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

9780151003716: Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know about Writing
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A practical guide to good writing takes readers step by step through the process, offering valuable advice on how to cut through the purple prose, put your subject where the action is, and extricate weak words, among other topics. 50,000 first printing.

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Review:
Patricia T. O'Conner's Words Fail Me is written in the same lighthearted tone as her snappy grammar guide, Woe Is I. This time out, O'Conner tackles the writer's art. "Good writing," she says, "is writing that works." This book is the perfect text for the novice writer who tends to gravitate toward comedic instructors. "Crummy spelling," says O'Conner, "is more noticeable than crummy anything else." Organizing your material "may be a pain in the butt, but it's thankless, too!" "Write as though you were addressing someone whose opinion you value, even if the reader is ... a stingy insurance company that won't pay for your tummy tuck." O'Conner's material isn't new--like many such books, Words Fail Me advocates the use of small words, fresh verbs, and only well-chosen modifiers--but rarely is a primer so amusing. And the clever titles strewn throughout--"Taking Leave of Your Tenses," "The It Parade"--provide added pleasure, particularly for anyone who knows how hard it can be to put a headline on a piece of writing. --Jane Steinberg
About the Author:
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.

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.

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  • PublisherHoughton Mifflin Harcourt
  • Publication date1999
  • ISBN 10 0151003718
  • ISBN 13 9780151003716
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages224
  • Rating

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9780156010870: Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know about Writing

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