The mountain man's field guide to grammar : a fearless adve nture in grammar, style, and usage

" The Mountain Man's Field Guide to Grammar " is the brainchild of a man who loved to write, but hated learning the rules." Samuel G. Freedman, the New York Times A Fearless Adventure in Grammar, Style, and Usage Conquer new frontiers with this fresh & outrageous take on grammar! The Mountain Man's Field Guide to Grammar - with its fresh, witty, and humorous style - turns the stuffy old grammar book format on its head, delightfully reminding you that grammar can actually be fun. Whether you are a writer, professional, student, or just an adventurous soul, The Mountain Man's Field Guide to Grammar is the perfect trail guide to lead you safely through the tangles and gorges of the grammar wilderness. Seasoned throughout with colorful stories, clever anecdotes, and offbeat words of wisdom, The Mountain Man's Field Guide to Grammar relives the rollicking, riotous days of the old West and the long-lost lore of the mountain man. Mount up, and keep a sharp eye. Keep your steel keen and your powder dry. Where we go, few follow. "In writing this book, I have attempted to make each line of text, each rule of grammar, and each example fresh and new and original. But a noun is a noun and a verbal is a verbal, and festooning them in gaudy finery can neither add nor detract from their essence. American grammar and constructionthe essential stuffis staid and stately, elegant, sensuous, raw, and beautiful." Gary Spina Title Page......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction......Page 12 Preface: The Mountain Man......Page 15 The Horse before the Travois: Parts of Speech and the Basic Sentence......Page 19 Dogs and Ponies Pulling the Travois: Identifying Sentence Elements......Page 33 The Way the Stick Floats: Subject-Verb Agreement......Page 56 Civilizing Nouns, Verbs, and Other Wild Things......Page 82 The Ha’r of the B’ar: Mastering the Wily Pronoun......Page 116 Loading Your Packhorse: Moody Verbs and More of the Advanced Stuff......Page 166 Counting Coup: Modifying and Modulating with Adjectives and Adverbs......Page 174 The Tamed Cougar and the Domesticated Mountain Man: Encountering the Elusive Verbal......Page 207 My Stick Floats with Yours: Conjunctions and Transitions......Page 224 Claws of the Clause, Forays of the Phrase: Subduing Clauses and Phrases......Page 236 Smoke Signals: Style and Wile......Page 246 Usage and Stuff to Make Others Think You’re Smart: The Fancy, Foofaraw Stuff......Page 280 Epilogue......Page 350 Glossary......Page 352 Bibliography......Page 358 Index......Page 362 About the Author......Page 368 Holy smokes! If this had been my grammar book back in junior high, or whenever it was that the tedium of rules overcame my innate joy of learning, I'd have probably learned all this stuff. Learned it and spared countless teachers, professors and bosses along the way the trouble stumbling over my confusion of punctuation and mixed tenses. Want to tune up your grammar and have a good time doing so? Buy the book!

Conquer new frontiers with this fresh & outrageous take on grammar!