Words Fail Me

by O'Conner, Patricia T.

• ISBN13: 9780151003716
• ISBN10: 0151003718
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-01
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

And not a minute too soon! Armed with our laptops and our PCs, we're the writing-est generation ever, cranking out e-mail, Web pages, electronic bulletin board postings, not to mention office memos, faxes, reports, newsletters, school papers, even memoirs and novels. But many of us were never taught how to write a sentence that makes sense, how to make sure our words do justice to our ideas. The result? Never have so many written so much so badly. Patricia T. O'Conner comes to the rescue with Words Fail Me, a practical and witty guide to the elements of good writing. She takes you through the writing process step by step. Pat O'Conner has done it again. So, there'll be no more staring blankly at an empty screen. Words Fail Me will charm the good writer out of you.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(8)
Part 1 Pull Yourself Together
Is Your Egg Ready to Hatch? Know the Subject	9	(3)
``The Party to Whom I Am Speaking'': Know the Audience	12	(5)
Get with the Program: The Organized Writer	17	(9)
Commencement Address: The First Few Words	26	(9)
From Here to Uncertainty: How Am I Doing?	35	(14)
Part 2 The Fundamental Things Apply
Pompous Circumstances: Hold the Baloney	49	(7)
The Life of the Party: Verbs That Zing	56	(4)
Call Waiting: Putting the Subject on Hold	60	(8)
Now, Where Were We?
A Time and a Place for Everything	63	(5)
The It Parade: Pronoun Pileups	68	(4)
Smothering Heights: Misbehaving Modifiers	72	(15)
Too Marvelous for Words: The Sensible Sentence	87	(6)
Made for Each Other: Well-Matched Sentences	93	(6)
Give Me a Break: Thinking in Paragraphs	99	(6)
The Elongated Yellow Fruit: Fear of Repetition	105	(3)
Training Wheels: Belaboring the Obvious	108	(3)
Critique of Poor Reason: The Art of Making Sense	111	(6)
Grammar Moses: Thou Shalt Not Embarrass Thyself	117	(12)
Down for the Count: When the Numbers Don't Add Up	129	(12)
Part 3 Getting Better All the Time
Lost Horizon: What's the Point of View?	141	(8)
Wimping Out: The Backward Writer	149	(6)
Everybody's Favorite Subject: I, Me, My	155	(10)
Promises, Promises: Making Them, Keeping Them	165	(6)
You Got Rhythm: Writing to the Beat	171	(9)
The Human Comedy: What's So Funny?	180	(11)
I Second That Emotion: Once More, with Feeling	191	(6)
The Importance of Being Honest: Leveling with the Reader	197	(5)
Once around the Block: What to Do When You're Stuck	202	(8)
Debt before Dishonor: How and What to Borrow	210	(5)
Revise and Consent: Getting to the Finish Line	215	(7)
Appendix	222	(1)
Bibliography	223	(1)
Index	224