Lots of people have great senses of humor but find slang offensive when it is on the printed page and out of context. If this is true for you, then this edition of On Being a Sh*t is a good choice. Each of the slang terms in the book has an asterisk in a key place.

The book is a humorous look at a serious topic of how people cover up unkind deeds. It also shows how to test theory using qualitative methods. Graduate students, professors, and researchers will find this a helpful text and great for research methods courses.

I wrote this book and had a wonderful time doing it. It was great fun to develop and test a theory of being a sh*t. I am a professor and believe in the scientific method.

I learned about being a sh*t through my research on violence, where after years of interviewing prison inmates, I heard many stories where they threw children under the bus, so to speak, rather than tell the truth that they abused them. I saw many of the same things with rapists and murderers. Somehow their victims were to blame.

As I realized how many violent people cover up their unkind deeds, I started to see that the rest of us do it, too, though our deeds aren't as awful--usually--as the deeds I heard so much about in prisons.

I decided to write a book about the everyday unkind deeds that we all are guilty of. I chose the title because after reading Harry Frankfurt's On Bullsh*t, I realized that if he could do it, I could. Frankfurt is a retired professor of philosophy and I am a professor of social work. Frankfurt wrote an essay, and I conducted research. This the book is a report on the research I did.

I first developed a preliminary theory and then I tested it on a series of stories. I end with a revised and improved theory and in the process discover basic principles of how to build bridges after you have done something unkind and dishonest.

This is a humorous look at a serious topic. If we all could do what this book advocates, we'd all be better off and the world would change. I'm not too optimistic in that regard because being a sh*t gains far too much for enactors to ever give it up.

For those who don't like to read slang or prefer to use it in private, this book is available in an alternative format with asterisks in key places at http://www.lulu.com/content/2239317 and in its full use of slang at Kindle books http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_kinc/102-4613065-0508113?url=node%3D154606011&field-keywords=jane+gilgun&x=18&y=7 and also at http://www.lulu.com/content/1151441.

I had an agent for this book, but the he was not able to sell it, although editors were enthusiastic about the book's potential. Back then, the manuscript was in bad shape. The present version is much improved and it is sure to help many people deal with this ubiquitous human condition.

For readers who want to be sh*ts, this book is a step-by-step guide.

Above all, this book is a response to a pressing social need.

This book is ideal for anyone who has ever said "Is it me?" "What have I done?" or "How can I get out of this?" Buy copies for yourself, your put-upon relatives and friends, and as a humorous hint to troublesome co-workers, neighbors, family members, and friends.

This book is for teachers, parents, spouses, humorists, comedians, therapists, social workers, addicts, survivors, codependents, linguists, post-structuralists, researchers, critical discourse analysts, politicians, investment bankers, financial analysts, lawyers and anyone else who has committed unkind deeds and then tried to cover up.