Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, 3rd Edition [Hardcover, paperback, e-books]


Patricia T. O'Conner



(from the publisher) It's been called "possibly the most popular book on grammar ever published." Now the witty bestseller that took the nation by storm is back in a revised, expanded edition with new dos and don?ts from top to bottom.

     In this new "Woe Is I, Patricia T. O" Conner displays the same fresh, irreverent humor that has charmed hundreds of thousands of readers. There are new chapters on spelling and pronunciation, and updates throughout. But you'll find the same down-to-earth explanations in clear, plain English, the same sensible solutions to the grammar mysteries that bug even the best of us. O'Conner manages to unscramble the most complicated problems in simple, easy-to- swallow language. So you won?t encounter the kind of intimidating terminology that made you want to skip your high school English class. This funny, wise, and indispensable guide shows readers how to:

• avoid the persistent grammatical errors that tie everyone?even presidents!? in knots
• watch their tongues and learn to pronounce commonly mangled words
• correctly use dozens of much-abused words and phrases

What's your problem? Intimidated by possessives? Puzzled over pronouns? Clueless about how to say "banal?"

     The updated Woe Is I provides witty, jargon-free answers to all your questions about the basics as well as the subtleties of grammar, style, and usage. No wonder The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called O?Conner's classic "the best primer on English usage to come along since Strunk and White's The Elements of Style."
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(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.



​(from Michael) This book is in my in-box, but I expect it to be very good.



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