Between You & Me (Norris) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Between You & Me:

1. How important is proper grammar, usage, and punctuation? Given today's shortened and very efficient methods for communicating (starting way back with the telegraph and Morse Code), why the emphasis on the aforementioned? Does it utlimately matter?

2. When did you last study the mechanics of writing (grammar, punctuation, et al), and how much had you forgotten until you read Between You & Me? Do you find it all difficult to understand—in other words, is it nonsensical to you? Or is there a basic logic underlying our grammatical rules?

3. Follow-up to Question 3: Explain the apostrophe!

4. Point out where Mary Norris uses humor to drive a point home. What, in particular, made you laugh?

5. Over all, how imprortant are grammatical rules, and when can you break those rules? Can following the rules "to a T" risk erasing the personality of the writer? Consider the letter that Jacqueline Kennedy wrote to Richard Nixon after JFK's husband's death. Was Norris's correction as personal...or powerful as the original?

6. What have you learned from reading Between You  & Me? Have you come away with a better understanding of grammar and punctution? Or is all still a mystery to you?

(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)

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