Customer Reviews

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Reference Set [With CDROM]

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

 

 

I'm an editorial freelancer, so I haul my laptop around a lot between multiple clients' offices. Inspired by a review here at Amazon, I ordered the book/CD combo, and it's been great! I keep the books on my desk in the "home office," and I installed the software on my PowerBook.

The Mac interface is not very well designed--it takes a lot of mouse clicks to get from word to word, and there don't seem to be any keyboard shortcuts--but it gets the job done soooo much faster than thumbing through the book when I'm on a deadline. I use it constantly.

This dictionary and thesaurus set with the CD Rom make a great combination. The books provide excellent word definitions and synonyms for thousands of different words. The CD Rom is handy too in those times that you don't have the books around and just want to look something up quick and easy on your computer. This was definitely a great buy at a great price!

Since I am an international student studying in the United States, my perspective is slightly different from those of other reviewers. If you are studying for standardized tests such as SAT or GRE, this is 'the' ultimate authority you should refer to whenever you feel unsure about the exact meanings of the vocabularies you see in past administrated tests. If you practice on questions on analogy for awhile, for example, you would discover that the ETS (Educational Testing Services), the maker of GRE and SAT, also relies intensively, although not thoroughly, on Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary definitions to design their questions. Only by referring to the MW can you truly understand why certain answer choice is correct, while others are not.

As a bonus, you also have exclusive rights to send inquires on difficult words to MW resourceful editors, a service I find extremely helpful. Although responses are slow (because of, surprisingly, numerous projects in Merriam-Webster Corporation), you will generally receive the most authoritative answers from the brightest people on the planet. As an ESL learner, I am deeply obsessed with the flexibility, inherent logic, and beauty of English language; all introduced by this enlightening tome.

I ordered this for an editing class and relearned how to use a dictionary. So fun! I haven't used the electronic version yet. I'll update the review when and if I do.

If you do any kind of writing, and you want to be taken seriously, you need this reference.

I took off one star because pages stick together and a section got folded over and was not cut correctly. If I unfold that section, it sticks out. Doesn't bug me enough to return it, but irks me that their quality control was off when this was not a bargain book.

This is just what I needed for school. I am in college and need a good dictionary/thesaurus for my classes. It came on time and was in terrific shape.