With excellent examples and easy-to-follow rules, this concise and practical guide covers the basics of English grammar and punctuation. Perfect for English speakers who weren’t taught proper grammar in the classroom as well as for general readers who are uncertain about punctuation marks in certain situations, this handbook sheds light on the most common questions, including Where should commas go? When should a hyphen be used? and What is the difference between an adjective and an adverb?
I got this as a Christmas present - a fun prod that perhaps my letters were a tad lacking. Ultimately it's a book that cant figure out what it wants to be. It is too verbose to be a reference guide and too brief to give even a halfway decent understanding of the principles at work.
[I also docked one star for it having single sided pages - I mean come on.]
A great and very concise guide to English Grammar (but please take note that it does focus on Australian English) for anybody who needs to brush on the basics.
I would agree with the author though in that there's nothing here about modals, subjunctives, the past perfect tense, or even countable or uncountable nouns. You'll be better off in wading through other more hefty tomes discussing English grammar in detail. I was very much looking forward to a simple and yet hopefully understandable explanation of verb tenses but alas, that is not to be.
I very much enjoyed Part II wherein there was a very succinct run through of the sometimes confusing usage of punctuation. Most of us know the basics but it is easy to forget that some still commit very easily ignored mistakes. This is going to be the first book I'll be grabbing if ever I need a quick reminder regarding my punctuation usage.
The briefest guide indeed.It's a quick read to brush things up if you feel like getting a little rusty. Though i would strongly suggest to read those that run through every details to make the reading more useful and enjoyable.
It sure is brief. And it has all the references. But there is only the basics. Which you can get with lots of details in many many places online. It would have been a great book at least a century ago.