How Not to Write: The Essential Misrules of Grammar

Safire's little booklet is never boring and always educational. In a day and age where bloggers run amog without grammatical concern, Safire pinpoints both the richness and exactness of the English language.

Safire is a recognized master of our language. In this slender volume, he presents fifty column length articles about the misrules of grammar with humor and patience. I keep it at my elbow whenever I feel the urge to scribble. Well recommended.

This is a real jewel and I liked it better than Lynn Truss's book on grammar. It was funny, insightful and I learned several important things. Safire has a masterful command of the English language, is concise and direct, and writes in a style that almost anyone can understand. The only part that left me confused was when to use "if I was" and "if I were." I'm still not sure exactly what the difference is between those... Read Full Review

Almost none of us is a professional writer. While some of us do write on a regular basis, nearly everyone has to at least occasionally put words on paper for one reason or another. We get tense because we are unsure what to put on that very blank page. We are armed with only some vague and incomplete memories of usage rules from our school days, and we wisely don't fully trust what we remember. The idea of reading through... Read Full Review