Patricia T. O'Conner

Patricia T. O'Conner (born February 19, 1949) is the author of five books about the English language. A former staff editor at The New York Times Book Review, she has appeared regularly as a language commentator for WNYC and Iowa Public Radio. She has written extensively for The New York Times, including book reviews, On Language columns, and articles for the op-ed page and the Week in Review section. Her work has also appeared in Smithsonian, The Paris Review, the Literary Review (London), and other publications.

A native of Des Moines, Iowa, she graduated from Grinnell College in 1971 with a BA in philosophy and received an honorary degree from Grinnell in 2006. She did graduate work in urban journalism at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, before beginning her career as a reporter and editor in 1973. and co-author of several books and articles, answer questions about the English language on The Grammarphobia Blog.

Publications Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English (Riverhead, 4th ed., 2019, ) Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language, co-authored by Kellerman (Random House, 2009, ) Woe Is I Jr.: The Younger Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English (Putnam, 2007, ) You Send Me: Getting It Right When You Write Online, co-authored by Kellerman (Harcourt, 2002, ) Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing (Harcourt, 1999, ) The Reader Over Your Shoulder, by Robert Graves with Alan Hodge; new introduction by Patricia T. O’Conner (Seven Stories Press, 2018, )