Customer Reviews

The Little, Brown Handbook, Ninth Edition

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This handbook is all an aspiring writer needs to grasp the technical aspects of the English language. Virtually every nuance of English grammar is discussed at length, including the subjunctive mood (yes, English has one), and the Passive voice (yes, the one your English teacher always asked you not to use!). The book has 883 pages. I will value this even more when I go to graduate school next year.

Why is this book useful? Have you ever wanted to know how to correctly use question marks, commas, and quotation marks? Well, virtually every punctuation mark in existence is explained in the book. Typically rules of usage are given first, and then the explanation is followed by an example sentence. This format makes learning the concepts very easy.

There are also extremely helpful chapters on the use reasoning skills, reading and thinking critically, revising, editing, finding sources, and many, many more helpful topics. The book has sections on MLA, APA, CBE, and Chicago Styles of citing works. So whether you need to write a paper for a Psychology class or an English class, you can find help here. There are also tips included on how to do work in various fields, such as the humanities and social sciences. Another informative section is Glossary of Usage chapter. Included here are commonly misused words, and an explanation of their correct usage (and examples of such usage). For instance, did you know that "lay" is transitive and "lie" intransitive? Or did you know that the past participle form of "lie" is "I have lain?"

I could go on and on about what is included, but there is just so much, it would take more than a few pages! You will have to trust me that this book offers grammar tips, writing hints, citation methods, and other helpful tools. Here is a listing of the contents for all interested:

Preface for Instructors

Preface for Students: Using This Book Introduction: Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing

Pt. I The Whole Paper and Paragraphs

Pt. II Grammatical Sentences

Pt. III Clear Sentences

Pt. IV Effective Sentences

Pt. V Punctuation

Pt. VI Mechanics

Pt. VII Effective Words

Pt. VIII Research Writing

Pt. IX Special Writing Situations

App. A Document Format

App. B Writing with a Computer

App. C Oral Presentations, Glossary of Usage, Glossary of Terms

I taught this book for three years at a community college. It was in between using two Diana Hacker books Rules for Writers and the Bedford Handbook.

For myself, this book is very comprehensive. If I could, I could have taught the entire course using this text, although our college requires an additional "reader." There are enough sample essays and other pieces in here that the reader portion could be done with this book. Its approach is encyclopedic to grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling problems.

I also found its section on composition essentials very well done, particularly chapter 4 on paragraphs. I found their explanation of how to do MLA papers and research papers in general quite useful.

Before we used this textbook, I would usually download supplementary information from net websites on paragraphing and MLA papers to fill in the gap between what students wanted to know and what the textbooks said on these and other subject. However, the Little,Brown Handbook was so full of information, that I did not have to do that during the years I used this book.

This is a good book if one is embarking on a serious campaign as a writer. When I was more active as a writer, I found that other writers and copy editors on publications I worked on continually stocked up on such books. These are the best places to look for clarification on problems of grammar, mechanicws, and usage. Surprisingly, even for the experienced degreed writer, what such books say about improving rhetoric or diction is often useful, the basics we can forget easily.
As such, even though our college has moved back to Hacker, I will keep it out as a reference for my own writing and editing.

Yet, as a text book for an individual composition course, its sixty dollar price, makes the book an outrageous drag on already emptied student pockets. The scandal of the price of university texts needs to be exposed and investigated.

Although intended primarily for students, The Little Brown Handbook is an excellent reference for all nonfiction writers. While writing my own recent book on option pricing, I consulted it often regarding the use of colons, semicolons, dashes, and other fine points of punctuation. It even served as an arbiter of correct grammar and usage in the occasional dispute with my copy editor! Almost everything critical to good writing is covered--from organization, paragraph coherence, and sentence structure, to punctuation, word choice, and issues of style--and in sufficient detail to be useful to the working wordsmith. Guidelines for academic writers, a discussion of the American Psychological Association (APA) style employed in the social sciences, and suggestions for use of the internet in research, also appear in The Little Brown Handbook. All in all, this book should be found near the Strunk and White classic, The Elements of Style, on any writer's bookshelf. I would unhesitatingly recommend it to anyone who writes, either for pleasure or for a living.

Jeffrey Owen Katz, Ph.D.
Author (With Donna L. McCormick):
  "Advanced Option Pricing Models" (McGraw Hill, 2005)
  "The Encyclopedia of Trading Strategies" (McGraw Hill, 2000)

This is a great reference book for anyone with grammar questions. The index and page layouts are brillantly designed by the Parsons School of Design, and it shows on every page. I have never found a reference book so easy to navigate. The book is small (mine is 5.5" X 8.5") AND amazingly lightweight for 800 pages . The binding is strong and the book lays comfortably open as you use it. YOU WILL LOVE THIS BOOK. I buy it for every writing job I take. This is my third copy.

Don't dismiss this book as being just for students! This book distinguishes itself by giving some helpful tips that go beyond those offered by many grammatical, word usage, & style books out there. For example, in determining whether to put a comma between two adjectives, Garner's book (Modern American Usage) doesn't give the tip of reversing the order of them like Little, Brown does. This book has many lists & other tips/tricks that come in handy. The book's chapters relating to grammer, sentences, punctuation, & mechanics would be useful to anyone who wants to improve his or her writing.

I work in a peer-tutor center at my university and mostly encounter students using Harbrace, but LBHB is SO much better tha Harbrace or any of the others I have seen -- organized better, easier to understand. I keep mine right next to my computer -- unless my roommate has it by hers.

The book is pretty good. I have used it since my early college days. One of the problems I have is the book does not provide an answer key to the exercises. This can be frustrating if you are trying to learn and want to make sure you are doing things properly (I have the 5th edition- not sure if the other editions are the same). The book says that you can buy the answer key seperately, unfortunately, I have not been able to find it. Overall, the book has a wealth of helpful information.

As a student and instructor, I never ever write a paper without using this book. I have used it since 2002 and each edition is better and better. My highlighter never stops when finding important ways to quote authors, annotate references, and where to use semi colons.

This was a required book for one of my college courses a hundred years ago. Out of all the college books I ended up keeping, this goes on the top of the list.

This is a necessary book for anyone writing anything.

As an advanced freelance writer, I still refer to it from time to time, and probably always will.

This book not only contains a wealth of writing information, but it looks good, too! The full color pages make it easy to look at, and the book's small size is great for portability.