Adieu, Grammar Snobs!

Well, our time with Mrs. Casagrande has now come to a close, and I'd like to reflect a bit on what I liked about the book, and what I disliked.

I think she has a strong, confident, and relatable voice. She isn't pretentious, which is great and incredibly rare it seems with authors writing on grammar. She isn't a grammar expert, and she makes that blatantly clear. Instead, she is a normal person trying to understand grammar at a functional level. She doesn't dabble in frivolous points of contention (much), but rather just examines those things that affect most people in their writing, such as quote usage, confusing words, commas, semicolons, colons--you know, the bread and butter of everyday writing. I think she did a good job relating these rules in an enjoyable way.

That being said, her chapters seemed formulaic to me. I started to expect to read a funny, short story, and then jump into rules. She tried mixing it up by having short, one paragraph chapters, but I don't think it really worked. There was also, inevitably and ironically, a slight transformation in her into a grammar snob. Maybe she didn't turn into a ravenous, frothing snob like she makes an example of in her introduction, but there is no denying she imbibes some of those qualities as her book progresses. I think she never addressed just how easy it is for one to turn into a grammar snob. Often the people who try their very hardest to learn the rules, maybe out of insecurity in their own writing, are those people who go around correcting others. It's not necessary a capital offense like she portrays it as, and it can happen to anyone.

But yeah, I enjoyed her book.