The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style, 2nd Edition |
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| Title: | The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style, 2nd Edition |
| Author: | Laurie E. Rozakis |
| Publisher: | Alpha |
| Type: | Book / Paperback |
| Publication Date: | 05 August, 2003 |
| ISBN / ISBN-13: | 1592571158 / 9781592571154 |
| List Price: | $16.95 |
| You Save: | $5.86 |
| Amazon Price: | $11.09 |
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This book is also available, brand-new, from 3rd-party marketplace sellers at Amazon.com, from $7.47.
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Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
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.
Amazon.com Review
The jokey, conversational style of the Complete Idiot's Guide series is better suited to some of its many subjects than to others, but for the Guide to Grammar and Style, it works. This book might not be appropriate for professional proofreaders in search of the definitive use of the en dash, but it is a solid, amusing volume for those who daydreamed through grade school and would like to brush up on the fundamentals. Puns, silly humor, and hyperbole abound, but so do the entertaining quotations from beloved masters of the English language that author Laurie E. Rozakis has managed to dig up. For every "The rules of standard written English are ... more frightening than a sail on the Titanic," there is an amusing tidbit such as this one, courtesy of Calvin Trillin: "Whom is a word invented to make everyone sound like a butler. Nobody who is not a butler has ever said it out loud without feeling just a little bit weird." For every "Like my thighs, the distinction between that and which is becoming less firm," we have someone such as James Thurber to show us how to break a rule in style. "When I split an infinitive," Thurber is said to have admonished a meddlesome editor, "it is going to damn well stay split!" The text is highly energetic, and Rozakis cuts to the chase. For instance, she summarizes one chapter this way: "Don't be a sexist pig; ditch doublespeak; end euphemisms; can clichés." And she offers us these wise words, from Thomas Jefferson: "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."
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