Customer Reviews

Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The title tells all: Grammar Desk Reference

It IS NOT meant to be a casual "how can I improve my writing?" type book. It IS meant to be a book in which one can find needed grammatical information quickly and efficiently. For that it's perfect.

There is a quagmire of casual "how can I improve my writing?" type books on the market. I have a bunch of them, and although most are well written and helpful, they are very hard to use as a reference when I need the information fast (while writing). I've thumbed through these things many times--annoyed--trying to find info. It doesn't work. The alternative is to remember every detail as you read through these books--good luck!

That's where the Grammar Desk Reference comes in. With a quick look, I can find what I need on the spot. And, although it's not really meant to be a read-through-cover-to-cover type of book, it is written in a pleasant enough manner to do so. Because of the ease of use and the completeness of this text, I would have to say it's the best grammar guide/writing tips book I've purchased. If you appreciate to-the-point material with a minimum of fluff, this is your book!

As for the font: Does everyone need glasses? If so, buy them and stop faulting the book. The font seems fine to me, and my eyes aren't the greatest. I never even thought it to be an issue until I read the reviews here.

The Grammar Desk Reference is not really a book that was put together to be read from cover to cover, but if you are a writer working on an essay or novel and want to quickly find out if you need a comma in a sentence or not. Then this book will help.

The Grammar Desk Reference is just what it says. It was written explicitly to be used during the proofreading process. It's not a grammar book that could be read from cover to cover, but once you find information on your comma you may be tempted to keep reading for a bit to get full information on how it should be used. The information is way easier to find in it then in a normal grammar guide though if you need reading glasses to read you will definitely want to wait till writers digest puts out a large print edition.

I gave it four stars because it is wordy and the print in it is small (think 9-10 Point Arial type) and could really be a lot larger it also skims a little on explaining the Grammar in lay terms which I found a bit disappointing. But in most cases you can quickly locate what an "Adverbial Introductory Element" or an "Dangling Modifier" is with very little looking and get an idea of what the authors mean. If you have one grammar book that is hard to use because you can't find anything in it (which is why I bought mine) then this may be for you. My only gripes are the print size and that while the spiral binding may make it possible to lay the book flat while you look at your manuscript, it also makes the pages irritatingly hard to turn at times. But other then these things the book is okay as a quick and easy to use reference. If you want something simple to read cover to cover (or that resembled your college grammar guide) then this is not for you.

Before you purchase this book, ask yourself two questions:


"Do I want/need to learn all the nitty-gritty details of grammar, punctuation and sentence structure?"

and,

"Am I willing to overlook pages crammed with tiny print and few 'breaks' for my eyes?"


If you answered "YES" to both of these questions, then this book may be for you. I added it to my library a few weeks ago. So far, I've found it helpful, insightful and a good review.

The book is broken into four parts:


1. Grammar Overview (For those who forgot what a verb does, a noun is, and who think an indirect object is the title of the new Jennifer Anniston flick).

2. Grammer Rules, Conventions, and Errors to Avoid (Such as agreement of verbs and parallelism).

3. Punctuation: Rules, Conventions, and Errors to Avoid (All the classics: commas, colons, quotation marks and more)

4. Mechanics and Usag (Everything from proper nouns and adjectives to a glossary of commonly missused words).



Bottomline: If you're looking to refresh your grammar skills, this book will help. If you're looking for an easy-to-read book, run. Run now.

The Writer's Digest GRAMMAR DESK REFERENCE, by Gary Lutz and Diane Stevenson, is a breath of fresh air. Compared to other formal grammar-and-punctuation references, the Grammar Desk Reference is easier to use because of its organization, completeness, and clarity. Compared to casual grammar-and-punctuation books, many of which are insightful and entertaining, the Grammar Desk Reference is more complete and easier to use as a quick reference. This has become my favorite grammar-and-punctuation reference.

The only complaint about this book that I have is, mentioned by previous reviewers, an incredibly small font. However, if the small font does not bother you, and you need a hefty grammar reference, this is definitely for you. (Yes, I know I made a few grammatical errors here, but can you spot them?)

I was never taught grammar in school. I am 53 years old and for some reason have developed an interest in grammar. I diagram sentences when I get home from work to relax and learn. I have purchased quite a few grammar books over the past few months. "The Writer's Digest" is by far my favorite book. It is detailed but easy to read and understand. I find that I constantly go back to this book to learn, or to answer my grammar questions.

This book provides a comprehensive view of grammar without being too complicated. By using examples of incorrect grammar uses in national newspapers and magazines (such as The New York Times) the authors not only show the ways we could commit grammatical blunders if we do not understand the inner logic of the language properly, but also how we may easily avoid these mistakes by using simple rules.

A must have for anyone in a writing class or anyone who wants to get help with pesky grammar problems.

In search of a good grammar guide that would cover the bizarre exceptions I'm always finding to the accepted rules, I stumbled across this offering from Writer's Digest Books. At first glance, I thought it would be just the ticket. Having a spiral binding is always an enormous plus, and the price is right. I've used a Gregg Reference Manual for years, which this book resembles, but a new Gregg is pricey.

But on opening the Grammar Desk Reference, I had to wonder what Writer's Digest was thinking. I may be in my early forties, but I do have 20/20 vision in both eyes. One glance at the pages in this book actually hurt my eyes. The print literally pulses on the page like some bad op-art design. That goes beyond the font size issue that some others have mentioned. I can't ever recall this happening with any book I've ever read, so this one creates a first.

Thinking it was just me, I showed this book to some other people to get their opinion; they all said the textual design was off. If it's painful to look at this book, no matter how good its content actually is, will you ever use it for any length of time?

I have good vision, but I'm failing to understand this trend in style guides and references toward smaller font faces and more text crammed on a page. If anything, a reference should have liberal whitespace to aid in locating information with a simple scan of the page.

Writer's Digest, please consider a more usable version of this reference. Maybe then more people will consider purchasing it.