Verbal Advantage, Volume 4 [ABRIDGED] [AUDIOBOOK] (Audio Cassette)

by Charles Harrington Elster (Author, Reader)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A strong command of the English language is directly linked to career advancement, your income, your social status, and success. Now, by mastering Volume 7 and Volume 8 of the Verbal Advantage program, you'll continue the journey that will lead you to joining the elite segment of society that enjoys the highest levels of professional and personal achievement.

By adding new words to your vocabulary, you'll win the admiration of friends, peers, and colleagues. You'll come to possess the word power you previously envied in others. You'll forever stop fumbling for words, using them incorrectly, failing to understand, or, perhaps worst of all, remaining silent. With Verbal Advantage you will never again be at a loss for words, for you will:

Add hundreds of new power words to your vocabulary. Develop clarity and variety in your speech. Learn how to correctly pronounce the most difficult words. Be certain you are using the right words every time. Learn effortlessly without classroom study or written tests. Obtain the key ingredient to personal and professional success.

Verbal Advantage has been the top-selling vocabulary program in the world since 1985. A major benefit of the series is that listeners can pick up any volume, and begin the program in no particular order, to gain from Verbal Advantage. It's perfect for every age and occupation, including public speakers, business-people, students - and you! Start now and develop the confidence that comes with real word power, whether in business, school, or everyday conversation.


About the Author
Charles Harrington Elster, creator of the Verbal Advantage program, is a specialist in the English language. A graduate of Yale, he has worked extensively in the book and electronic publishing fields, wrote and hosted a weekly public-radio series on languages called A Word to the Wise, and is currently an independent writer with hundreds of articles, interviews, and editorials to his credit. Mr. Elster is also the author of several books on language, including There Is No Zoo in Zoology: And Other Beastly Mispronunciations and There’s a Word for It.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio; Abridged edition (September 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559275197
• ISBN-13: 978-1559275194
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,959,094 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of money, June 28, 2001

By	Tak C. Ip "kothreat" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Verbal Advantage, Vols. 1-3 (Audio Cassette)

From their advertisement pitch ("a program that feeds words effortlessly into your memory... you'll be able to use hundreds of new words in hours..."), one would think that they'd used some cutting edge psychology techniques (such as NLP, conditioning, etc) to aid your learning. But you'll be disappointed when you discover that the author did little more than reading from the dictionary.

Here's the format for every word on the tape: 1) author reads the vocabulary 2) he spells it 3) reads the definition and sometimes the origin of the word 4) reads the synonyms and sometimes antonyms (which he did not bother to spell. So if you didn't know the synonyms to being with, you can't even look them up in a dictionary) 5) often he gives some example of usage.

With exception of #5 above, there's nothing you can't get from reading the dictionary like Rain Man does. At least, when you read from a dictionary, you don't have to keep rewinding the damn thing to catch the synonyms you missed.

Each verbal advantage set comes with 2 tapes. The author spent half of the 1st tape introducing the program, telling you why you should learn vocabularies. He then spent half of the 2nd tape explaining how to read from a dictionary. Okay, so you say "I don't know why I should learn more words and I never used a dictionary before." You'll be surprised when you open Verbal Advantage level 2, and discovers the EXACT same repetition of the introduction and how to read dictionaries.

You might learn a lot of other things from these tapes... but you definitely will not learn a lot of new words.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best cassette tape, September 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Verbal Advantage, Vols. 1-3 (Audio Cassette)

This is the fourth tape I had, but it is the only one that I like. The tape explains words and presents several usages. The other tapes were (1) very annoying because they containing too much useless, annoying dialogue and few new words or (2) not helpful because the definition and usage were poorly crafted.

If you prefer useless chatting between annoying people, try Word Smart II; you will spend very long time listening to their uninformative conversation. If you simply want to learn as much words in a short period of time, get this set of tape.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Education Value, July 25, 2001

By	James E. Singleton (Shiloh, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Verbal Advantage, Volume 8 (Audio Cassette)

I found the Verbal Advantage tapes extremely interesting and fascinating. The author includes the etymology (a word I learned) with many of the words. This teaches many interesting historical facts most people are unaware of. He also does much more than "read from the dictionary". He explains the correct pronunciation, correct usage, synonyms, antonyms, and etymology. Over and above the fascinating vocabulary discussions, he talks about common errors people make in day-to-day conversation. He talks about redunancy, overused words and incorrectly used words. Mr Elster has a very good, interesting voice that he uses with great enthusiasm for the subject. So if you are interested in becoming "erudite", and want your writing to be more "perspicacious", these are the best tapes you can buy!