Rating: 
Summary: You can benefit from this book.
Review: I've been a technical writer for about 7 years, and Jane Straus' "The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation" is the best reference I've found. It's extremely well organized, ensuring that readers can quickly locate a required topic. Concepts are described in clear and simple phrases, and backed up with examples one would find in everyday language.
I can't help but wish I had discovered this book when I was in high school - I know it would have made a huge improvement in my writing skills, but more than that, I might have better understood how English "works". I would happily recommend "The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation" to anyone who reads or writes.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book for the price
Review: If you are looking for a low-priced book that covers the essentials of grammar this is an excellent choice. The rules are clear and easy to implement, and the worksheets provided excellent practice.This is the one book that didn't leave my desk when I taught Jr. High last summer, and I'm pulling it out to do all over again. Some of the more complex ideas are a little packed together, but the book provides either a good starting point or and excellent supplement.
Rating:
Summary: A concise, easy-to-read guide to grammar and punctuation.
Review: In a concise format, the author covers the important rules of grammar, punctuation, capitalization and writing numbers -- all areas that present problems one time or another to even the best writers and English scholars. Each rule is demonstrated with a clear example. At the conclusion of the book are exercises to test one's mastery of the rules as well as answers to verify that mastery. As a former French and English teacher myself, who has spent the past 13 years at a PR firm, I would highly recommend this book as an addition to the bookshelf of any student or business person.
Rating:
Summary: Best quick grammar reference I've found
Review: In my work I am called upon to write many reports and memos as well as review and edit documents produced by my staff. I have found the Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation to be the perfect reference for my needs. At first glance, I feared the book might be too compact and could not possibly cover all the necessary topics. However, whether I sought expert advice on commas, semicolons, quotation marks, hyphens, ellipses, noun-verb agreement, who vs. whom, then vs. than, etc., I have always found the answer I needed quickly and expressed clearly and succinctly. In fact, perhaps it is the book's compactness, as well as the excellent organization and thoughtfully laid out Table of Contents that allows for such easy and quick location of the answers to my grammatical questions.
For the cost, this book delivers much more than I ever would have expected.
Rating:
Summary: What more could you want?
Review: It's affordable, easy-to-use, thorough -- everything you need in a guide for grammar and punctuation. As a fulltime writer I have a robust reference shelf, including the Chicago Manual of Style and Strunk's little book. This one tops them all. Some years ago I was giving away copies of Elements of Style because I was so high on it. I still am. But I've found Jane Straus's book to be better. In college I had a friend whose English professor issued automatic F's to any paper with a punctuation error, no matter how brilliant it might be otherwise. That's a painful way to be reminded that periods go inside quotation marks and not outside. All the English books we had at the time were either ponderous or skimpy. None of them were both easy to use and thorough. Quite possibly if my friend had had Straus's Blue Book he might've kept his scholarship. Since writing in the corporate world is particularly bad, I strongly recommend business people keep a copy of the Blue Book close at hand. If you're a manager, I suggest you get copies for all your people who write or edit things sent outside your department. You'll probably never get a better return on your investment. When my daughters head to college next year, each will have copies of Straus's book. I don't say this lightly: Jane Straus, you did a great job!
Rating:
Summary: A thorough, easy-to-use book that offers something for all.
Review: Jane has put together a wonderful, practical, reasonably priced guide. Whether you are a credentialed professional or a student, this book will serve you well. As a medical transcriptionist, I highly recommend it to others in the field.
Rating: 
Summary: I have to dissent...
Review: Most of the reviewers seemed to like this book a lot and recommended it highly. With their recommendations in mind, I went ahead to purchase the book (2 copies) to use for tutoring a high school student. Unfortunately, I was disappointed at the quality of the text (paper, font, number of pages) and the content. There's several pages on the use of commas, which is wonderful, but that's several pages out of not so many. So what's the substance of the rest of the book? Not a whole lot. I immediately returned this item back to Amazon. I suggest, if you need a good reference, to find a good grammar textbook (used in primary and secondary schools) or perhaps even the MLA Handbook - depending on what your needs are. This book, Grammar Blue Book, is a waste of money.
Rating:
Summary: Two Thumbs Up for Jane Straus
Review: Ms. Straus has done an excellent job with making her audience of readers understand the English language. With the many challenges in our language it is very nice to have this publication to lean on! It is well put together and easily read. Whoever? Who? Whomever? Whom? She'll explain it all! You will understand. As a homeschooling mom I can see this book being of a great help for many years to come. Thank you Jane, I wish you much success in your writing endeavors!
Rating: 
Summary: This is the easiest manual you will ever use --guaranteed.
Review: Over 25,000 people have already found this reference guide invaluable. It contains no jargon or information only English teachers would care about. I wrote this book for all of us who need simple answers to our grammar and punctuation questions. If you wish to practice what you have learned from my book, I have included exercises WITH ANSWERS. So you can use this as a reference book AND a workbook. I use this book in the classroom so it has the seal of approval from thousands of managers, clericals, college/high school students, and English teachers throughout the world. If you need to provide training for employees in English skills, you may contact me. I hope you enjoy this easy-to-use book.
Rating: 
Summary: Rules without Reason
Review: Reading the praise of other readers, I expected a clear and concise book of rules to use with the English language. There are rules, such as, "'that' introduces essential clauses[,] while 'which' introduces non-essential clauses." Nobody in the English language uses phrases like 'essential' and 'non-essential' phrases. Notions like 'restrictive' and 'non-restrictive' clauses are wholly absent, replaced by the author's own clever, but largely private, jargon. Many of the rules are given without explaining the reason for English use in a certain way. Some of the rules seem so obvious as to be silly: "Use concrete rather than vague language." The rules for the use of 'effect' versus 'affect' are almost unintelligible. For example, "If none of the above [rules] fit, use 'affect.'" The two words have different uses that are clear to delineate, so why the abstraction by exclusion? Or, how about the rule, "Use commas to set off expressions that interrupt the folow of the sentence," which is used instead of a 'parenthetic phrase', which would have much more meaning. It's this avoidance of the classical language of grammar that is perhaps most annoying, but there are plenty of omissions that are equally affecting. Much attention is spent on the distinction between whomever and whoever (words not commonly used, and the reasons given are not all that clear). Even some illustrations are wrong. One example is: "I expect five hundred dollars ($500)," wherein the phrase "five-hundred" should be hypenated. When it comes to punctuation, no mention is made of brackets within parenthesis. With these many grievances, it is simply not possible to rate this grammar book highly. There are simply too many problems with grammatical rules, examples used as illustrations that are wrong, too many punctuation rules omitted, and absolutely nothing on style (as in "Elements of Style" by Funk and White). If someone wants a more detailed "Elements of Style" that concerns only grammar, I recommend the use of Blanche Ellsworth's "English Simplified," Fifth Edition (San Francisco: Harper & Row).
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