Reviews for Webster's New World English Grammar Handbook

The average rating for Webster's New World English Grammar Handbook based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-08-17 00:00:00 Simon Torres m Neil, Central patron, August 2018, 4 stars: A good desk reference, however, since you can only check it out for a limited time you would need to get a copy of your own. I was able to get a used one for under five dollars.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-03-28 00:00:00 Rick Smith The exercises at the end of each main section or chapter are excellent. They force the reader to think though the rules of standard usage. This is the best part of the book. The book is heavy on jargon (e.g., copulatives, pre-nominal demonstratives, post-determiners, interrobangs, nominative absolute phrases, noun heads, verb aspects; "adverbs come in three forms: adjuncts, conjuncts, disjuncts," which include style disjuncts and content disjuncts"), which is a challenge, especially when other handbooks employ different terminology. At times, it's thick, dense stuff. This is the primary downside to this book. Also, explanations of the various rules are sometimes not clear, forcing the reader to go to other sources to sort through what these authors are trying to say, and the authors get overly fussy in some of their editing suggestions (e.g., avoid cute, boyfriend/girlfriend; use "amble" for walk). A good quote that illustrates the difficulties that await a new English speaker: "…many grammarians refer to a story in which a girl, when asked to spell the word 'fish,' writes 'ghoti' on the chalkboard. Her reasoning? The letters gh generate an f sound, as in the words laugh, trough, and cough; o can be used to sound like i, as in the word women; and the letters ti can indicate an sh sound, as in the words function, nation, intervention, and so on."