Customer Reviews

How to Write in Spanish : Correspondence Made Easy, From Personal Letters to Business Documents

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I think the book delivers on the title How to Write in Spanish: Correspondence Made Easy, From Personal Letters to Business Documents. The book presents many samples of properly constructed/composed personal and business correspondence. Formats for personal and business correspondence include email correspondence and resumes, and there are lists of personal and business stock phrases, something I've found particularly useful as I refer to them often. My only complaint; however, has to do with the stock/standard phrase section. I would like to see the English and Spanish phrases paired where there are similarities. Right now, the phrases from both languages that have equivalent meanings are not lined up. Even with this drawback, the lists are useful.

I don't see the book as being better suited for an intermediate student/user of Spanish. It treats structure and content of correspondence and documents in broad terms. If you need knowledge of specific forms of correspondence and specialized jargon particular to a field, this book isn't the right book for you. If you simply want and/or need to construct basic forms of correspondence, this is a very good reference tool.

This book has a very basic set up. It does not go into depth with its explanations and it does not have a useful vocabulary. I am a professional interpreter and translator in a law firm, and I wanted my correspondence in Spanish to be as correct as possible. This book is fine for an intermediate student, but is probably not what an advanced student or professional is seeking. I would return it, but it is cheap enough that it is not worth the aggravation of trying to get my money back.

I found the work to be, in some instances, too advanced for beginning, recreational adult learners. Many of the examples could be modified by a native instructor; but, that is the reason for which I sought examples, since I am a non-native teacher, and consider writing in Spanish one of the most difficult tasks

A rather disappointing book, regrettably. Ligia Ochoa attempts to jump start the beginner into spanish correspondence and at the same time to guide an advanced student to perfection. In the end she achieves neither one nor the other. The vocabulary she includes is totally insufficient for a rookie, whilst the constant return to english is an annoying digression for advanced learners. The examples given are very limited in scope and don't always achieve exemplary quality.

Perhaps Ochoa should have written two separate books to serve the different sections of the audience she aims to reach. As it is, with her actual book she serves neither.

Maybe I'm used to the colorful images found in school texts and the "Dummies" series, so I didn't like the plain layout of this book. I will probably use it to copy from to practice my writing. I don't like to just read info, I like background info (why its done a certain way). Overall, I find this a usefull book.