Patricia T. O'Conner Quotes
Whenever there's something wrong with your writing, suspect that there's something wrong with your thinking.

-Patricia T. O'Conner
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If the good news from cyberspace is that we're writing more, the bad news is that most of us aren't very good at it. Our words don't do justice to our ideas.

-Patricia T. O'Conner
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With grammar, it’s always something.

-Patricia T. O'Conner
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As for other nouns of foreign origin, how do you know whether to choose an Anglicized plural (like memorandums) or a foreign one (memoranda)? There’s no single answer, unfortunately. A century ago, the foreign ending would have been preferred, but over the years we’ve given Englis . . . Read more

-Patricia T. O'Conner
An idea in your head is merely an idle notion. But an idea written down, that's the beginning of something! Stripped down to its briefs, a piece of writing is nothing more than a handful of ideas, put into words and arranged to do a job. We all get ideas—try not thinking in the show . . . Read more

-Patricia T. O'Conner
Speaking of aitches, some British speakers, especially on the telly, use “an” before words like “historic” or “hotel,” and some Anglophiles over here are slavishly imitating them. For shame! Usage manuals on both sides of the Atlantic say the article to use is “a,” not . . . Read more

-Patricia T. O'Conner
A generation or so after slavery ended, segregationists enacted Jim Crow laws that made it impossible for most blacks to vote in the South.

-Patricia T. O'Conner
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