Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know about Writing

by Patricia T. O'Conner

Book Overview

From a bestselling author on grammar, Patricia O'Connor's guide to grammar fundamentals is "sympathetic to the struggling writer and often just plain funny." (The Seattle Times)Whether you are working... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151003718
• ISBN13: 9780151003716
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Add to your writer's desk collection

Reasons to buy/read this book 1. You have writer's block and need help. 2. You feel that you've confused the many rules of writing. 3. Your writing style bores you. 4. It takes you three pages to explain something that's complicated. I read "Words Fail Me" for motivation while writing my second book. The best way to move past a writer's block is to lift your confidence by sharpening your writing skills. O'Conner delivers writing confidence in about 20 easy-to-digest chapters. Patricia T. O'Conner's work is neither preachy nor boring. She speaks to the aspiring writer who may have forgotten some grammar rules while queuing you to times when you may not need to adhere to all the rules in the grammar book. Her writing is witty and makes grammar fun, for once. It's a neat refresher book to add to your writing library.

A Meeting of Art, Reason, and Fun.

Patricia O'Conner's Words Fail Me presents so many practical insights into effective writing that I suspect it would be valuable to almost any writer. And there's a bonus: she has a great sense of humor. She debunks the faux pas fallacies that snobbishly tell us how not to write -- don't use contractions, don't start sentences with conjunctions, etc. And she tells us how these supposed `rules' came to be. Wisely, O'Conner's most important rule is this:"Your first duty to the reader is to make sense. Everything else -- eloquence, beautiful images, catchy phrases, melodic and rhythmic language -- comes later, if at all. I'm all for artistry, but it's better to write something homely and clear than something lovely and unintelligible."I read quite a lot, mostly nonfiction (philosophy, reference, science, theology, and wilderness travel). Inevitably, reading compels me to write -- I've submitted more than fifty book reviews to this forum. Yet I'm never quite happy with my writing. This is not unusual. "Your favorite novel or history or memoir is just someone's last revision," says O'Conner.As a student I disliked studying the nuts and bolts of English. Words, their accuracy, economy, and artistry, interest me far more now, and this book is the first "how to write" text I have read. At the risk of belaboring the obvious (because good writing doesn't): it was a good choice.Highly recommended.

I Disagree

I disagree with the former reviewer who stated this book might be more suited for novice writers. I am a professional writer and found this book a wonderful reminder of lessons learned. I could not put it down.

As funny and useful as "Woe I"

I find "Words Fail Me" more useful than any other book about writing I've seen. The only other one that comes close is William Zinnser"s "On Writing Well," but Ms. O'Conner's book is a lot more fun to read. "Words Fail Me" also gets into areas that other books don't, such as the chapter on phoniness, "Pompous Circumstances: Hold the Baloney" and the chapter on math, "Down for the Count: When the Numbers Don't Add Up."

Another useful AND entertaining book from Ms. O'Conner!

I bought a personal copy of this author's last book, WOE IS I. After reading it and realizing how clevely it was written and how useful the content was, I went out and got 5 more for several friends. We have all found it wonderfully helpful for those vexing questions of grammar and usage. Well, Ms. O'Conner has done it again. In her witty, breezy, upbeat style she has written a truly readable book about writing. It seems like literally millions of us are communicating more and more - both instantly and globally - these days thanks to the Internet. Writing clearly and in an interesting manner has become more important than ever. And, since our own written words are often our first introduction to others, it's beneficial to each of us to learn the tricks and tips that make writing flow smoothly and represent accurately what we really mean to say. Ms. O'Conner example's are from all sorts of literature and from her own imagination. I laughed out loud at Kim and Alec in the hot tub. And several quoted passages have inspired me to read the works in which they appear. I hope this book finds a wide audience. It would be useful for anyone who writes and aspires to do it well.