Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language for Fun and Spite - Softcover

Casagrande, June

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143036831 ISBN 13: 9780143036838

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2006

Synopsis

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.

About this title

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.

From AudioFile:

Lay, lie, lain? Drink, drank, drunken? The slightest perceived misuse of English, or American, can rouse the ire of the "grammar snobs," who delight in savaging those who dare sully the language. Through the delightful voice of Shelly Frasier, author Casagrande gives listeners a set of arrows with which to pierce the grammar snobs' inflated sense of self-importance, using liberal doses of humor. Thanks to Frasier's sharp comic timing, you'll get the full effect of the author's self-effacing exposÉ of grammatical crime--and be relieved to know most of the mistakes you've been accused of making are usually misdemeanors. Becoming aware of the vast gray zone of usage makes the English language a friendlier place. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0143036831
• ISBN 13: 9780143036838
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 224