Do you want to understand the vagaries of English grammar and usage, and be highly entertained at the same time? If so (and who wouldn't?), Grammar snobs are great big meanies is the book for you. June Casagrande has set out to demystify our language for native speakers, with the occasional jab at pedants. The subtitle says it all. Virtually every student who shows up in my graduate and undergraduate technical communication courses and who was tutored in English usage through the American education system arrives wrongly believing that correctly manipulating the English language requires knowing at least 1,000 obscure rules plus 10,000 exceptions. Is it permissible to occasionally split infinitives? To whom am I writing when it is necessary to identify the author of a report? Should I end a sentence with a verb? And can I begin one with a conjunction? Can you conclude a sentence with a preposition, or is that something up with which grammar snobs will not put?
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