Customer Reviews

Things That Make Us (Sic): The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar Takes on Madison Avenue, Hollywood, the White House, and the World

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Like a one-woman vigilante, Martha Brockenbrough* exposes assorted crimes against the English language and offers crisp, witty advice on spelling, grammar, and usage to the offenders. Her favored tactic is the open letter, wherein she points out the mistakes in (gently) mocking fashion, then goes on to suggest remedies. All with infinitely greater wit than Lynne Truss, in this reviewer's opinion.

Her point of view is stated with admirable clarity on page 3:

"It is time for those of us who love and respect our language to take it back. Clear, grammatical communication is society's foundation. It is what helps us understand and be understood. If we let that bedrock crumble from neglect, or if we actively chip away at it in a misguided fit of anti-intellectualism, then we run the risk of watching the world around us collapse."

Ms Brockenbrough covers familiar terrain, efficiently and entertainingly, in ten chapters (250 pages):

Grammar for spammers and pop stars.
Vizzinis, Evil Twins, and Vampires.
You Put a Spell on Me.
Vulgar Latin and Latin Lovers.
$%&*#$ Punctuation
No, You Can't Has Cheezburger? The Parts of Speech and How Sentences Form.
Things that Make Us Tense.
Cliches - why Shakespeare is a Pox Upon Us.
The Enemy Within - Flab, Jargon, and the People in your Office.
Rules that Never Were, are no More, and Should be Broken.

Whether taking David Hasselhoff to task for describing his life story as 'heart-rendering' or enumerating all 21 errors in Congressman Mark Foley's now-infamous erotic text message to a congressional page ("the word is not spelled 'buldge'; 'one-eyed snake' needs a hyphen; 'hand job' has only one a"), Martha Brockenbrough is never less than entertaining.

This book is both a welcome, witty salvo in the war against bad English and a hilariously helpful guide on how to avoid it.

*: Ms Brockenbrough is the founder of SPOGG, the Society for Promotion of Good Grammar, whose website is at www.SPOGG.org

Most grammar reference books are dry and serious, but THINGS THAT MAKE US [sic] is both instructional and entertaining. It's a quick read and a handy reference. I recommend it to anyone who writes for a living, and to folks like me who just like good grammar.

I'm a writer by profession and a grammar instructor, too. I urge all writers to keep a copy of this book at their desks. Not only is it humorous and concise, it's well organized for a grammar reference. I don't know the author personally, but I follow her SPOGG blog. Her grammar tips are worth bookmarking, too. (http://spogg.org)

This is an awesome way to look at grammar! I wish I had this book in high school or even jr. high. Grammar was tough - because it was so bloody boring. This book is a handy reference that I keep on my desk now. As a professional reviewer, I wish I could send it out to all the authors whose work I have to wade through. I would recommend this book to anyone; though especially the high school or jr. high student in your life that hates (and struggles through) grammar. It's never too early or too late to find a love for good grammar.

Martha Brockenbrough has produced a book that marries grammar with humor in a most delightful way. She addresses common language stumbling stones such as evil twins, cliches, jargon, and flab and offers all the spelling tips, hints, and rules that are fit to print. It is hugely entertaining, with letters to high-profile language abusers, including David Hasselhoff, George W. Bush, and Canada's Maple Leafs [sic], as well as a letter to -- and a reply from -- Her Majesty, the Queen of England.

A funny yet enlightening book which deftly explains some of the confusing words, phrases, and punctuation dilemmas of the English language. The author is the founder of TSPOGG (The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar - and PLEASE don't misspell that last word). Brockenbrough writes letters to people who offend her - grammatically speaking. She includes copies of her letters in the book. She even includes the response she received after writing to Queen Elizabeth II. Whether you know grammar or only know of Kelsey Grammer, this book is enjoyable.

If you have a sense of humor about words, you will enjoy how this book disects common errors propagated by common misuse. You may even improve your writing as you enjoy a fun book.

This book is a sleeper. Who ever thought a book on grammer (oops, grammar) would cause me to fall off my chair in repetitive laughter. This book cleans up all the little mistakes I've made throughout my life (spell minuscule, not miniscule!), with heavy doses of politics, Bush-isms, rock-and-roll, and bawdy irreverence. It is a short read, but you will speak and read better after reading it. I wish my teenagers would read it!

I have long been a spelling/punctuation/grammar snob, and I enjoy Martha Brockenbrough's columns on Encarta, so I definitely had to check out her rant on grammar issues. She even slams spammers (not that she'd ever actually hit reply to one) for the spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors that litter their messages. What differentiates her from Lynne Truss, the British author of "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" is her humorous way of tackling such issues.

Brockenbrough also shatters some old grammar myths, probably brought over from people who would use English like Latin. No, it is NOT forbidden to split an infinitive; in some cases it's absolutely necessary. Not it is NOT forbidden to end a sentence with a preposition if reconstructing the sentence would sound awkward (and yes, "Where's he at?" is utterly forbidden, because "Where is he?" makes perfect sense). Yes, you CAN begin a sentence with a conjunction

If you've ever used "it's" as a possessive; if you've ever written "your" when you mean "you are"; if you aren't sure whether to use their, there, or they're, you desperately need to get this book for a quick lesson.

Martha's Brockenbrough's "Things that Make us [sic]" is without question the funniest, hippest book on grammar you'll ever read. Brokenbrough certainly isn't the first writer to take a humorous approach to such issues as comma misuse, uncalled-for apostrophes and scrambled tenses (think "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss and Patricia T. O'Connor's "Woe is I.") But what other book on grammar showcases examples of what not to do drawn from, among other things, emails from former congressman Mark Foley to his intern, the online ramblings of Courtney Love, or the illiterate pronouncements of the infamous LOLcats?

Beyond the humor and the hipness, though, this book has some serious substance. In addition to the usual conjugations of "lie" and "lay" and list of commonly misspelled words, Brockenbrough gives the reader some rare treats such as lists of common Latin phrases, an enlightening discussion of cliches, and an entire chapter on slicing buzzwords and bloat from our written communications. Writers, editors and students will want to keep the book handy as a reference for those nagging mechanics and usage questions that always seem to pop up.

The only drawback to this book is that its references to current politics and pop culture are bound to feel dated within a few years. That's a shame, because "Things that Make us [sic]" is an incisive look at language that deserves to be around for a long, long time.