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Summary: Who wudda thunk it!
Review: I never imagined I could learn so much, and laugh so hard, from reading a grammar book. Yes, "Woe Is I" is a lot of fun. More important, it's the most helpful grammar book around. Unlike all other grammar books I've seen, "Woe Is I" is written in plain English. That means you don't have to know a single grammatical term to understand it. I keep the book on my desk at work, and hardly a day goes by without my checking it.
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Summary: Quick "non-boring" grammar guide..
Review: I have always found grammar to be dull and boring in large part because my teacher in high school killed the subject and I was'nt good at it in the first place. I managed to just make the grade. This book meets my needs. You will not find long, dry, pedagogy on sentence parsing and so forth. What you will find here are succinct explanations of common grammar rules. The index and glossary are surprisingly good. I like the chapter breakdowns which are short and deal with one or two topics. This makes it easy for one to quickly find a specific rule. The jokes are quite good and do help liven things a bit. At times the humor is a tad overdone and comes across as forced. All in all, this book fills a void for folks like me who just want the grammar quick and as painlessly as possible.
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Summary: Humor Has Its Places
Review: I didn't like this book at all. I couldn't cut through the "humor" the author tried to portray to see what points she was actually trying to make. Was difficult reading. Not recommended.
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Summary: Great book for the grammar-poor.
Review: I do a considerable amount of writing for my job. Grammar has always been a weak point for me. I had little hope that this book would amend that. I already own "Elements of Style," and that has been my main helper in the past. Wow! I was blown away by this useful book. Its or It's? Now I know. Who's or Whose? Now I know. The writing style of this book is breezy and fun, yet the information is solid. The book can be read straight through, or kept on the shelf as a reference. I recommend both approaches. I read the book in it's entire first, and now I check back on it when needed. I am not sure how good this book is for those who already have a strong grasp of grammar. For people like me, it is the best resource I have seen.
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Summary: The best Grammar book I ever read
Review: This is the best grammar book I ever read. It is very easy to understand, with very funny titles for each chapter. I bought also her second book on writing and it is very very good also. I would recommend all of her books to anyone who would want to write better, or improve their English skills. It is very clear and comprehensive, this is certainly a five star book.
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Summary: Woe is I- not ME!!!!
Review: Right off the bat she makes that clear- in a fun way. This grammar book is the funniest piece of incredibly useful information. When to use which or that- what its and it's is- when to Sally's and Joe's, or Sally and Joe's- (first you will need to know Sally and Joe) and she makes it fun, easy and understandable. Trust me- this book is great, you will enjoy it while you learn grammar.
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Summary: Bravo!
Review: I'm a high-school English teacher who used to dread explaining grammar to my students, until I discovered "Woe Is I." With the help of Patricia O'Conner, I can now discuss grammar in plain English without having to resort to the technical jargon that puts so many students to sleep. I've even managed to get quite a few laughs from my students, thanks to Ms. O'Conner. I can't imagine a more useful and entertaining book about the English language. Bravo!
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Summary: conventional advice
Review: This book is in the genre of conventional advice presented in a demotic manner. This results in jokey chapter titles such as "Plurals Before Swine". This is either engagingly witty or really annoying. The tone of the book is that of a person who will insult you to your face but words it as a joke. Then there are the errors, which are numerous. As an example, in the section of who and whom we find "'Nathan wouldn't tell Miss Adelaide {who or whom} he invited to his crap game.' First strip the sentence down to the basic clause, '{who or whom} he invited.'" Whatever "the basic clause" of the sentence means, in this case its verb is certainly "tell". This is a minor point. Even the casual reader can easily figure out what the author meant. But the novice unsure of the difference beween a sentence and a clause will come away from this knowing less than before going in. Another example is comparing "Lou sees what appears to be ghosts" with "Lou sees what appear to be ghosts." The author's point is that "what" can be either singular or plural, which is correct. She concludes that in this case it is plural, so the second sentence is correct. This is not right. Either can be correct, depending on how Lou perceives his vision. If he perceives discrete ghostly entities then "what" is indeed plural. If he perceives a eerie cloud which appears to consist of ghosts, then "what" is singular. There are any number of similar errors, but they are minor. They mostly show that the author should have gone through a couple more drafts and would have benefited from a good editor. My biggest objection to this book is that it is disingenuous. It makes a great show of accepting language change, of appearing to be progressive, while being in fact very conventional. For a fin de siecle writer to admit that "media" can be used as a singular noun is not progressive. It is merely not being a reactionary crank. The rejection of the sex-neutral singular "their" includes "But until our language has a sex-neutral possissive to use instead, we are stuck with his, or her, or the clumsy compound his or her." This pretends to leave open the possibility that the language will change, but rejects the change actually occurring. Any such change would start out as an "error", so how can this new construction ever enter the language? In other words, when the author writes of accepting that language changes she really means that she accepts that the language has already changed (which is a good thing, as my proto-Indo-European is rusty) but not that it will continue to do so, while of course without actually admitting this. For those who want a basic guide to good style, Strunk & White's The Elements of Style is, for all its being dated, still the best choice.
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Summary: A real treasure!
Review: I have been a professional writer for nearly 20 years now, and found myself (for the first time ever) actually laughing out loud while reading a grammar book. O'Conner has written a book that takes the drudgery out of grammar, and infuses it instead with much needed wit and useful wisdom. Never insulting to the intelligence, she simply tells it like it is-in plain English. I just cannot express enough how useful and effortless this book is. It is for every one: writer, butcher, baker, candlestick maker. Get it, read it, and you will at last master that mighty foe that has plagued us all at one time or another. A former New York Times Book Review editor, Patricia T. O'Conner is not just an excellent copy editor (worth their weight in gold to any writer), she has proven herself a smashing good writer!
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Summary: Excellent resource for writers
Review: One of the biggest problems with books on English usage and grammar is that they tend to be overly dry and pedantic. Pick up any book on grammar and THIS usually happens: you open it up, intent on reading it to clean up your grammar and find that you can't get past page three because the text is sooo sterile. Page after page is nothing but rules, rules and more rules, and all dryly laid out like a textbook. Well, if you've had this problem when it comes to such books, you're in luck. "Woe is I" is definitely one of THE best books on English usage today. What's great about it is that the author explains everything in a very relaxed, informal way. She's not a frowning schoolmarm with a bun wielding a ruler ready to crack the blackboard with it at every rule you break; she is a friendly person correcting the many gaffes that people make in everyday conversation and writing. She even admits to making a few errors herself in the attempt to make the grammar-impaired feel less self-conscious about their own handicap. Don't, however, let the informality of the text-- riddled with jokes and humorous examples of bad grammar-- fool you. The author is definitely an authority on English grammar, and by the time you finish this book you will not only laugh, you'll be amazed at how easily you've remembered the many rules of grammar she tossed your way as you were reading it. When I finished "Woe is I," I couldn't believe how quickly I started noticing mistakes in my own writing. That's the beauty of this book-- not only is it entertaining to read, it is highly informative. My recommendation? I can't recommend it highly enough.
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