After sitting on the school board for Wagner Middle School, the largest one in New York City, Geraldine Onorato noticed that people, particularly students, had become lazy writers. As a remedy, Onorato came up with “Facts for English,” a small grammar booklet meant to be carried around and easily referenced. 

Onorato brought her friend Donna Harrow onto the project as her business partner. The pair have held positions on a number of school boards, which is how they got involved with education and came up with “Facts for English 2.0,” a more mature version of a grammar book they had previously created. 

Although people are writing more often these days, with e-mail, texting and social media, Onorato and Harrow noticed an increase in grammatical errors and a decrease in formal writing. 

“We came up with the idea because kids are writing text messages so often [using], you know, the letter ‘u’ versus ‘you,’ no punctuation, no capitalization,” Harrow said. “We both think it has spilled over into their writing for school, for papers, professionally, and so we’ve tried to address this.” 

Onorato and Harrow said the booklet is intended as a reference guide for users of all ages, but that the main goal is to instruct college freshmen. 

“It doesn’t just give you the answer, it explains to you why something is. You can actually learn information from this book,” Onorato said. “So, for us, it was really geared to the incoming freshman or math major or science major that just hates to write, doesn’t really get it, forgot what they were taught in grammar school and middle school.”   

UNC Wilmington English professor Sarah Hallenbeck had reservations about the booklet. 

“When I was a high school teacher, we distributed to every high school student planners that had similar information in the front,” Hallenback said.  “They were a big expense to the public school, but, you know, by September, most of them were found on the floor and discarded.”

“I just think if we want to help students, maybe we could’ve done something that would’ve ended up gaining use. So the booklet makes me think of that example,” said Hallenback 

However, UNCW senior Troy Coleman saw “Facts for English 2.0” as something the school should distribute to students for free.  

“These seem like something that you would hand out to people as like an informative thing. I really like the format of it, but I don’t know how much I would be willing to pay for it,” Coleman said.  

Onorato and Harrow’s goal was to keep the 23-page booklet as convenient as possible.

“Textbooks are dense, we’re not. The internet is distracting and overabundant, we’re simple. Not one inch is wasted,” Harrow said. 

UNCW junior Austyn Byrd appreciated their efforts.  

“I like it because it’s straightforward, it gets to the point,” Byrd said. “I like that it is little. I’d be more willing to pick it up because it is little. I like that it’s not all black and white too.”

Onorato and Harrow believe their grammar booklet is the solution to grammar issues brought on by the recent increase in informal writing. 

“We are working to get ‘Facts for English’ into every school in America,” Onorato said. 

“Facts for English 2.0” is available on Kindle for $5.95, and print copies cost $7.95.