How Not To Write: The Essential Misrules Of Grammar

Safire is a great teacher of the grammar. He knows better than everyone the polysemic sense of the words. His capacity of understanding this different sense is just for his strong knowledge.

This man had such a genius for understanding the English language and teaching it. He had a wit that was outstanding. I miss his writing in the New York Times. This little book is very helpful and will keep any reader laughing.

Safire uses humorous examples of "bad" grammar to lead the reader in the proper direction. Each self-contained chapter is very short and covers a single grammatical problem. The material is easy to read -- and easy to understand. If you want to improve your grammar -- but don't want to wade through a textbook -- this inexpensive paperback is for you.

First-rate little book filled with erudition, wit and deep respect for good writing. The author knows how to make every word and punctuation mark count. Highly recommend to anyone who cares about writing. This book, HOW NOT TO WRITE, is, however, a re-issue of Mr. Safire's 1990 book FUMBLERULES. Both are equally good, because they are the same book. I purchased Fumblerules used here on Amazon for a tiny price. Buy the new one here, too. You'll be glad to have either version.

Far above Cayuga's waters, the bible of how to write during my college years (and to this day to my knowledge) was/is Strunk & White's Elements of Style. [Strunk was an English professor; White was a star student of Strunk who accomplished a few literary successes of his own.]Bill Safire -- the maven of wordsmithing during my 20s and 30s -- has written a superb book that deserves companion status because it humorously and clearly teaches key rules of how to write correctly (and well). I generally give a copy to every employee who joins me because (unfortunately) they all seem to have lacked the magnificent fortune of having had English teachers comparable to those I had in 9th and 10th grade: Miss Fort and Mrs. Hope Bogorad. My sons will have to endure having their father go over this book page by page in its entirety with them when they are older. It's that good.