"Īdvance praise for If You Catch an Adjective, Kill It Read, and discover a book whose pop culture references, humorous asides, and bracing doses of discernment and common sense convey Yagoda s unique sense of the beauty, the joy, the artistry, and the fun of language. Laugh when Yagoda says he shall call anyone a dork to the end of his days who insists on maintaining the distinction between shall and will. Marvel at how a single word can shift from adverb ( I did okay ), to adjective ( It was an okay movie ), to interjection ( Okay! ), to noun ( I gave my okay ), to verb ( Who okayed this? ), depending on its use.Īvoid the pretentious preposition at, a favorite of real estate developers (e.g., The Shoppes at White Plains ). Learn how to write better with classic advice from writers such as Mark Twain ( If you catch an adjective, kill it ), Stephen King ( I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs ), and Gertrude Stein ( Nouns. Read If You Catch an Adjective, Kill It and: Not since School House Rock have adjectives, adverbs, articles, conjunctions, interjections, nouns, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs been explored with such infectious exuberance. In his waggish yet authoritative book, Ben Yagoda has managed to undo the dark work of legions of English teachers and libraries of dusty grammar texts. What do you get when you mix nine parts of speech, one great writer, and generous dashes of insight, humor, and irreverence? One phenomenally entertaining language book. Will Rogers: A Biography ( Alfred A.Not since "School House Rock" have adjectives, adverbs, articles, conjunctions, interjections, nouns, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs been explored with such infectious exuberance.Yagoda resides in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania with his wife. He has published a number of books including About Town: The New Yorker and the World it Made.īesides his work as a journalism and English professor at the University of Delaware, Yagoda also writes occasionally for a New York Times blog about the English language. He became a freelance journalist for publications such as The New Leader, The New York Times, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone. in American civilization at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1991. He entered Yale University to study English in 1971 and graduated in 1976 with a bachelor of arts.
He is a professor of journalism and English at the University of Delaware.īorn in New York City to Louis Yagoda (1909-1990), a labor mediator and arbitrator with the New York State Mediation Board, visiting lecturer at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and a former organizer for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and Harriet (née Lewis), he grew up in New Rochelle, New York. The New Leader, The New York Times, Newsweek, Rolling Stoneīen Yagoda (born 22 February 1954) is an American writer and educator.
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