Grammar and Punctuation Guide: The Essential Blue Book

sharon ann: The book looks like it has just the information I need for my writing. But, I was SO surprised to see that they sent me a USED book, when I paid for a NEW book!

United States on Nov 01, 2023

Liz Powers: Good book to have for a proofreader

United States on Aug 14, 2023

jean: Used for review and extra practice with individual 8th grade student. Clarifies somewhat abstract grammar concepts with clear explanations, good examples, and lots of short practices. Mastery tests can be taken when student feels ready to do well on them. This reinforces the student’s feeling of success. Many students just need more review and practice than classroom group instruction can provide. This book would be great for teens and adults. Straightforward and clear.

United States on Dec 18, 2022

Shiva: It does cover great details in explaining with an example.

United Kingdom on Jan 03, 2022

lorraine lemay: Excellent to review or learn about grammar and punctuation.

Canada on Feb 20, 2021

David Hackett: I should have checked more carefully but didn’t really appreciate that the book and author were American.
America seems a proud nation and rightly so, but I wish they would call their language American rather than English, which it is not. In a nutshell, if you want a UK English reference book you need a UK book; personally, I have exchanged this book for a Penguin Guide to Punctuation (Penguin Reference Book). I think the book should have a note that stated that it is aimed at an American speaking audience.
I returned the book after finding so many variations. Around a third of the book is devoted to quizzes, not what you want if you want a reference book.

United Kingdom on Oct 04, 2020

Marie: It’s a good book but I’m just disappointed that I can’t photocopy pages for my ESL students. So it’s kind of useful for my class. It says the tests are reproducible, but you can’t actually photocopy anything.

Canada on Jan 10, 2020

Espacio Independiente: El libro cumple con lo que promete: ser una guía, puntual y precisa, que aclara los temas más confusos de la gramática inglesa. Las explicaciones son sencillas y fáciles de comprender, además el índice temático del final es de mucha ayuda si lo que necesitas es resolver una duda puntual.
Por supuesto, como ya lo mencionaron algunos usuarios antery, este libro no es una guía definitiva para entender absolutamente toda la gramática inglesa. Nada que ver. Simplemente aclara las confusiones más comunes, pero no ahonda demasiado en ellas.
Si de verdad estas interesado en mejorar tu comprensión de gramática inglesa, este libro es recomendable a modo de introducción. Después tendrás que adentrarte en textos más especializados.

Mexico on May 06, 2018

JenJen: I am having a hard time leaving an actual star review of this book, as the content of the book deserves a 5 star rating, while the organization is not user friendly, and the "quizzes" are very lackluster.

In order to receive real quizzes and content, the authors of this book demand that you pay a substantial fee ($30.00 for a limited number of logins - one year or $129.00 unlimited logins - one year) in order to access their subscription area of the website that goes along with this book. This is never mentioned in the description, and I would like those thinking about purchasing this book based on quizzes, tests, and other content to be fully aware of what they are buying (or not buying in this instance).

Furthermore, you really do not need to purchase this book unless you would rather have paper in front of you. You are able to go to GrammarBook.com and view this book in its entirety on the website and even take the menial quizzes online if you choose. Just be sure you scroll down BELOW the actually "HEY, BUY ME" stuff to take the free, interactive quizzes. You may also purchase individual quizzes from the subscription service for $1.00 each. This might be...

United States on Mar 21, 2016

Sumedha Manabarana: THE BLUE BOOK OF GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION is an essential handbook of English grammar and punctuation. I like it because the authors give specific instructions to understand each topic. The book also helps me to verify what I already know. It discusses a number of important topics. I'd love to see a chapter on CONJUNCTIONS on a future edition of the BLUE BOOK as many other recognized books do not provide such precise information on a topic as THE BLUE BOOK does.

For example, the Oxford Learner's Dictionaries list the phrase 'as well as' under Idioms whereas Merriam-Webster dictionary puts them under two parts of speech: conjunction and preposition. Collins English Dictionary simply gives some sample sentences wherein 'as well as' is used. As their descriptions are insufficient, it is very time-consuming for a teacher to convince a pupil the function of 'as well as' in certain sentences:

Example: 'David loves Anne as well as Jane.'

Can we say 'as well as' in the said sentence functions as a preposition or a conjunction? You could simply say 'It could be either.'

As such, I feel that an excellent book like THE BLUE BOOK could do better in a similar...

United States on Jul 10, 2014