June Casagrande Grammar Snob

June Casagrande writes Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide To Language for Fun and Spite to empower the average English speaker to reclaim their language. Casagrande is candid about the reality of using grammar in the English world; her most reassuring point being that a native speaker already knows how to speak and write but, “[They] just don’t know [they] know” (7). Each chapter of her book uses humor to teach explicitly the grammar rules the “Grammar Snobs” exploit to embarrass those who do not speak perfectly. A “grammar snob” is a person who finds pleasure in insulting those who do not understand the rules of English even though they speak it. She uses this snobbery to create clever examples that center around situations that

Having been able to write a book makes her a grammar authority in the minds of the reader, but to equate herself to her audience, the grammar novice, she presents the steps that lead her to creating this book. In chapter twenty, title “How to Drop Out of High School in the Ninth Grade and Still Make Big Bucks Telling People How to Use Good Grammar: ‘That’ versus ‘Which’”, she writes step-by-step instructions explaining how she went from dropout to author. Her journey is relatable, as she makes reference to the feeling of being an imposter pretending to understand the rules of grammar for the sake of her reputation. The final steps of her journey “Point out...that the grammar emperors wear no clothes” (87). A reference to the story of the emperor being tricked into believing he was wearing the most beautiful clothes means to show the reader that those who paint themselves as experts have tricked themselves into believing the are intellectually superior, but this knowledge is a false cover. Her last chapter, “You Really Can Look It Up”, addresses the fear of not having all the answers. Casagrande’s gives the reader a list of different grammar usage manuals and tells them the most important secret. All good writers have a grammar manual sitting within reach on their desk. No one knows all the rules of English grammar, so the “snobs” are faking their understanding just as much as everyone