Improving your grammar, the 'Quick and Dirty' way

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Could it be that good grammar is back in style? Possibly, if the success of Mignon Fogarty's "Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips to Clean Up Your Writing" is any indication.

Barely a year ago, Fogarty, a technical writer from Arizona, started a small podcast to help others in her field with their grammar and sparked what you might call a worldwide, syntax-driven fiesta. Her iTunes podcast has been downloaded 5 million times and caters to 2 million listeners each week, from Chinese schoolchildren to American chief executives.

As she guides listeners through such things as the distinction between affect and effect and the proper use of the semicolon, Fogarty's Grammar Girl consistently tops iTunes' as the most downloaded podcast in the education category. On the strength of that accomplishment, she was asked to appear in March as a grammar expert on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

All this feedback prompted Audio Renaissance to publish her first audio book. It's in bookstores and sold online for $9.95 through Barnes and Noble and www.Amazon.com. Audio Renaissance's sister company, Henry Holt and Co., is hoping to have a hardcover published in 2008, said Liz Noland, Audience Renaissance publicist.

The hour-long CD is divided into three parts and offers tidbits including memorization tips for words often misused (which and that; nauseous and nauseating) and "how-to" sound bites on punctuation marks.

Moving beyond Grammar Girl, Fogarty has created a Quick and Dirty Tips empire, at www.QDnow.com.

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