The Importance Of Words And Grammar

ROXBURY – Patricia T. O’Conner, the author of the national bestseller Woe is I and the recently published Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing, will discuss her views on the importance of words and grammar in the English language on Sunday, October 24, at Roxbury’s Minor Memorial Library. The program is part of the library’s popular “A Town Wants to Know” series of lectures. It will begin at 2 pm.

A Roxbury resident, Ms O’Conner, is a former editor with The New York Times Book Review. She is a self-styled “grammar maven” who set out in 1996 to make learning English fun. Her books reflect her good humor about a subject often viewed by many with some trepidation.

During a recent interview Ms O’Conner noted that “Words, written words, are getting a work out these days, in case you haven’t noticed. Suddenly we’re all a nation of writers. By putting a keyboard in every lap, it seems, the computer has changed the way we communicate, virtually overnight.

“Contrary to popular opinion, there’s no mystery to writing well,” she continued. “It’s a skill just about anyone can learn, more craft than art. When words fail us, as they often do, the reasons are usually simple and so are the solutions.”

In addition to writing books, Ms O’Conner occasionally substitutes for William Safire by writing the “On Language” column in The New York Times Magazine.

Ms O’Conner will autograph copies of her books, which will be available at the presentation on October 24. The presentation and the reception that follows are free of charge.