Patricia T. O’Conner makes it fun to learn the rules that – not
which – your child needs to know Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s
Guide to Better English in Plain English. By Patricia T.
O’Conner. Riverhead, 256 pp., $14, paperback. Ages 13–adult. By
Janice Harayda A few weeks ago, I got an e-mail note from a
parent who had a grammar question. His English teachers had told
him that when two parts of a sentence are joined by and or but,
you should always separate them with a comma. His teenage son’s
teachers said his teachers were wrong. Who was right? Answer:
the son’s teachers. You use a comma to separate two parts of a
sentence when both have a subject and verb. You don’t use a
comma when they don’t. I gave my friend this example of two
correctly punctuated sentences: I went to the store, and I
bought some bread. I went to the store and bought some bread. If
you and your child are wrestling with questions like these, you
need Patricia T. O’Conner’s Woe Is I, the best grammar book for
students (and their parents