Curtis Honeycutt - Good Grammar Is the Life of the Party: Tips for a Wildly Successful Life

Advance Praise for

Good Grammar is the Life of the Party

Honeycutts approach to grammar is hilarious and refreshing. Every one can improve their grammar by reading this book. Not only is this book funny and instructive, but readers will be surprised to find how good grammar can help you improve all areas of your life.

Cathy Heller, host of Dont Keep Your Day Job podcast

Dont be fooled by the light-hearted and sometimes flat-out funny tone of this book. Its full of valuable information and tips that will serve you well in your writing.

Kwei Quartey, author of The Missing American

Good Grammar is the Life of the Party is destined to be a twenty-first century classic for both rookie writers and those more experienced.

Dave Lieber, The Dallas Morning News

Never before has good grammar usage been so entertaining and easy to remember. Honeycutts humorous approach teaches correct grammar, and all writers can benefit.

Suzette Martinez Standring

Executive Director, National Society of Newspaper Columnists

There are grammar nerds and then there is Curtis Honeycutt, whose hilarious columns entertain our newspaper readers each Saturday. Now, with Good Grammar is the Life of the Party, they no longer have to wait for their fix of dangling modifiers, dangling mailmen, eggcorns and nounimals.

Karen Francisco, Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette

Curtis is the real life of the party! His book is required reading for anyone thinking of writing anything beyond a grocery list. Laugh, think, and write better than ever!

Angela Kellogg, Clare County Cleaver

Curtis Honeycutts new book, Good Grammar is the Life of the Party, is a clever combination of sophisticated wit, fascinating facts, useful advice, and hilarious pop culture references. This book is so much funa must-read for anyone who loves to laugh and learn!

Lisa Smith Molinari, author of The Meat & Potatoes of Life

The problem with Honeycutts new book is once you start reading it, you dont want to stop. Its just that interesting.

Steve Kittey, Latrobe Bulletin

I learned more about proper grammar reading Curtis Honeycutts fantastic book, GoodGrammaristheLifeoftheParty, than I did in reading the complete works of William Shakespeare, the Merriam-Webster dictionary, or Strunk and Whites The Elements of Style. However, that may perhaps be due to not having actually read any of those other books

John Branning, author of Keys To The Truculent Me: And Other Things That Drive Me Crazy

I loved this book. I will love it again every time I reread it. Im asking my kids to put it in my coffin when I go to Heaven. With my glasses. Just in case.

Kathy Eliscu, author of Not Even Dark Chocolate Can Fix This Mess

Mark Twain said, The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between the lightning and the lightning-bug. In his debut book, Good Grammar is the Life of the Party, Curtis Honeycutt takes Twains homespun advice to heart in what may be the most entertaining book about grammar ever written.

Teri Rizvi, founder and director of the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop

This book will help you remember grammar rules you cant keep straight and make you aware of grammar quirks you either didnt know or didnt know you knewall while making you laugh the whole time.

Hannah Romero, The Rocket-Miner

Good Grammar is the Life of the Party is hilariously insightful for those of us who manipulate (butcher?) the English language for a living. So rarely do learning and laughing go hand-in-hand as well as they do in the Grammar Guys Good Grammar book.

Joe Southern, The Sealy News

Good Grammar is the Life of the Party is required reading for anyone looking for a good time. Youll very much enjoy its self-effacing, eclectic style.

Chris Carosa, author of Hamburger Dreams: How Classic Crime Solving Techniques Helped Crack the Case of Americas Greatest Culinary Mystery

Honeycutt is genuinely funny, and he uses his humor to impart life lessons amid grammar rules told in ways you will be able to remember.

Lori Duff, author of If You Did What I Asked in the First Place

GOOD GRAMMAR

IS THE LIFE OF THE PARTY

Noblesville, Indiana

Copyright 2020 by Curtis Honeycutt

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, contact The County Publishing

Printed in the United States of America

Published by The County Publishing Noblesville, Indiana thecountybooks.com

Portions of this work have previously appeared in newspapers.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019917322 ISBN: 9780578560038

ISBN: 9780578560045 (ebook)

Printed in the United States of America

Cover design by Laurent Collective laurentcollective.com

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate internet addresses and other information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

For my high school English teachers, who taught me that words and ideas can (still) change the world.

Grammar is the greatest joy in life, dont you find?

Lemony Snicket

Few books outside of religious holy texts (and the Lord of the Rings series) have a propensity to change the trajectories of readers lives. This is one of those books.

As someone who was an English major for one semester, I am uniquely qualified to equip you with all the right grammar tools to make your life as awesome as you want it to be. Heres how I see it: theres enough good grammar for everyone. Its available to us all in unlimited quantities. In this way, grammar is better than oil, water, money, and even prize-winning miniature ponies. This is one of those a rising tide lifts all ships situations.

By elevating your grammar, you can elevate your status in life. This applies to your social life, work life, love life, and every other aspect of your life. Good grammar makes everything better.

Think about it this way: I recently did two things to make my life roughly 12% better. First of all, the faucet on my kitchen sink didnt spray well because I had unsuccessfully tinkered with it. Because of this, the water pressure from the faucet was slightly stronger than a trickle. After months of enduring this low-level misery, I ended up calling the good people at Kohler (whofor the recorddidnt pay me to promote their excellent products) and requesting a new sprayer head nozzle. Not only did they send me a new one, but they didnt even charge me for it. I put the new nozzle on correctly and now my faucet has the spraying capacity of a top-of-the-line fire department hose. This made my life 5% better.