Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER ""A fresh and democratic take on language by a gifted teacher."" --Mary Norris ""[Jovin] never hectors, never finger-points; she enlightens and illuminates. This is lovely work."" --Benjamin Dreyer An unconventional guide to the English language drawn from the cross-country adventures of an itinerant grammarian. When Ellen Jovin first walked outside her Manhattan apartment building and set up a folding table with a GRAMMAR TABLE sign, it took about thirty seconds to get her first visitor. Everyone had a question for her. Grammar Table was such a hit--attracting the attention of the New York Times, NPR, and CBS Evening News--that Jovin soon took it on the road, traveling across the US to answer questions from writers, lawyers, editors, businesspeople, students, bickering couples, and anyone else who uses words in this world. In Rebel with a Clause, Jovin tackles what is most on people's minds, grammatically speaking--from the Oxford comma to the places prepositions can go, the likely lifespan of whom, semicolonphobia, and more. Punctuated with linguistic debates from tiny towns to our largest cities, this grammar romp will delight anyone wishing to polish their prose or revel in our age-old, universal fascination with language.

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9780358278153

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Ellen Jovin is, literally, a public grammarian, doling out advice on myriad fine points of language from behind a folding table she first set up in Manhattan's Verdi Park. In Rebel with a Clause, Jovin shares not only her story as an itinerant language maven but so much first-rate wisdom about everything from the effective wielding of commas to differentiating between 'effect' and 'affect' (to say nothing of 'who' and 'whom') that you may not realize till you finish the book that you've learned so much. And she does it with sweetness and an enviable generosity of spirit. She never hectors, never finger-points; she enlightens and illuminates. This is lovely work. --Benjamin Dreyer, author of the New York Times bestseller Dreyer's English In Rebel with a Clause, Ellen Jovin has given us a street-level view of English grammar and usage, engaging with kids, drunks, cranks, and dads all over this land. From Verdi Square to Venice Beach, Fargo to New Orleans, she brings organization and clarity to every subject she lights on, presiding over the Grammar Table with tact, humility, and irrepressible playfulness. A fresh and democratic take on language by a gifted teacher.--Mary Norris, author of Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen and Greek to Me

Author Information

ELLEN JOVIN is a founder of Syntaxis, a communication skills training consultancy. She holds degrees from Harvard in German and UCLA in comparative literature, and has studied 25 languages just for fun. She lives with her husband in New York City.

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