Synopses & Reviews
What do suicidal pandas, doped-up rock stars, and a naked Pamela Anderson have in common? They’re all a heck of a lot more interesting than reading about predicate nominatives and hyphens. June Casagrande knows this and has invented a whole new twist on the grammar book. Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies is a laugh-out-loud funny collection of anecdotes and essays on grammar and punctuation, as well as hilarious critiques of the self-appointed language experts.
Chapters include:
- I’m Writing This While Naked—The Oh-So Steamy Predicate Nominative
- Semicolonoscopy—Colons, Semicolons, Dashes, and Other Probing Annoyances
- I’ll Take "I Feel Like a Moron" for $200, Alex—When to Put Punctuation Inside Quotation Marks
- Snobbery Up with Which You Should Not Put Up—Prepositions
- Is That a Dangler in Your Memo or Are You Just Glad to See Me?
- Hyphens—Life-Sucking, Mom-and-Apple-Pie-Hating, Mime-Loving, Nerd-Fight-Inciting Daggers of the Damned
Casagrande delivers practical and fun language lessons not found anywhere else, demystifying the subject and taking it back from the snobs. In short, it’s a grammar book people will actually want to read—just for the fun of it.
Review
"This lively book with humorous essays is a sure winner." Children's Literature
Review
"Both sassy and edifying, Casagrande's little tome will be especially useful to those in search of basic grammar instruction." Booklist
Synopsis
What do suicidal pandas, doped-up rock stars, and a naked Pamela Anderson have in common? Theyre all a heck of a lot more interesting than reading about predicate nominatives and hyphens. June Casagrande knows this and has invented a whole new twist on the grammar book. Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies is a laugh-out-loud funny collection of anecdotes and essays on grammar and punctuation, as well as hilarious critiques of the self-appointed language experts.
Chapters include:
- I'm Writing This While Naked The Oh-So Steamy Predicate Nominative
- Semicolonoscopy Colons, Semicolons, Dashes, and Other Probing Annoyances
- I'll Take "I Feel Like a Moron" for $200, Alex When to Put Punctuation Inside Quotation Marks
- Snobbery Up with Which You Should Not Put Up Prepositions
- Is That a Dangler in Your Memo or Are You Just Glad to See Me?
- Hyphens Life-Sucking, Mom-and-Apple-Pie-Hating, Mime-Loving, Nerd-Fight-Inciting Daggers of the Damned
Casagrande delivers practical and fun language lessons not found anywhere else, demystifying the subject and taking it back from the snobs. In short, it's a grammar book people will actually want to read just for the fun of it.
Synopsis
The antidote to Eats, Shoots and Leaves is an uproarious and very American word book for those who are tired of getting pulled over by the grammar police.
About the Author
June Casagrande writes the popular and very humorous "A Word, Please" grammar column for four Los Angeles Times community newspapers. She has written over 900 articles for various newspapers and magazines and has four years of improvisational comedy training.
Table of Contents
Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies
Introduction: Grammar Snobs Make Good Prison Brides
1. A Snob For All SeasonsShared Possessives
2. For Whom The Snob Trolls"Who"/"Whom" and Why You're Right Not to Care
3. Passing The Simpsons Test It's "Till," Not "Til"
4. To Boldly BlowOnly Windbags Fuss over Split Infinitives
5. The Sexy Mistake"To Lay" versus "To Lie"
6. Snobbery Up With Which You Should Not PutPrepositions
7. Is That A Dangler In Your Memo Or Are You Just Glad To See Me?
8. An Open Letter To Someone Who Knows I Once Tried To Be A Grammar Snob But Failed"Dreamed" versus "Dreamt," "Preventive" versus "Preventative," and Similar Pairs
9. Anarchy Rules "Adviser"/Advisor," "Titled"/"Entitled," and Other Ways to Be Right and Wrong at the Same Time
10. The Comma DenominatorGood News: No One Knows How to Use These Things
11. SemicolonoscopyColons, Semicolons, Dashes, Hyphens, and Other Probing Annoyances
12. The O.C.: Where The '80s Never DieLessons on the Apostrophe from Behind the Orange Curtain
13. Go Ahead, Make Up Your Own WordsPrefixes and Suffixes and Why the Dictionary Thinks You're Wrong
14. Hyphens: Life-Sucking, Mom-And-Apple-Pie-Hating, Mime-Loving, Nerd-Fight-Inciting Daggers Of The Damned
15. I'll Take "I Feel Like A Moron" For $200, AlexWhen to Put Punctuation Inside Quotation Marks
16. A Chapter Dedicated To Those Other Delights Of Punctuation
17. Copulative Conjunctions: Hot Stuff For The Truly DesperateConjunctions to Know and Conjunctions That Blow
18. R U Uptite?Shortcuts in the Digital Age and the Meanies Who Hate Them
19. Literally Schmiterally
20. How To Drop Out Of High School In The Ninth Grade And Still Make Big Bucks Telling People How To Use Good Grammar"That" versus "Which"
21. Well, Well, Aren't You Good?Adverbs Love Action
22. Fodder For Those Mothers"Irregardless" and Other Slipups We Nonsnobs Can't Afford
23. I Wish I Were BatgirlThe Subjunctive Mood
24. Mommy's All Wrong, Daddy's All WrongThe Truth about "Cans" and "Dones"
[25. The Kids Are All Wrong"Alright," Dropping "The" Before "the The," Where to Put Your "Only," and Other Lessons from the World of Rock 'n' Roll
26. How To Impress Brad Pitt"Affect" versus "Effect"
27. And You Too Can Begin Sentences With "And," "So," "But," And "Because"
28. Your Boss Is Not JesusPossessives and Words Ending in "S," "X," and "Z"
29. The Silence Of The LinguistsDouble Possessives and Possessives with Gerunds
30. I'm Writing This While NakedThe Oh-So-Steamy Predicate Nominative
31. I Wish I May, I Wish I Might For Once In My Life Get This One Right"May" versus "Might," "Different From" versus "Different Than," "Between" versus "Among," and Other Problematic Pairs
32. A Backyard Barbecue In The Back Yard, A Front-Yard Barbecue In The Front YardThe Magical Moment When Two Words Become One
33. How To Never, Ever Offend Anyone With Inadvertently Sexist Or Racist Language
34. Complete Sentences? Optional!
35. It's/Its A Classroom DitzOr How I Learned to Stop Fuming and Love the Jerkwad
36. Eight, Nine, 10, 11How to Write Numbers
37. If At First You Don't Irk A Snob, Try And Try Again"Try To" versus "Try And"
38. Express Lane Of Pain"Less Than" versus "Fewer Than"
39. Agree To Dis A MeanieSubject-Verb Agreement, Conjugating Verbs for "None" and "Neither," and Other Agreement Issues
40. The Emperor's New ClausePronouns That Are Objects and Subjects, "Each Other" versus "One Another," and More Evidence That the "Experts" Aren't All They're Cracked Up to Be
41. Satan's Vocabulary
42. You Really Can Look It Up
Acknowledgments
Sources