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Rating: 
Summary: Response from a HS English teacher to the professor
Review: As a community college teacher, I am absolutely frustrated and mystified at the lack of basic grammar and English skills these kids possess. What are they learning in high school? The sad part is that I have many students who want to become high school English Teachers themselves but can't even identify dangling modifiers or tell me the difference between colons and semicolons. It's appalling to think that they will be perpetuating this cycle--teachers who don't know grammar NOT bothering to teach it to their students because they don't know it in the first place.I've given up teaching them what they should have learned in high school when they were probably wasting time doing group projects or watching movies based on books. It's not their fault. I blame the teachers. Unless we make grammar a mandatory element of high school English classes--and force the teachers to learn it in the first place--the level of proper English usage will continue to slip-slide away. I shouldn't have to waste my college class time explaining the elements of a complete sentence. (How on earth are they even graduating in the first place?) I make them buy this book, which I feel is the best handbook available, and pray that they will have the initiative to use it.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Book Ever
Review: I used this book in my college classes and it is a gift from Heaven. It has helped me get an A in my classes because they require a format when submitting a paper. I get extra credit for using these formats and I could not have done it without The Little Brown Compact Handbook.
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Summary: Kenny
Review: My buying experience has been very positive at Amazon. My book purchase from "Huzypuzy" or Kenny arrived as expected without any problems. I highly recommend buying your books from Kenny. Thanks, Jerry
Bookbuyer
Rating:
Summary: Kenny
Review: My buying experience has been very positive at Amazon. My book purchase from "Huzypuzy" or Kenny arrived as expected without any problems. I highly recommend buying your books from Kenny. Thanks, Jerry
Bookbuyer
Rating:
Summary: Misplaced Parts, Dangling Modifiers
Review: The LITTLE, BROWN COMPACT HANDBOOK is one of those essential resources that no writer, email user, student, or English speaker should be without. This current edition in particular is designed to be useful, both in its compact overall size as well as in its plastic comb binding which allows any page to be opened flat upon the desk alongside a keyboard while typing.
In addition to its clearly-written and comprehensive treatment of grammar rules and punctuation, the LITTLE, BROWN COMPACT HANDBOOK contains highly useful sections on formatting and citation styles (MLA, APA, etc.), research methods, and methods for effective and persuasive argument formation. All sections are conveniently tabbed for quick access to the information you need.
I highly recommend this excellent reference for anyone looking to improve the quality of their writing.
Jeremy W. Forstadt
Rating:
Summary: Another high school English teacher chimes in...
Review: This grammar book is decidedly thorough, concise, and both extremely helpful and intimidating, especially to those who are grammatically-challenged! The passion of the professor's review seems to exude frustration and disgust with two groups of people.
Finger-pointing is done at the teachers who are unable to master sufficiently themselves the basics of the English language grammar that they are positioned to teach. There is also blame cast upon the students below college level, who are lacking the skills of recognizing and applying these basic skills in their own use of language.
Any teaching book by itself, even an excellent one such as this grammar book, often needs to have a guide to go with it. In this case a guide would be a knowledgeable, patient, and motivated teacher. As a high school English teacher for over 38 years, I have learned to pick my battles in the area of English grammar. My students have had more media exposure to 20 second-sound bites, telecommunication devices, and the whole world of the Internet than either my generation or the one immediately succeeding mine. This is part of their experience. We talk, and we read more than we write. From the Internet itself there has emerged from emails and chatrooms a whole series of shorthand that perhaps those responsible for this book might want to include in a chapter on "Telecommuncations Grammar For Different Occasions"! This is not to excuse bad grammar; this is to identify a cause and expand on a method of teaching.
To give an already grammatically-challenged student a superb grammar book and hope it will help without further interaction on the teacher's part is comparable to giving a top choice T-Bone steak on a fine china plate to a baby who's just beginning to teethe. The hunger is there; the food is there, but the child will starve to death anyway!
This is as complete and as well-done an English grammar as one can buy - when it is accompanied by either a competent, concerned teacher, or a most avid self-motivated, interested student. It's also an excellent review book for a seasoned grammarian to keep on hand.
Rating:
Summary: Another high school English teacher chimes in...
Review: This grammar book is decidedly thorough, concise, and both extremely helpful and intimidating, especially to those who are grammatically-challenged! The passion of the professor's review seems to exude frustration and disgust with two groups of people.
Finger-pointing is done at the teachers who are unable to master sufficiently themselves the basics of the English language grammar that they are positioned to teach. There is also blame cast upon the students below college level, who are lacking the skills of recognizing and applying these basic skills in their own use of language.
Any teaching book by itself, even an excellent one such as this grammar book, often needs to have a guide to go with it. In this case a guide would be a knowledgeable, patient, and motivated teacher. As a high school English teacher for over 38 years, I have learned to pick my battles in the area of English grammar. My students have had more media exposure to 20 second-sound bites, telecommunication devices, and the whole world of the Internet than either my generation or the one immediately succeeding mine. This is part of their experience. We talk, and we read more than we write. From the Internet itself there has emerged from emails and chatrooms a whole series of shorthand that perhaps those responsible for this book might want to include in a chapter on "Telecommuncations Grammar For Different Occasions"! This is not to excuse bad grammar; this is to identify a cause and expand on a method of teaching.
To give an already grammatically-challenged student a superb grammar book and hope it will help without further interaction on the teacher's part is comparable to giving a top choice T-Bone steak on a fine china plate to a baby who's just beginning to teethe. The hunger is there; the food is there, but the child will starve to death anyway!
This is as complete and as well-done an English grammar as one can buy - when it is accompanied by either a competent, concerned teacher, or a most avid self-motivated, interested student. It's also an excellent review book for a seasoned grammarian to keep on hand.
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