E-Book Overview
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Former New York Times Book Review editor and linguistic expert O'Conner (Words Fail Me, You Send Me) updates her bestselling guide to grammar, an invigorating and entertaining dissection of our ever-evolving language. In this third edition, O'Conner guides readers through conversational conundrums with aplomb, filling in not only the logic behind the appropriate choice for, say, possessives, but also explaining such oddities as the spelling of restaurateur (instead of a "restauranteur"), the proper pronunciation of prix fix ("pree feeks") and a slew of mnemonic devices to help amateur grammarians keep ifs, ands and buts in check. It's these small digressions that make the book so readable, even for those with a deep-seated hatred for grammatical do-goodery. O'Conner gleefully eviscerates poor sentence construction and dangling participles, soothes verb tension and debunks the frequently intimidating semicolon with finesse. Tempered with a heavy dose of wit (reaching its nadir in her chapter on clichés), O'Conner's lively treatise is as vital as a dictionary for those who wish to be taken seriously in speech, in print or on Facebook.
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 You Send Me: Getting It Right When You Write Online.
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E-Book Content
"Lighthearted and funny ...It's like Strunk and White com bined with S.J. Perelman-none of whom would have had the slightest objection."
-The New York Times Book Review
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The witty bestseller that untangled the knottiest problems in the English language is back-in a revised, expanded third edition that untangles more knots than ever. In this updated version, Patricia T. O'Conner displays the same lively, irrev erent humor that has charmed and enlightened hundreds of thousands of grateful readers. There are new chapters on spelling and pronunciation, as well as fresh insights into the rights, wrongs, and maybes of English gram mar and usage. But what O'Conner hasn't changed are what make Woe Is I a classic--its down-to-earth explanations and plain-English solutions to the mysteries that bedevil us all. O'Conner unscrambles the most complicated problems in simple, easy-to-understand language. If you're a grammarphobe (or a grammarphile
), Woe Is I has playfully breezy,
jargon-free answers to all your questions about grammar, style, and usage. For more, check out grammarphobia.com
"Extraordinary ...I'm keeping this book by my keyboard." -The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Invigorating and entertaining ... As vital as a dictionary for those who wish to be taken seriously in speech, in print, or on Facebook."
-Publishers Weekly
"A nifty guidebook to modern grammar that affectionately elbows the reader on every page."
-San Francisco Chronicle ISBN 978-1-57322-331-7
www.penguin.com
EAN
www.riverheadbooks.com
REFERENCE/GRAMMAR
$15.00 U.S. $18.50 CAN
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Patricia T. O'Conner, a former editor at The New York Times Book Review, has written for many magazines and newspapers,
and is a popular blogger and radio and TV commentator. She is the author of four other books on language and writing, Words Fail Me, Woe Is I Jr., and, with Stewart Kellerman, You Send Me
and Origins ofthe Specious: Myths and Misconceptions ofthe English Language. She lives in Connecticut.
PRAISE FOR WOE/SI
"You forget so much about English as you go along being pro found in it, like who a gerund is an