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Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English
Woe Is I The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English
Author: Patricia T. O'Conner
This deliciously witty, delightfully down-to-earth guide has evolved into a backlist classic, teaching the basics and subtleties of the language-without the kind of jargon that tempted you to cut your high school English class.
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ISBN-13: 9781573226257
ISBN-10: 1573226254
Publication Date: 8/1/1998
Pages: 227
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 13

4 stars, based on 13 ratings
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

sari-lynn avatar reviewed Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English on + 207 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Who would believe a book about grammar that you can't put down?! I pulled this off the shelf where it's sat for a decade or so, thinking I would post it here, and opened at random to the chapter on verbs titled "They Beg to Disagree", and lost my self in the author's intelligence and wit. And I learned something in the first five minutes. So, I'm sorry, you'll have to get your own copy - I'm keeping mine!
reviewed Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English on + 36 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This is a great book for anyone needing grammar help. It is well written and easy to understand. It is also very easy to go back and find specific topics when you need them (lay vs. lie, which vs. that, etc.). It is even somewhat entertaining, for a book on grammar!
reviewed Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English on
Helpful Score: 2
I'm a bit of a grammar fan. I love writing and I love words and this is not the first book I've read on grammar. So to find in a single book so many wonderful nuggets of new information and to *gasp* realize some of my unknown errors was a pleasant (if embarrassing) surprise.

If you are not as much of a grammar fiend as I am you will likely still enjoy the easy and humorous style of writing in this book and learn some new stuff along the way. If you just worry about little things like where to place the apostrophe or which words have irregular plurals the answers are here. I'm not sure I'd recommend this book for people who are trying to learn English grammar as a second language as the author uses a lot of colloquial expressions and play-on-word phrasing that and ESL speaker may not recognize or understand.

I love this book so much that you're going to have to find your own copy, as I'm keeping the one I got! I hope you do find a copy and enjoy it as much as I have mine.
reviewed Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English on + 3352 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Written with both knowledge and humor (ex. of humor - chapter title: Plurals Before Swine); Includes some things not commonly discussed - such as the use of the word if.
reviewed Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English on + 40 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Informative and entertaining! If you liked "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves", you'll enjoy this one!
Read All 10 Book Reviews of "Woe Is I The Grammarphobes Guide to Better English in Plain English"

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reviewed Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English on + 3 more book reviews
I love having this book for my desktop use. I do some freelance writing and I keep this book handy for those niggling rules that I sometimes have a hard time remembering.
reviewed Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English on + 18 more book reviews
This book is great! Excellent for writers! The author brings up so many good points that I would not have otherwise considered. It is a great book to keep handy for reviewing grammar. If you enjoy language and words, this one will be fun for you!
reviewed Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English on + 296 more book reviews
"You forget so much about English as you go along being profound in it, like who a gerund is and where adverbs go, until one day you stand up to receive your honorary LL.D. and children snicker at your grammatical errors. Woe Is I can save you from that. I mean, this is, like, a cool book." -Garrison Keillor
reviewed Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English on + 351 more book reviews
Wonderful, funny, useful book on better English usage without too much pain.


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