You Send Me: Getting It Right When You Write Online

If you want your grammar and writing lessons sane, sober, serious, skip this book because the jokes, plays on words and plain old fun will drive you crazy. But if you need light, useful advice about writing in cyberspace, or quick reminders about using numbers correctly, office etiquette, or brush-ups on grammar and writing, and have a laugh in the process, this book is for you. I highly recommend it. O'Conner's books (Woe Is I, Words Fail Me, and now, You Send Me) remind me of an editor I work with who is a pun a minute. She can't stop herself and every conversation with her takes such twists and turns that the less articulate are left several sentences behind. If I didn't know that editor, I'd think that O'Conner and Kellerman had to have spent hours creating her more painful plays on words for some of their chapter and section titles: Grammar a la ModemLurk Before You LeapGo ConfigureClone RangersMyth InformationA Click and a PromiseHelp for the Whomless And on and on and on. I suspect it just spills out of them, fed by their obvious exuberance for their work. But all of these little plays are wrapped around very helpful bits of logical suggestions and advice delivered in a conversational style. While ostensibly meant to deal with the horrific onslaught of wretched writing that shows up in our e-mail, much of the book's advice can be applied to other writing. The team also reminds us of the need for accuracy in numbers and other facts, pointing out the difficulties so many people have with noticing what should be obvious exaggerations or faulty understanding of numbers. O'Conner and her husband-coauthor divide this book into three sections: The Virtual Mensch, which examines protocol issues--when to use e-mail, the need for subject lines, choice of e-mail names, keeping the reader in mind and more. Alpha Mail, which focuses more closely on better writing (with such advice as divide long sentences into shorter ones, break the message into paragraphs); eliminating cliches, which includes a list of cliches followed by an authors' comment, e.g., acid test (Give it an F), diamond in the rough (cubic zirconium), draw a blank (so fill it in), easier said than done (Then say it); the need for the writer to re-read an e-mail before sending it, and other topics. Words of Passage, which takes the authors right back to their real issue, language. Among other topics, they take us through easy lessons on it/its/it's/ and who/whom, subject-verb agreement and punctuation. This book is a handy addition to the bookshelf of any editor or writer interested in how the language is or should be used.