Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Truly, I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to grammar. But the English language is so screwed up that even experts admit to having trouble with it. This book will help explain some of the more problematic parts of grammar while keeping you entertained. I've read dozens of books on grammar, but they were all very dry and confusing. This is the first one that makes it all seem so simple. The author gives hints for remembering the rules about many of the more confusing elements of our language--like who/whom--which makes this book even more valuable. Through exercises and interesting sidenotes and facts, you'll learn spelling tricks, the correct uses for colons and semicolons, when to use 'lay' and when to use 'lie,' and gobs of other things. Confused about predicates and prepositions? No problem. This book explains it. Need help with cover letters or memos? Bingo--this book will assist. It's a wonderful book and one I can't live without. The best grammar book I own.

This book is great. It has all the content of a dried-up grammar reference text, and NONE of the pain. Laurie is funny, direct, and great at communicating the relationship between grammatical functions and the purpose of writing.

This text can be used as a regular reference to check your work, or you can read it straight through. (Let's see someone say that about Scott Foresman!) Thanks, Dr. Rozakis.

The subject of grammar is one that always had me cringing fairly quickly in English and Journalism classes I had in grammar school and again in high school. This is material that more often than not comes off as very dry. And yet grammar is very important in producing clear, concise and quality writing. This book goes a long way in demystifying and explaining the basics of grammar. And it does it in an informal way that makes it easier to grasp all the important concepts of grammar and style.

Every grammatical article, be it noun, verb, dangling participle, or adverb is covered here. Starting off with a basic over view of grammar in the first few chapters, the book then goes on to discuss parts of speech, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, prepositional phrases, clauses, even chapters on proper punctuation and spelling. It does all this in a way that keeps your attention. If only my English teachers way back when could have kept this material interesting.

There's even a section near the book's end about business writing, be it cover letters, resumes, memos or email. This proves how important good clear writing is in the business world as well as everywhere else. And also, this is a book you can refer back to when faced with a "grammar question," since it's also a good "grammar reference" book. If you do a lot of writing, either for business or pleasure this is an excellent book to have around.

I just loved this book! How does it manage to make learning about English grammar fun--got me, it just does. The author covers common mistakes and challenges while keeping you rolling in the aisle with her humor. The book is well organized so what you need is easy to find. If you buy one grammar book this year (and who needs more than one grammar book?) make it this one. You'll actually read it, which is half the battle.

Dr. Rozakis, one of the nation's most revered textbook authorities, has balanced the elements of grammar with a wit and joie de vivre that is rare indeed in academe. This one belongs on the shelves of students, teachers, writers, and parents.

In some ways it's tough to see who this book is aimed at. It starts off with the very basics (what's a noun?), so it seems to be aimed at people who really don't know the first thing about grammar, but it moves quickly after that. Perhaps the book is aimed at people who need to brush up on details, or clear up confusions, and Rozakis just felt it necessary to explain the basics first. At any rate, either you'll find the first part of the book interminably boring, or you'll find the rest of it confusing. .

At first I liked the sense of humor with which this book was written; I thought it was a good way to make boring grammar more interesting. Many of the example sentences are jokes, and the author sprinkles irony and sarcasm liberally throughout. However, I'm not remarkably familiar with jokes, but even I have heard many of these jokes before. There's little change in the tone or type of humor throughout, and after a while it feels forced and unrelenting--not to mention annoying. The humor also gets in the way of the information. I can deal with the idea that different people enjoy different types of humor, but this third point is unforgivable. There are times when the author says things because they're funny, and because of that amusing phrasing she confuses the reader on one grammar point or another.

There aren't many typos in this book; in any other book I'd have no reason at all to complain about this number of typos. However, it is the unfortunate truth that in a book about grammar, a single mistake can leave someone confused on a grammar issue. There are several places where Rozakis says contradictory things, and it seems clear that this is the result of a slip of the fingers. But because no one caught these bits, the material presented is unclear.

