stellar english: a down-to-earth guide to grammar and style

An indispensable guide to essential principles of English grammar and usage

Stellar English lays out the fundamentals of effective writing, from word choice and punctuation to parts of speech and common errors. Frank Cioffi emphasizes how formal written English--though only a subdialect of the language--enables writers to reach a wide and heterogenous audience.

Cioffi’s many example sentences illustrating grammatical principles tilt in an otherworldly direction, making up a science fiction story involving alien invasion. Reading the book through will not only help you with your grammar but also reveal how the story ends!

An invaluable brief handbook for native and nonnative speakers alike, Stellar English avoids the jargon and emphasis on outdated rules found in typical grammar guides and shows how good writing uses carefully constructed language that’s at once appropriate to an audience and communicates--without distractions or confusion--just what the writer wants.

Frank L. Cioffi is professor of English at Baruch College, City University of New York. He has taught writing and literature at Indiana University, Eastern New Mexico University, Central Washington University, Scripps College, Princeton University, and the University of Gdańsk in Poland. His books include The Imaginative Argument: A Practical Manifesto for Writers and One Day in the Life of the English Language: A Microcosmic Usage Handbook (both Princeton).