Woe Is I The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English(Second Edition)

by O'Conner, Patricia T.

• ISBN13: 9781573222525
• ISBN10: 1573222526
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-07-28
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover

Summary

The witty, bestselling grammar book that taught a nation better English is revised, updated, and e x p a n d e d for the new millennium, with fresh dos and don'ts in every chapter. Plus a word to the wired-a whole new chapter on language in the age of e-mail. Unlike, say, Latin, English is a living language-and, like all living things, it grows, it changes, and it can be messy and confusing. And now Woe Is Ihas grown and changed too. Here's the latest and greatest on the basics and subtleties of the language from America's beloved grammar guru Patricia T. O'Conner. She's renovated her classic, using plain English to un-tangle the knottiest of problems, skipping the kind of jargon that tempted you to cut your high school English class. Run, don't walk, to your local bookstore.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION	vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	xi
INTRODUCTION	xiii
1. Woe Is I
Therapy for Pronoun Anxiety	1	(18)
2. Plurals Before Swine
Blunders with Numbers	19	(18)
3. Yours Truly
The Possessives and the Possessed	37	(12)
4. They Beg to Disagree
Putting Verbs in Their Piece	49	(32)
5. Verbal Abuse
Words on the Endangered List	81	(52)
6. Comma Sutra
The Joy of Punctuation	133	(26)
7. The Comleat Dangler
A Fish out of Water	159	(8)
8. Death Sentence
Do Cliches Deserve to Die?	167	(14)
9. The Living Dead
Let Bygone Rules Be Gone	181	(14)
10. Saying Is Believing
How to Write What You Mean	195	(10)
11. E-Mail Intuition
Does Anything Go?	205	(14)
GLOSSARY	219	(12)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	231	(2)
INDEX	233