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Step 1
Go to your favorite bookstore or on-line bookseller and order the books listed in the remaining steps. Keep in mind: they are not listed in any particular order and if you can only afford one, any one of them will do the trick. However, the more you read the better.
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Step 2
“Far from the Madding Gerund and other dispatches from Language Log”
by Mark Liberman and Geoffrey K. Pullum -
Step 3
“The English Language – A Guided Tour of the Language”
by David Crystal -
Step 4
“Eats, Shoots and Leaves – The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” by Lynne Truss
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Step 5
“Language Myths”
by Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill -
Step 6
“The Mother Tongue – English and How It Got That Way”
by Bill Bryson -
Step 7
“Made in America – An Informal History of the English Language in the United States”
by Bill Bryson











Comments
Have-Sense said
on 6/12/2008 This article doesn't do what the title promises. This is not a "How To" but a book list. It doesn't belong on this site.
ursaminor said
on 4/20/2008 The Deluxe Transitive Vampire (and I can't remember right now who wrote it, but Amazon.com has it,)is also excellent and a lot of fun. The author has written a couple of very entertaining and easy to use grammar books, worth checking out. Thanks for the book list!