Patricia T. O'Conner's WORDS FAIL ME is a casual, accessible text
about meta-discourse. Organized into three sections, this concise,
often humorous book examines a wide-range of issues and ideas that
concern writers of all levels. Part I, entitled "Pull Yourself
Together," imparts crucial advice to the reader: "know the subject"
and "know the audience." Certainly these kernels of writing wisdom
are nothing new. What distinguishes WORDS FAIL ME from the heap of
other meta-discourse texts is its candid, fresh approach to
language. O'Conner appears to know her audience well --- namely
writers who want to improve their craft without encountering
academic jargon. For example, take this telling passage:

"It's essential to imagine a friendly reader, because fear of your
audience leads to serious problems...Even though your mental
picture of a friendly reader won't always be accurate, pretend it
is. If you dislike the jerk you're writing for, don't show it. And
don't imagine a reader lying in wait, ready to pounce on every
little mistake, or your writing will sound defensive and
fearful."

Countless books have tried to say this same thing in such a
high-falutin' way that the message gets lost in all of the thorny
rhetoric. O'Conner's language, however, is not exclusionary. The
broad appeal of her text should, therefore, be helpful for
beginning writers in and out of the classroom. As a composition
instructor at a community college, I find O'Conner's book the
perfect vehicle for in-class discussions about writing-related
problems and might even supplement O'Conner's considerable wisdom
with course-specific contexts that would further support her
general claims.

   

Still, there is plenty here to satisfy beginning and advanced
writers not affiliated with the college classroom. O'Conner's
chapter on rules of grammar ("Grammar Moses") is a helpful primer
that should aid writers interested in such matters toward further
study. My favorite chapter is "Made for Each Other: Well-Matched
Sentences," where O'Conner gives examples of incoherent and
in-cohesive sentence structures that plague the bulk of unclear
and/or sloppy writing. Here, she provides several examples of the
same passage, demonstrating levels of vagueness and incoherence
from a number of angles. Then she rewrites the passage to reflect a
sound, focused style.