You Send Me: Getting It Right When You Write Online

by Patricia T. O'Conner, Stewart Kellerman

Patricia T. O’Conner, the bestselling language maven who charmed legions of readers into civilizing their grammar ( Woe Is I ) and their writing ( Words Fail Me ), now drags proper English kicking and screaming into the Age of E-Mail. Do the old truths still apply? Yes, insist O’Conner and co-author Stewart Kellerman, her journalist husband. In fact, good English and good manners are even more important online. Thanks to the computer, we’re writing again, but we’ll have to upgrade our lousy language and social skills or suffer the cyber-consequences.
With chapters on etiquette (To E or Not to E), beefier writing (The E-Mail Eunuch), deconstructing a message (All’s Well That Sends Well), and civilized English (Grammar à la Modem), You Send Me delivers everything you need to connect with real people in the virtual world.

Genres: Writing

240 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 2002

Reviews

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A guide to on-line writing from 2002 is somewhat quaint, but much of it would be very useful to ELLs and others uncertain if standard usage.

[C.G.Koens · Rating 4 out of 5]

The biggest deterrent of this book is the fact that the premise of online usage is now dated. Written in 2002, before the era of Facebook and Twitter, O'Conner and Kellerman focus primarily on e-mail and obsolete online chatrooms. Despite that, many of their "getting it right when you write online" tips made me laugh, and my copy is now dog-eared for future quotability.

As always, O'Conner's take on grammar and punctuation kept me in a perpetual state of laughter and/or cheering the grammar underdog. Their rules for writing online can easily be applied to newer sites, including Goodreads, so I would still recommend this as helpful and humorous reading material.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

O'Connor offers excellent suggestions for how to compose email subject lines.

After reading this book once, you are golden. I would hardly recommend keeping it as a reference or anything of that sort. It provides useful advice and offers some compelling advice about email etiquette.