Book Review: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis

ISBN: 1592571158

Published: August 5th, 2003

Publisher: Alpha

Read from June 27th to August 1st, 2011

Synopsis from Goodreads:

You're no idiot, of course. You've probably written your share of book reports,, term papers, e-mails, and thank you notes. The rules of writing can be confusing, however, and might result in final drafts riddled with gaffes, typos, and errors!  The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Grammar and Style, Second Edition, will take you step by step through the basics of spelling, punctuation, and sentence formation to help you become an effective communicator of the written word! In this revised and updated Complete Idiot's Guide®, you get:  Explanations of writing styles including exposition, narration, argumentation, and description.  Definitions of such writing mistakes as dangling modifiers, mixed metaphors, and split infinitives–and how to avoid them.  Examples of model documents such as resumes, cover letters, and thank you notes.  The differences between drafting a business letter and crafting a personal one.

Review:

This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to learn grammar.  It's especially good for someone who wants to learn how to write better in a business setting.  For any non-native English speakers, there are special sections for you throughout the book, which I think is a good idea.  Native English speakers don't often speak completely correct English, but there are still a lot of things that come naturally to them that won't to a non-native English speakers.

It reads a lot like a text book, but it's so much funner.  Whereas our school text books usually have boring examples and exercises, this book has a lot of really fun one.  The author comes up with the most random, hilarious sentences.  Her writing style just makes it all a lot more fun.  There are a lot of exercises throughout the book that let you test yourself and see if you've learned anything.  The answers follow right after the exercises, so you always know how well you did.

My only complaint is that it only focused on business and non-fiction writing.  I know that's the only writing a majority of the population does, and it's very useful to know.  However, it would have been nice to at least have a little bit about it in the book.  I would have been happy with just a small little section that said something about it.