The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: An Easy-to-Use Guide with Clear Rules, Real-World Examples, and Reproducible Quizzes Expanded, Revised Edition

This book is super helpful. It explains grammar and punctuation rules in a really easy way, and it even points out common mistakes and how to fix them. I like that there are practice problems after each section because they really help me understand. The tips and examples are clear, and everything is well-organized, so it’s not hard to follow. I learned a lot from it!

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 situation.Moreover, as an English Language teacher with twenty-seven years of experience, I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to be consistent in writing. The authors of the book have researched leading reference books on American English grammar and punctuation including The Chicago Manual of Style, The Associated Press Stylebook, Fowler's Modern English Usage, and many others. The authors give useful notes when the authorities differ.Thank you.Sumedha ManabaranaDictionary links:http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/well_1#well_1__83http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/as%20well%20ashttp://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english

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.

Speaking here a Writing Instructor at a Community College, I find the "BLUE BOOK" to be an invaluable tool for both assessing the level of basic skills a student has mastered, AND as a tool for bringing up to speed and then testing to verify that improvement is occurring with those students who do not demonstrate college level skills coming in. Furthermore, the limited instruction that they provide is clear, unambiguous and easily accessible to the student learner - no confusing English/linguistic jargon. Just straight instruction and examples on the right way and the wrong way to handle grammar, punctuation, et. al.My only beef with the book is that the tests questions are open ended rather than multiple choice which means that they must be completely "hand graded" which is very time consuming, especially for a writing instructor who must already do an inordinate volume of individual reading, editing and advising on essays on a broad variety of topics.UECKER

Why in the world would any American need this? Simple. Dialects, years of not studying, years of becoming comfortable writing in our own style. I like to study English. I was diagnosed with Dyslexia in the 4th grade (mid-80s). It was a point of time that few knew much about Dyslexia. I have since earned two PhDs and a MBA. And I still struggle at times with my grammar. I find that people seem to like to joke about it at my expense. "I can't believe a PhD has to study grammar". Well, I can't believe you made the same mistake 184 times and just did it again but hey, we're human. We can't be perfect and we can't be a master of every subject. Jane Straus' writing style is enjoyable to read and her explanations are very clear. The fun part for me is knowing those who like to pick on the PhD don't realize they're studying from books I had a part in researching. Education and learning is a wonderful thing that we should never believe we have mastered or "learned enough" about. Maybe hard to believe but I have read more of this book and returned to it more times than any book in my Kindle library (over 1,000). That's money well spent and for the author, it's kind of funny to write a review about a grammar book knowing all the mistakes I'm making in the review!

I love this book! It's very precise. Im in high school so i decided to get this book to refresh my mind of ALL the grammar basics. So glad I did because I didnt know a lot of things from this book. I am still not done yet, i am planning on finishing the book before i take my ACT test(: So glad i bought this!!UPDATE: I am officially done with this book and I am so thrilled that I have purchased this item. Majority of the things in the book WILL be on the english part of the ACT so this helps a ton! I'm not for sure if I was "sleeping" through many years of english class, but I never learned a lot of these information from this book. It helped me out a lot. If you are looking to refresh your mind of basic english, improve your grammar skills, or just want to take it as a person who is new to all of this- this book is for you! I really love the self tests also!