Customer Reviews

A Grammar Book for You and I (Oops, Me): All the Grammar You Need to Succeed in Life (Capital Ideas)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I own and have used numerous grammar books, and this one is without a doubt THE best grammar book on the market for the general reader. Mr. Good starts on the ground floor, so that no previous knowledge of grammar is needed. At the same time, however, he does not talk down to the reader, nor does he shy away from many aspects of grammar that other books deem too complex for beginners. Everything is explained here with perfect clarity, and nothing important is left out. Moreover, beyond Mr. Good's superlative explanations of grammar, this book earns 10 stars because Mr. Good shows us how our knowledge of grammar can improve our writing. He does this not with airy praise of grammatical education, but with concrete examples and advice that you can start using to improve your writing immediately. This book is not short, and it's not full of jokes and cartoons. But, if you really want to learn grammar and to write and speak better, buy this book now and read it from cover to cover. I can't think of any better way to spend your money and time.

For many years I have been searching for a well written and well structured book of English grammar but only in vain. I have analyzed a great number of grammar books but none of them had met my expectations. Until now! Good's book is not only well written, it is also simple, lucid and comprehensive. Throughout the entire book, the author gives valuable and helpful advice to the reader as to how to avoid common grammatical errors. Each section is carefully and pedagogically structured to facilitate understanding of the key concepts of english grammar. As is well known, pronouns can cause difficulties to unexperienced users of english grammar. However, Good provides a clear and simple explanation which will eliminate all doubts and answer all questions pertaining to cases of pronouns. Furthermore, some people are not sure when to employ adjectives versus adverbs but Good reveals simple rules and guidelines that will help clarify this aspect of grammar. In addition, this book will also help you identify as well as differentiate between highly important elements of the english grammar such as transitive versus intransitive verbs, direct vs indirect objects and independent vs subordinate clauses. The final section of the book highlights common pitfalls and serious grammatical blunders. Subsequently, you will not only learn how to avoid serious grammatical errors, you will also learn how to rectify them. Needless to say, effective communication relies heavily on adequate and sufficient grammatical skills. This book will provide you with necessary skills that will optimize your communicative competence. In addition to this book, I highly recommend a book called Word Smart by Princeton Review. This book will enhance and enlarge your vocabulary in a way you never thought possible. To my mind, the above mentioned books are the only books you need to communicate effectively in english language. I would like to stress though that mastering english grammar will require an additional book, which is titled Analyzing English Grammar. This is truly an excellent book. In conclusion, Edward Good's book is invaluable. No other book on the market is nearly as good as this one. I strongly recommend this book to all people who want to improve their grammatical skills.

This book is amusing, it is witty, and it is just plain good. I consider myself lucky to have come across this treasure of a book and would like to thank Mr. Good for writing it.

As a professional engineer who speaks English as a second language, I have been searching for a grammar book I can use to improve my grammar proficiency. Over the years, I bought many grammar books that quickly started collecting dust. First of all, grammar is a dry subject, and one is quickly tempted to give up. Second, most books do not seem to address the needs of those who speak and write English as a second language.

Well, this one is different on both accounts. In less than a month since I started reading "Oops Me," I have covered more material than I had in years with other books. And the best part is that I am enjoying the learning. Mr. Good is a natural storyteller, and once he engages you, learning becomes an adventure, a joy ride really.

In a word, this book is a "must."

"Oops, Me!" is exactly the sort of grammar book that I have been wishing for. As a former Resource Consultant for an ESOL program, I have reviewed numerous books in this vein but (until now) I have been unable to find one that is suitable for the broad range of needs that we address. "Oops, Me!" has enough content to make it useful for writers at the highest levels but is accessible for middle school students and is enjoyable enough to be worthwhile reading even for those who believe they already know the grammar. The four sections I tested produced an average Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score of 7.1 and a Reading Ease score of 67.2. The book is also very well organized, which makes it useful as a quick reference source, though I found myself reading more than I really needed when I used it for that purpose. The darn thing is just plain well written!

