Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, Second Edition - Softcover

O'Conner, Patricia T.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594480060 ISBN 13: 9781594480065

Publisher: Riverhead Trade, 2004

Synopsis

An expanded edition of the best-selling guide to English grammar and usage encompasses the latest updates to the English language, providing straightforward coverage of common mistakes and usage errors while offering a new chapter on Internet and e-mail language. Reprint.

About this title

About the Author:

Patricia T. O'Conner, a former editor at the New York Times Book Review, has written for many magazines and newspapers. She is the author of two other books on language and writing, Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing and, with Stuart Kellerman, You Send Me: Getting it Right When You Write Online.

From Publishers Weekly:

The second edition of O'Connor's delightful guide to good English offers a new chapter on e-mail etiquette that ought to make many people-even grammar snobs-feel a tad guilty: "E-mail," she writes, "is no excuse for lousy English." Let your audience determine your attention to tone and mechanics; use salutations and signatures; resist the urge to indiscriminately forward mail; and leave those emoticons and abbreviations at home, she says. Commonsense stuff-but every once in a while, it's nice to be reminded. The rest of the volume is similar to the first: witty, economical and fun to read, it explains the secrets to grammar in refreshingly jargon-free sentences illustrated by numerous examples ("'I assure you,' said the grieving widow, 'I ensured he was insured to the hilt'"). When is "majority" plural, and when singular? How does saying "Trixie loves spaghetti more than I?" mean something completely different than "Trixie loves spaghetti more than me?" While the volume is certainly handy to someone struggling with grammar basics-there are few style guides so breezy-the "Verbal Abuse" section will appeal to language experts and purists, especially those who decry the use of partner as a verb, or grow with a direct object (as in "grow the business"). As for those who like to use dialogue as a verb, "Don't talk to them," O'Connor says.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Riverhead Trade
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1594480060
• ISBN 13: 9781594480065
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 240