Bothered by incorrect grammar and spelling on the web or anywhere, for that matter? It’s become rampant! Luckily, we have people like our teleseminar presenter Jami Carpenter—Red Pen Girl– to help us learn more about good grammar and ways to NOT just rely on spell check or grammar check to get us out of trouble. We’ll all be better writers if we brush up on the rules and pay attention, not in the first draft but the later ones. For instance, watch out for homonyms—remember those? And what about apostrophes vs. plural constructions?
Please join us for a wonderful and informative teleseminar with Jamie on September 16th. And don’t let people tell you that these kinds of discussions are boring. No longer! The English language is always evolving, with new rules, new ideas floating around. The OED each year grabs onto new words that become part of the lexicon of “good” English, even if it’s slang.
Topic: If It’s Just My Writing, Does Grammar Really Matter?
Date: Friday September 16, 2011
Time: 11 AM PDT |12 PM MDT | 1 PM CDT |2 PM EDT
Cost: FREE FOR NAMW MEMBERS (NAMW Members, the Call-in telephone number and conference call code are posted below. If you are an NAMW member and cannot see the details, please login here and navigate back to this page).
[private_NAMW]Telephone Number: (605) 477-2100
Participant Access Code: 888060#[/private_NAMW]
Not Available for the Live Call? NAMW members can access a link in the NAMW member dashboard within 48 hours of the teleseminar to download the audio mp3 of this call!
Not already a member of NAMW? Click here to become a member now!
What you can expect to learn:
- Notes about the evolution of the english language, include new rules and thoughts
- Discussions about new words–even slang–that are considered as “good,” english.
- How the correct use of grammar can help you find an agent or sell your work to a publisher.
About Jami Carpenter:
Jami brings a diverse background and wealth of experience to NAMW. With a bachelor’s and master’s degree, Jami taught at both the high school and college levels, served on local and state writing task forces and legislative committees, and has spoken across the country at educational conferences. She was also executive producer and host of the Las Vegas PBS talk show, Book Club, which featured interviews with local, national, and international authors.
Jami is a professional ghostwriter and editor who has worked on a variety of Stephens Press memoirs, including: Voices in My Head, by famous impressionist Danny Gans; Amelia’s Long Journey, a little girl’s struggle with cancer by her father, John L. Smith, an award-winning journalist; Finding My Voice, by William Bailey, Big Band era singer and civil rights activist; DumbAss Luck, by successful attorney Al Marquis;Bing: On the Road to Elko, by Bing Crosby’s niece, Carolyn Schneider; and A New Day, by Dora Barilla – about a woman dealing with her husband’s traumatic brain injury.
In addition, Jami has given workshops and presentations on editing and writing through the Clark County Library District and the Vegas Valley Book Festival, and presented at the Henderson Writers Conference and the Central Oregon Writers Guild. More information about Jami can be found on her website: www.redpengirl.com.
I am so glad to see the issue of grammar being addressed! Being a grammar nut, I can’t believe how many books I read that have grammar errors in them–these are published, hard copy editions, so too late to fix once sent out to the world. As often as not, these errors appear in books published by the main line publishers, so I ‘m not talking about self published books, which at least would have an explanation, if not an excuse.
For me, an author’s credibility goes right out the window when I read grammar goofs in that author’s work I used to think that writers naturally paid attention to and knew correct grammar. Now I know that is not necessarily the case. Thank you for making grammar important–it is!
(I can’t be on the call today, but will be accessing the audio link once it’s posted.)
Hear, hear! As an editor/author, I know how important the credibility issue is, and so I had two different editors check my own work. Even editors need help, because we can’t see our own boo-boos!