Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking Kindle Edition

(My credentials: Taught high school and college English for 10 years, MA in English.)I like this book. I really want to love it, but before I could recommend it for high school and college students, it needs a second edition with some added material and better organization. It’s generally well-written and the concepts the author includes are clearly explained, but in its current form, it’s not really a practical reference for students who need help with the sentence-level problems teachers and professors are most likely to call out.Who I would recommend this book to: the student who doesn't struggle too much with the mechanics of writing but doesn't have much formal instruction in grammar and wants to cover the basics before taking a grammar course in college or before taking an AP English Language and Composition class that will expect them to understand these concepts before moving on to more advanced grammatical and rhetorical concepts. It’s also a useful reference for advanced English language learners.Specific pros and cons I noted while reading:BOOK ORGANIZATION• It’s easy to either read cover-to-cover or use as a reference. The table of contents and index are clear and easy to use.• However, the overall organization is sometimes idiosyncratic. I'm not sure why he has a whole (but only two-page) section to list/define parts of speech, then addresses spelling and sentence structure, then goes back to the parts of speech. Also, a subsection on the word "brung" is given the same importance as the subsection "writing with consistent tenses," which appears right after it.COMPOSITION• Tips for composition are to the point, and even after getting a M.A. in English, writing a thesis, teaching for ten years, and working on my own fiction, I found them helpful and inspiring. (I never thought of using PowerPoint to organize a writing project before! Duh!) But they'll also be helpful to the college freshman or high school student looking for help with tackling the blank page.• I like that each tip is stated simply and in bold at the beginning of a brief but enlightening paragraph of explanation. This makes review/skimming very easy.• The section on composition is brief but cogent. It's not intended to serve as an instructive text for a composition course but instead just a quick reference for those who need reminders about such things as the differences between intro/conclusion and body paragraphs and what kinds of things to put in a body paragraph.• The one bone I have to pick (and this may just be because it's my own biggest pet peeve) is that he doesn't address plagiarism, even briefly. I suppose this is excusable since he doesn't go into how to cite sources (since each department/program will use a different citation guide), but still, a brief "Note on Plagiarism" would be a nice reminder for students.ATTITUDE TOWARD GRAMMAR• Kudos to the author for taking a descriptive rather than prescriptive view of grammar! For example, he is flexible on the (sparing) use of coordinating conjunctions at the beginning of a sentence or the use of contractions even in formal writing.• This will probably be controversial, but I applaud the author for supporting the use of "they" and "them" to refer to a singular noun of unknown gender. He points out that this usage has been around for at least 600 years.STUDENT EDITING ISSUES• In general, the author does a good job of addressing common problems at the micro level (like forming plurals or using apostrophes correctly) but not so much at the sentence level.• He does a good job describing the most common parts of the sentence but doesn't highlight related editing issues, like run-ons, comma splices, subject-verb agreement, and dangling modifiers. He occasionally (and very briefly) touches on a few of these common errors, but they are virtually hidden and nowhere near as well-explained as the mechanical tips. He really needs a whole section on “Common Sentence Errors” with these issues covered more effectively and with bold, easy-to-find subheadings.• Sentence structure: It would be nice to have some graphic assists such as color coding or circling/underlining/arrows, especially in cases like demonstrating the direct object or object of the preposition. The verbal explanations, however, are succinct and accurate.• I do like how he explains independent and dependent clauses: it's brief and clear without getting into the issue of coordinating vs. subordinating conjunctions, which usually just makes students glaze over. (He does address conjunctions, but only after clearly and simply explaining the difference between independent/dependent clauses.)• The "Common Mistakes with Commas" section only includes two common mistakes (really just one, since they’re closely related.) There are a lot more common mistakes he could have included.• He provides good, practical, long-term advice on improving spelling.• Spelling rules: In the section on adding a suffix to a word ending in -y, it might be nice to point out the few common exceptions (like attorney - attorneys, monkey - monkeys).• I like how he briefly addresses little usage quirks like "nth" in the section on cardinal numbers and the differences in writing dates and times between the U.S. and the rest of the world. This is helpful both to English language learners and native speakers who aren’t widely read.• I like the good, solid, useful tips on how to choose verb tenses when writing about various things, like commenting on what a source says versus narrating a chain of events. One common issue that I wish he had included in the list, however, is what tense to use when summarizing part of a literary text (present tense is most widely accepted among scholars, but students often use the past tense).Kerri MillerELA AcademyNOTE: I received this product at a discounted rate in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

I just received this book, and within five minutes, I have found three errors in the punctuation section. I don't have time or money to waste on this nonsense and am returning it.

My book came damaged! (As you can see from the pictures)Okay, I know it's not badly damaged but it's still damaged. I'm a person who likes to buy books in perfect condition, so this really bothers me. I think it's Amazon's fault for this damage. The last time I bought a book from amazon, it was even worse than this (some pages got torn).Book Contents: I really love the contents of this book! It's easy to read and easy to understand! Perfect for any person who's trying to learn grammar.OVERALL: Yes, buy it! My SAT tutor recommended this book to me so I could improve on both English and Grammar. This could be useful for anyone!

The book could use more depth, especially in the preposition section. It's hard to imagine a grammar book only covers certain topics on a cursory manner. The lack of careful choices of examples throughout the book also need improvement. The author emphasizes the importance of writing to an intended readership. I wonder what that readership is being targeted with this book. The book is too general and in some cases too elementary to be useful. At the end of the book, general stylistic or grammatical advices are given. The answer of 'good' and 'well' to the question of "how are you?" being both acceptable confuses me. Anything goes is hardly a good advice even in the context of the fast-changing English language.

I love this book! I found the introduction very interesting and read the first few chapters word for word. I was so curious about the other chapters that I skipped around after that. The sections are color coded (which I will never remember, but it does make it easier to get to the correct section a little quicker) cover everything from general principals to spelling to abbreviations. The most useful chapter is punctuation but my favorite was the last one that covers things such as double negatives, clichés and dangling modifiers. The book reminded me of how I was taught in High School English back in the mid 70s. Based on the way kids talk and write today, I don't think that is the case today. If you want a handy resource for writing professional material, this book is well worth the cost!"I received this product at a discounted rate in exchange for my honest and unbiased review."

I have never been someone who normally reads a book like this from front to back cover - I just open to different pages to see what's inside. Well, that's exactly what I did with this book, Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking. I was pleasantly surprised that no matter which page I opened the book to, there was actually information I could use. There is so much useful information, especially for people who struggle with proper punctuation, quotation marks, numbers in sentences, and every other part of sentence structure. This book would be great for students just learning how to write essays or any paper in school. My son is graduating this year and will be heading off to college, so I think this book will benefit him greatly. I prefer paperback books since you can share them with others who might enjoy them, and this book is a really nice compact size. I think it's a great find. I received this product at a discounted rate in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

It not bad but my only regret is that it is more USA English that UK English, so there are some differents between two.

Not what I expected after reading the description.

Useful for new learners

value for money item.

Loved the way it was set out very easy to understand.