The Least You Should Know about English (Form A)

I received a date when it would arrive and a few days later received another telling me it would take longer. if you need this within a week or two don't get it.

This book is a great companion book for "Hodges' Harbrace Handbook." It is a simplified approach to english.

I'm using this textbook in a college level fundamentals of writing course, where its graphics-free, jargon-free approach is proving to be very helpful. Wilson and Glazier tackle the fundamentals of Standard Written English as writing problems that are common for intermediate-beginning writers of English. Each chapter covers a common writing problem and includes a clear, plain-spoken definition, examples, solution, and practice exercises. Basically, each chapter helps students to build a tool-kit that they can students use to repair their writing errors--the chapters also work as good reminders of "the basics" in other writing classrooms. The exercises are varied and interesting and tests appear every few chapters for review. Most of the book covers sentence and paragraph level issues. The last few chapters cover writing short essays.

--* Same review written for Form B *-- I love this series -- it's straightforward and easy to teach in portions rather than having to go sequentially through the book as you do with other workbooks. However, I was ding-dong enough to buy all three forms -- A, B, and C. If you read the footnotes at the beginning of B and C, you'll note the instructions/content/topics are the same in all three Forms -- the only thing that changes are the exercises. For my purposes in a high school English classroom, only one Form would have been fine since I could have created my own additional exercises as needed. The information covers basic parts of speech through essay writing and includes remedial through advanced types of exercises and topics. I particularly like the possessives and contractions as well as the doubling-before-suffix lessons. I can't say the information is rare, but it's nice to have it all in one handy reference that's genuinely full of practical instruction and lacks unnecessary narrative.

As an English teacher, I often find it difficult attaining grammar books that are accessable to all students. The Least You Should Know About English provides comprehensive lessons that students can understand, and also gives a wealth of exercises. The book deals with all grammar errors-fragments, usage, parallel structure, shifts in time, apostrophe-as well as proofreading exercies. For times you struggle with the correct answer, an answer key is provided. I found this book ideal in my high school classroom, since so many students lack the grammar background needed to be successful in writing.