Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know about Writing - Hardcover

Patricia T. O'Conner

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151003718 ISBN 13: 9780151003716

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999

Synopsis

A practical guide to good writing takes readers step by step through the process, offering valuable advice on how to cut through the purple prose, put your subject where the action is, and extricate weak words, among other topics. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Authors

Patrcia T. O'Conner was an editor at the New York Times Book Review when she wrote Woe Is I. Her writing has appeared in many magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times and Newsweek. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, Stewart Kellerman.

Patrcia T. O'Conner was an editor at the New York Times Book Review when she wrote Woe Is I. Her writing has appeared in many magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times and Newsweek. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, Stewart Kellerman.

Reviews

This book is for beginning writers--those who want to write or need to write but find that the words get in the way. Those words may include misplaced modifiers, passive verbs, and split infinitives, among others. Students writing papers, employees preparing reports, and those who just want to be understood in print may benefit from this fun-to-use answer to Strunk and White. O'Connor uses humor as she takes apart sentences and their parts and shows how each element is used effectively. She does get into the heavy-duty writing tools and even the pitfalls, including point of view, jargon, and rhythm. Marlene Chamberlain

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0151003718
• ISBN 13: 9780151003716
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224