Needing more than Strunk & White's excellent but all-too-brief guide, I chose this book because of its popularity and highly favorable reviews here on Amazon. With clear prose that itself exemplifies what he teaches, Mr. Good succeeds in the Herculean task of explaining English grammar. Beginning with a chapter each for the eight parts of speech, Good then makes four suggestions for writers: use fewer nouns and more verbs, rely less on the verb "to be," favor the active voice over the passive, and use phrases more than clauses. If you're like me, and you don't even remember what a clause is (a clause contains a conjugated verb; a phrase does not), you'll like Mr. Good for adding a little humor: some of our language's baffling rules are attributed to cave-dwelling ancestors Amber and Igor, with whom Good has made his grade-school grammar teacher, Miss Hamrick, contemporary. Good then teaches you to make your basic well-cast sentences come alive by using subordination, parallel construction, and noun substitution (instead of nouns, using prepositional, adjectival, adverbial, verbal and other phrases). Finally, the book presents thirteen brief chapters each addressing a common grammatical pitfall, such as "who" versus "whom", and finishes with eleven chapters covering the eleven English punctuation marks. Whether you write for a living or for fun, or just want to understand the language, your ability to write, to communicate, and to think will be greatly helped by this worthy book.

This is one of the best colloquial (nontextbook) books on grammar and usage available. American English grammar, at times, seems to be more a collection of 'rules of thumbs', rather than a coherent set of readily-understood principles; Mr. Good does a fine job of bringing some order to the chaos. Particularly clear and crisp are his handling of punctuation (Part five) and common grammatical mistakes (Part four). He also provides an excellent discussion of the "fused participle" bogeyman.

Regrettably, this book-- like most in its genre-- is overly prescriptive, emphasizing 'rules' and convoluted terminology. Do we need to know the difference between a prepositional phrase and a past participial phrase, as long as we know how to use each correctly? Mr. Good seems to believe that you should.
If your written and spoken grammar and usage are adequate (or better), you'd be better off reading a descriptive resource on grammar and usage. The style of those resources makes it easier to grasp the most common grammar and usage mishaps. Bryan Garner has written several excellent books in this category.

Would you rather eat dirt than read a grammar book? Think all grammar books are torturous, pedantic, desperately dry, unintelligible? Buy this book and have your world changed forever.

Ed Good's style is witty, inviting, conversational, and informative. Logical, focused, and entertaining, the book is a pleasure to read and painlessly teaches just about everything you need to know to write and speak well.

And if you have a "like" habit, chapter 31 should obliterate it forever.

A "must read," as the critics might say.

It's high time someone wrote a grammar book that combined clarity, wit, and ease of use. Good has managed to do all three, while at the same time simplifying the process of answering those pesky little questions which (that?) seem to devil most of us. This book belongs on the desk of anyone whose work entails writing---and that includes most of us!
Better than Good----it's Excellent!

Start with the Preface, and this grammar book will have you howling with laughter! The magic of this book derives from its conversational tone conveying highly useful information. You will actually enjoy reading this book - and it is a grammar book!
The chapter titles start off as you might expect: nouns, verbs, adjectives. Later, chapters entitled "Their mixing up they're 'theres'" and "Like, I'mlike gonna like learn how to like talk" address specific grammatical and stylistic mistakes common in American English. An entire 50-page section explains using punctuation marks - the "period" through "quotation marks." Most creatively, these lessons come alive in the persons of Miss Hamrick, a stern but likeable 7th grade teacher and grammarian, and Billy Womble and pals - the 13 year-old Joe Everymans who, like all of us, struggle to get it right. I thoroughly recommend this well-crafted book to all who speak or write the English language.

Mr. Good brings forth a refreshing approach to a lost art, that of writing. As we continue to degrade globally in our communication skills, Mr. Good provides us with most useful, and easily understood guidance in hopes of getting our writing back on track. In the business world I am constantly bombarded with tainted memos, e-mails and communications that leave me to wonder what happened to the command of the english language. This book is a great step foward in getting me back in touch with how to correctly communicate with my clients, peers, and prospective clients without embarrassing myself due to the lost art of writing properly and getting my point across.
It has been said many times, "It's not what you say, but HOW you say it". So now I have a guidebook on once again saying it correctly.
This book should be a must for anyone in the business of communicating.