nouns, verbs, and subordinate clauses. Drout uses amusing anecdotes and his enthusiastic style to make the material as entertaining as it is enlightening. He proposes a middle road between Lynne Truss's (EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES) grammatical fundamentalism and David Crystal's anarchistic approach to language change. At one point, Drout even discusses Recorded Books' policy that the Modern Scholar audiobooks be unscripted and the effect that has on the presentation style. In all, a wonderfully lively and mind-broadening way to spend seven hours. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2009]