Customer Reviews

Grammar Smart: A Guide to Perfect Usage, 2nd Edition

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

 

 

Grammar is boring, frustrating, and complex. At least, that's the impression I got from taking it in school. This book attempts to take a fun (well, not-so-boring) approach to explain it all... And for the most part it does well. It's concise, and the examples are good. Where things fall apart is when the book refers to parts of grammar that haven't been explained yet. For example, starting with Quick Quiz #8 (page 25), the reader is asked to identify prepositional phrases, but phrases and clauses aren't covered until page 59. Naturally, you'll miss a lot of the questions. The answers to the quizzes seldom have explanations. If an answer seems to contradict a grammar rule or just not make sense, you're left hanging. Discouraging? You bet. If you were confused by grammar in school, this book may help -- but don't expect it to answer all your questions or eliminate frustration with the topic.

I think this book is great. It tells us everything, but since its purpose is to serve as a reference book, I thought the outside remarks, such as "nobody expects you to know everything" is really not needed. I found out a lot about grammar from this book. However, some information needs to be explained further. They don't have enough examples of different types of sentences for every component in writing. The main problem with this book is that my English teacher is requiring the class to practically memorize the whole book and get tested on it, but this is a personal problem and has nothing to do with the quality of this book. I give this book 5 stars for its overall review of grammar. Minus 1 star for lack of examples. Thus, 4 stars.

[[ASIN:0375762159 Grammar Smart, 2nd Edition (Smart Guides)]
I have required all my students to purchase this book. {I teach English at the college level.] It is the clearest, most comprehensible discussion of English grammar that I have ever seen. It works for adults and kids. Best of all, there is no more "comma shaker in the sky."

The explanations were concise and the exercises were effective. I was able to work through it fairly quickly and learn many useful grammar rules that helped me on the SAT. It also helped me with writing essays and research papers. I scored over 2200 on the SAT, attend college on full merit scholarship, and now have my own book available on Amazon (High School Success and College Application). This book was a valuable tool and I highly recommend it.

Great review for students of English, or as my students would write, "It's a grammer [sic] book."

ITS A GREAT BOOK FOR VERBAL TESTS LIKE GMAT
BUT ITS NOT FOR IN DEPTH LEARNING ENGLISH

Good reference. I have a co-worker who is terrible about creating run on sentences that go on forever. This book has been quite helpful.

Book was in excellent conditon, brand new! Very reasonable price and i would defintely buy again from this buyer

Book covers a lot of valuable information but it's not a very easy read. The exercises are helpful but don't do a great job reinforcing the information just covered.