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Meet Anne Curzan, author of Says Who? A kinder, funnier usage guide for everyone who cares about words.
Sponsored by the University of Michigan Alumni Association of Toledo
Anne Curzan will speak at the program, followed by a question-and-answer session. This event is free, and book sales and signing will occur after the program.
ABOUT THE BOOK
SAYS WHO? A KINDER, FUNNER USAGE GUIDE FOR EVERYONE WHO CARES ABOUT WORDS
Linguist and veteran English professor Anne Curzan equips readers with the tools they need to adeptly manage (a split infinitive?! You betcha!) formal and informal writing and speaking. After all, we don’t want to be caught wearing our linguistic pajamas to a job interview any more than we want to show up for a backyard barbecue in a verbal tux, asking, “To whom shall I pass the ketchup?” Curzan helps us use our new knowledge about the developing nature of language and grammar rules to become caretakers of language rather than gatekeepers of it. Applying entertaining examples from literature, newspapers, television, and more, Curzan welcomes usage novices and encourages the language police to lower their pens, showing us how we can care about language precision, clarity, and inclusion all at the same time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Professor Anne Curzan is Geneva Smitherman Collegiate Professor of English, Linguistics, and Education and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan.
She also currently serves as the dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Her newest book, “Says Who? A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words,” released on March 26, 2024.
Professor Curzan is an expert on the history of the English language, and in addition to studying how the language itself has changed over the past 1500 years, she explores how attitudes about words and grammar have shifted. She describes herself as a fount of random linguistic information about the English language, which she enjoys sharing online and on the radio. Professor Curzan can be found talking about language on the weekly show “That’s What They Say” on local NPR station Michigan Radio; she also wrote biweekly (in the every two weeks sense!) for six years for the blog Lingua Franca on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s website. Her TED talk “What makes a word ‘real’?” has more than 2.1 million views on the national TED talk site.
Sensory Considerations: This program will use dim artificial lighting. Microphones will be used.
Accessibility Details: Located in the Auditorium, accessed by a ramp. All doors will be propped before the program starts. Low pile carpet throughout the building. Limited free parking is available.
