ELLEN JOVIN is a founder of Syntaxis, a communication skills training consultancy. She holds degrees from Harvard in German and UCLA in comparative literature, and has studied 25 languages just for fun. She lives with her husband in New York City.
"A delightful, educative journey through some prickly regions of
English grammar...Jovin positions herself, convincingly, as not
just a linguistic, but an emotional counselor, fostering healthy
communication rather than judgement...The invitation she poses in
her introduction--'Now, please lie down on a nice couch with this
book and let's have some grammar therapy'--is well worth
accepting."
-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"Jovin uses a combination of
intuition and established guidelines to demonstrate that there's
almost always more than one correct answer to questions of
communication. Along the way, she shares funny anecdotes about the
interactions at her booth and how it functioned as an outlet for
individuals to passionately express their points of view...Fellow
language lovers will enjoy the ride." -- Publishers Weekly"In Rebel
with a Clause, Ellen Jovin has given us a street-level view of
English grammar and usage, engaging with kids, drunks, cranks, and
dads all over this land. From Verdi Square to Venice Beach, Fargo
to New Orleans, she brings organization and clarity to every
subject she lights on, presiding over the Grammar Table with tact,
humility, and irrepressible playfulness. A fresh and democratic
take on language by a gifted teacher." -- Mary Norris, author of
Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen and Greek to
Me"This is perhaps the most imaginative book ever written about
grammar--essentially a series of autobiographical short stories in
which the recurring character, Ellen Jovin, plays the educational,
charming, and ever-patient protagonist. If you can't stop by her
grammar table, stop and buy her book at your favorite bookshop." --
Bryan A. Garner, author of Garner's Modern English Usage"Of all
things a jolly grammar book! Curl up and finally take in those
niceties of grammar that you always feel like you haven't paid
quite enough attention to. Jovin has the gift of making grammar
feel like charcuterie instead of medicine--and along the way you
also get invaluable randomnesses such as that there are people in
Ohio who pronounce 'vigil' as 'vid-ju-al'!" -- John McWhorter
"Those who learn grammatical rules are doomed to repeat them. And,
boy, do they repeat them--tirelessly, senselessly, bringing us to
the point where much of the English-speaking world thinks grammar
is boring or difficult or scary. Ellen Jovin is on a mission to
rescue us from that joyless fate. Her generosity and curiosity
about language is second only to her generosity and curiosity with
the people who approach her for grammatical advice. We could all
stand to be a bit more Ellen Jovin." -- Lynne Murphy, Professor of
Linguistics, University of Sussex, and author of The Prodigal
Tongue"Ellen Jovin is, literally, a public grammarian, doling out
advice on myriad fine points of language from behind a folding
table ...Jovin shares not only her story as an itinerant language
maven but so much first-rate wisdom about everything from the
effective wielding of commas to differentiating between 'effect'
and 'affect' (to say nothing of 'who' and 'whom') that you may not
realize till you finish the book that you've learned so much. And
she does it with sweetness and an enviable generosity of spirit.
She never hectors, never finger-points; she enlightens and
illuminates. This is lovely work." -- Benjamin Dreyer, author of
the New York Times bestseller Dreyer's English
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