Books are a wonderful way for coworkers and friends to share experiences, even when we’re miles, states, and countries apart. Hearing about what someone is reading is like taking a 5-minute vacation. Each week, one Piper team member will answer the question, “What are you reading?” and take you on a well-deserved, 5-minute vacation.

Piper Editorial’s own Thomas Finn is coauthor (with Lawrence Weinstein) of Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are.

“Whenever you write, your words also talk about you.”

This week’s Piper Reads is a bit different. Thomas isn’t reading our featured book, Grammar Moves. He doesn’t need to — he wrote it. But here’s a quick introduction from us.

Words are tools. You can use them to say anything about anything. But whenever you write, your words also talk about something else: you. Your personality, your mood, your style, your intelligence, your authority — readers will infer all these things, rightly or wrongly, from the way you structure your sentences and choose your verbs. So if grammar is a tool, why not use it to your advantage? Grammar Moves reveals the language behind the language and helps you learn how to speak it.

AMAZON DESCRIPTION

Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are helps students understand how the grammatical moves they make reveal their personality traits and present their persona to their readers.

The text’s rhetorical approach emphasizes the transformative power that grammar choices can have on a writer and helps students develop the personality they wish to portray in their writing. Writers can use the imperative mood to suggest control, colons to be assertive, parenthesis to keep the conversation real, and even commas to present an organized persona. By showing students how seemingly small choices can help them manage the impression they make on readers, Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are helps students become more deliberate writers.

HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK?

Tell Thomas what you thought in the blog comments below!