The truth about English is that it can get pretty boring. Dangling modifiers, gerunds, punctuation marks--it's enough to make you want to drop out of high school. Swearing and sex on the other hand, well, these time-honored pastimes warm the cockles of our hearts. Now, The Elements of F*cking Style drags English grammar out of the ivory tower and into the gutter, injecting a dull subject with a much-needed dose of color.
This book addresses everything from common questions ("What the hell is a pronoun?") to philosophical conundrums ("Does not using paragraphs or periods make my thesis read like it was written by a mental patient?"). Other valuable sections include:
•All I've got in this world are my sentences and my balls, and I don't break 'em for nobody
•A colon is more than an organ that gets cancer
•Words your bound to f*ck up
One glance at your friend's blog should tell you everything you need to know about the sorry state of the English language. This book gives you the tools you need to stop looking like an idiot on message boards and in interoffice memos. Grammar has never before been so much f*cking fun.
Grammar nerds
Chris Baker and
Jacob Hansen are the cofounders of The F*cking Word of the Day.
Grammar nerds Chris Baker and Jacob Hansen are the cofounders of The F*cking Word of the Day.
JACOB HANSEN graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a B.A. in political science and a minor in humanities. After spending several years as the president of a technology firm, Jacob has returned to the warm bosom of student loans and academia, at Wake Forest University's School of Law.