Author Description

<p>Why settle for a normal book on grammar when you could learn new things about it and become your own best self at the same time?</p> <p><br></p> <p>If you're looking for a traditional manual of rules, this much-acclaimed, groundbreaking book by a cofounder of Harvard University's Writing Center may not be the one for you. Grammar is about much more than rules: it's about choices, too-since a thought can always be expressed correctly in multiple ways.</p> <p><br></p> <p>In Grammar for a Full Life, author Lawrence Weinstein reveals how our grammatical choices either stifle or boost our...</p> <ul> <li>sense of agency in life</li> <li>creativity</li> <li>depth of connection to others</li> <li>and mindfulness.</li> </ul> <p><br></p> <p>Weinstein shows that certain tweaks to a person's grammar can bring consequential changes in his or her fulfillment and well-being. In this wonderfully readable book, he describes some forty transformative moves that can be made with English punctuation and syntax. In the book, you'll learn, for instance, why a greater use of active voice constructions builds assertive energy in us. You'll discover how-paradoxically-cutting back on the "intensifiers" (exclamation marks and words like really, absolutely) heightens our awareness of the world.</p> <p><br></p> <p>There is not too much about personality and life that Weinstein doesn't see benefitting from a wiser use of grammar. In a chapter titled "Bonding," even sex comes in for some grammatical attention. Even fear of death receives its own, almost lyrical chapter near book's end.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The farther one gets into this remarkable book, the clearer it becomes that Weinstein's wish-for both himself and us-is actualization of "the whole person," through language.</p> <p><br></p> <p>No reader should be intimidated by Weinstein's university credentials. As important a book as his is, it's conversational throughout-and it's packed with numerous compelling, clear examples. You will n