Sometimes Rozakis just plain moves too fast. She'll briefly explain something and then move on when she hasn't yet given enough of an explanation for me to really know what she's talking about. There are some topics she dealt with that I still don't understand. When she brings up big words from previous chapters, she doesn't stop to remind us of what they mean--she just charges onward. This leaves the reader stranded, flipping back and forth to figure out what's going on.

By this time it probably sounds like I hate this book, and you wouldn't be far from the mark in assuming that. I read it from cover to cover and found it tiresome, frustrating, and downright annoying. However, this book does contain a great deal of in-depth grammar information. Most sections include enough examples to teach you what you need to know. Taken in small doses the humor can be fun (in particular, the humor makes the examples of bad writing less headache-inducing). The index is very handy, and there are some good and unusual sections in here on things like non-sexist language, writing "bad news" letters, and putting together an effective resume.

I think this book would probably make a much better reference book than text book. Or perhaps it would work as a text book if you read a chapter now and then, rather than reading it straight through. If you aren't sure whether this is the right book for you, then check it out at the library or thumb through it at the book store.

Yeah, I know it sounds weird; who reads grammar books for fun? But Laurie Rozakis infuses this solid guide with her own brand of quirky humor, and it works beautifully. Wonderful quotes from famous writers add spice to the stew. Try it, you'll like it.

If you need to study up on English for whatever reason, this is the book. It's so easy to understand. It covers everything in the English language. It's amazing. I read the entire thing dilligently and I have to say that I've never understood proper English until now. If you want to know more about English -- your search ends here. This is the book. No other book compares. This is where the road ends!

I knew the English language cold; or at least quite well; or at least, I thought I did. So, imagine my shock when I decided to study German. I discovered that I did not know what "cases" are, let alone how they work. I could not tell the difference between a Predicate Nominative and an Infinitive. Verb conjugation? What the devil was that? I did not know any of the terminology used in the study of a language. The instructor sat there casually talking about the definite article (Der, Die, and Das) without explaining that this was a translation of the word "The." I sat in class watching as the other students, who were all 30 years my junior, chattered away while I listened for some term that sounded familiar from that far away place from my youth called "High School English." I must have known some of this material at some point, but I seemed to have forgotten everything.

For me, this book was an excellent way to go back and relearn. Many of these "Idiot's Guides" really are for idiots. This one is an exception since Dr. Rozakis seems to have an aversion to talking down to her readers. She assumes an ability to learn and absorb new information, and accordingly has created a lengthy, and in-depth "textbook" that covers lots of ground. She gives you easy examples in the explanations, tougher ones in the examples, and the most complex grammar and useage problems in the review sections. While this is no way to learn English for the first time, it is a superb way to learn it the second time. Your brain is quickly scrambled, and then at some point it becomes scrambled a little less so. Along the way you find the answers to hundreds of little language dilemnas that have troubled you over the years.

I loved the book, but I do have to comment on the author's style: I spent most of a month on this book; taking it in bite-sized pieces. This was enough exposure to prompt some derangement of the mind. Dr. Rozakis has built her life around this language, and it has clearly person-handled her brain. (She cured my sexist language ways as a secondary benefit.) Accordingly, her examples are ever-so-slightly twisted; just the ticket when spending an hour or so with gerunds, appositives, or the present perfect progressive tense.

After, reading some of the other reviews, I wish to add one or two comments. Dr. Rozakis has chosen to cover everything, and while there are some exercises, do not expect a work-book. This book is best purchased by someone who knows English fairly well and is looking for a brush-up, or who desires to atone for those afternoons in high school English when they were daydreaming about girls/boys. I think it would be suitable as well for those for whom English is a second language, as long as they understand that this is a fairly advanced text, and that the style is 100% American.

I am still lost as to what nouns, adverd, ajectives, ect are, their brief description and lack of examples leaving me frustrated.