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    Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies

    A Guide to Language for Fun and Spite

    Author June Casagrande
    Paperback
    $27.00 US
    Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
    On sale Mar 28, 2006 | 224 Pages | 9780143036838
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    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.

    Grammar Snobs Are Great Big MeaniesIntroduction: Grammar Snobs Make Good Prison Brides
    1. A Snob For All Seasons—Shared 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 Blow—Only Windbags Fuss over Split Infinitives
    5. The Sexy Mistake—"To Lay" versus "To Lie"
    6. Snobbery Up With Which You Should Not Put—Prepositions
    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 Denominator—Good News: No One Knows How to Use These Things
    11. Semicolonoscopy—Colons, Semicolons, Dashes, Hyphens, and Other Probing Annoyances
    12. The O.C.: Where The '80s Never Die—Lessons on the Apostrophe from Behind the Orange Curtain
    13. Go Ahead, Make Up Your Own Words—Prefixes 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, Alex—When to Put Punctuation Inside Quotation Marks
    16. A Chapter Dedicated To Those Other Delights Of Punctuation
    17. Copulative Conjunctions: Hot Stuff For The Truly Desperate—Conjunctions 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 Batgirl—The Subjunctive Mood
    24. Mommy's All Wrong, Daddy's All Wrong—The 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 Jesus—Possessives and Words Ending in "S," "X," and "Z"
    29. The Silence Of The Linguists—Double Possessives and Possessives with Gerunds
    30. I'm Writing This While Naked—The 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 Yard—The 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 Ditz—Or How I Learned to Stop Fuming and Love the Jerkwad
    36. Eight, Nine, 10, 11—How 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 Meanie—Subject-Verb Agreement, Conjugating Verbs for "None" and "Neither," and Other Agreement Issues
    40. The Emperor's New Clause—Pronouns 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
    JUNE CASAGRANDE is a veteran journalist and syndicated columnist. She is the author of Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies and Mortal Syntax (Penguin). She is a former Los Angeles Times staff reporter, and her “A Word, Please” grammar column currently appears in several community news sections. She has also studied improvisational comedy with renowned troupes the Groundlings and ComedySportz. View titles by June Casagrande

    About

    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.

    Table of Contents

    Grammar Snobs Are Great Big MeaniesIntroduction: Grammar Snobs Make Good Prison Brides
    1. A Snob For All Seasons—Shared 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 Blow—Only Windbags Fuss over Split Infinitives
    5. The Sexy Mistake—"To Lay" versus "To Lie"
    6. Snobbery Up With Which You Should Not Put—Prepositions
    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 Denominator—Good News: No One Knows How to Use These Things
    11. Semicolonoscopy—Colons, Semicolons, Dashes, Hyphens, and Other Probing Annoyances
    12. The O.C.: Where The '80s Never Die—Lessons on the Apostrophe from Behind the Orange Curtain
    13. Go Ahead, Make Up Your Own Words—Prefixes 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, Alex—When to Put Punctuation Inside Quotation Marks
    16. A Chapter Dedicated To Those Other Delights Of Punctuation
    17. Copulative Conjunctions: Hot Stuff For The Truly Desperate—Conjunctions 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 Batgirl—The Subjunctive Mood
    24. Mommy's All Wrong, Daddy's All Wrong—The 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 Jesus—Possessives and Words Ending in "S," "X," and "Z"
    29. The Silence Of The Linguists—Double Possessives and Possessives with Gerunds
    30. I'm Writing This While Naked—The 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 Yard—The 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 Ditz—Or How I Learned to Stop Fuming and Love the Jerkwad
    36. Eight, Nine, 10, 11—How 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 Meanie—Subject-Verb Agreement, Conjugating Verbs for "None" and "Neither," and Other Agreement Issues
    40. The Emperor's New Clause—Pronouns 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

    Author

    JUNE CASAGRANDE is a veteran journalist and syndicated columnist. She is the author of Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies and Mortal Syntax (Penguin). She is a former Los Angeles Times staff reporter, and her “A Word, Please” grammar column currently appears in several community news sections. She has also studied improvisational comedy with renowned troupes the Groundlings and ComedySportz. View titles by June Casagrande

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