As the first in a regular column of podcast reviews, I decided to begin with an appraisal of a personal favourite. As a lover of things wordy and nerdy, I knew that this podcast would appeal to me the first time I heard of it. Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, a weekly educational podcast offering quick lessons in grammar, usage, and other topics on effective writing, has been both entertaining and a valuable tool in answering a couple long-standing questions.

Started by former science writer Mignon Fogarty in 2006, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing caught on quickly through word of mouth, rising as high as #2 on iTunes. Episodes usually run between five to eight minutes in length, allowing the listener to learn better grammar on the go. The show’s popularity led to a book deal for Fogarty – a grammar and usage guide sharing the name of the podcast. Released last year in paperback and audiobook formats, the book followed suit with the podcast’s acclaim, placing #9 on the New York Times best-seller list for paperback advice books.

Fogarty’s friendly and welcoming tone, as well as her tendency to slightly over-enunciate words (an oral characteristic I share with her, admittedly), help keep the lessons clear and concise. It is also through her demeanour that the listeners are assured that they are being taught by a teacher who knows and loves their subject well. As she states in the introduction to her book that it “is not intended to be a comprehensive style guide... This is a practical guide for everyday writers”, it is clear that the intentions of the podcast are no different.

The best thing about Grammar Girl is the fact that many podcasts are inspired by listener questions. Fans of the show are encouraged by Fogarty to write to the show or call its voice mailbox, and she frequently responds directly by dedicating entire episodes to these inquiries. Examples of such episodes include ones about irregular plural nouns, “can” versus “may”, and the serial comma. She has described her podcast as making “complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules”, and it certainly does.

The only downside to this generally stellar podcast lies in an editing glitch with a small number of its archived episodes. The brief advertisements normally placed either close to the beginning or near the end of each episode seem to have been incorrectly positioned in some, so one might hear Fogarty interrupt herself midsentence to discuss a show sponsor’s product or service. While this can be a bit annoying – as no one really wants an informative lesson on appositives or phrasal verbs intruded upon by a commercial – it only affects a few past episodes, and the problems seems to have since been rectified.

Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing can – of course – be found on iTunes, but a number of bonuses can be found on the Quick and Dirty Tips website. These extras include full episode transcripts, a newsletter offering grammar tips of the day, widgets for blogs and websites, Grammar Girl TV, and a link to Fogarty’s new podcast, Behind the Grammar.