Publication Date:December 26, 2006 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days Shipping:International shipping available Condition:BRAND NEW - ***Delivery usually * 4 - 5 * working days - From Aphrohead of SOUTHPORT, Lancs, uk *** . Priority Airmail used Worldwide on International orders. Thanks from all at Aphrohead.
An essential resource for making every word countSeptember 25, 2007 C. Holden(UK) 6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I am midway through an Open University degree course and have found 'Line by Line' to be an absolutely indespensible resource. Whenever an academic essay is required I find remaining within strict word limits to be one of the most taxing requirements. Using the simple, but effective, techniques in the book I am able to literally cut an essay word length in half without losing valuable content. Trust me, if you are about to embark - or are already engaged in - any type of scholarship, this is the book for you!
Good but a bit old-fashionedJune 27, 2007 Richard A. Kirk(UK) 9 out of 15 found this review helpful
I was lured into buying this book by the five-start reviews. It is thorough. It does the job. But I have read better.
Being 'old-fashioned' is not necessarily bad, but the parsing and anatomizing of each sentance feels laboured. I have a small Edwardian guide to grammar, sadly long out of print, that is beautifully clear without ever saying 'appositive', 'verbal' (a noun), 'copula', or words like that. These words are all explained in the book, but it does not make for easy reading.
For instance...
"I read the book" has a subject, predicate, and object. The subject of "The book was read by me?" is "the book". To newcomers, this might seem illogical - the subject is the thing that is , innit? Not with passive verbs, though. The rules for determining the subject are explained in the book. Once you understand them, they are unambiguous. However, even terms like subject, predicate, and object cannot be used unless you are sure your reader understands them. If they understand them perfectly, then they probably do not need the book.
In some cases, I find the terminology a bit suspect. She says the noun 'horse' has an 'adjectival form' in terms such as 'horse race'. maybe. How would you parse modern agglutinative horrors such as 'image stack operator syntax hierarchy'. We stuff nouns together in bunches to make different nouns. There aren't any clear rules; 'horse race' and 'human race' are not similar things. I remember having to parse some six-noun pile-up a bit like my invention above for a Japanese translator, who could speak engish beautifully, but could not pick apart stuff like this.
There is a bit in the introduction that suggests that computer programs may be able to check syntax. This dates the book to about 1985. I remember using an early style checking program from about then that was a great help. Style checkers still can convert a perfectly good sentance into rubbish by mindlessly applying rules, but they have a worthwhile contribution. I found the most helpful feature was something that highlighted any sentence over 24 words. I found any sentance that long can be broken into two shorter sentences, and shorter sentences have fewer ways of going wrong. If you find your longer sentence works, then you can always leave it alone. The passive voice is usually avoidable, um, you can usually avoid the passive voice, and the more familiar did to
You have to swallow the greens before starting on the meat.May 9, 2007 D. Devine-harper(UK) 13 out of 18 found this review helpful
I started reading this book about two weeks ago. After an Introduction that covered the basic structure of sentences, which I found very useful (having given up any study of English during school), I was eager to get to what I considered the meat of the book: Loose, Baggy Sentences; Faulty Connections; Problems with Punctuation, and the rest.
I managed to get to chapter 1, page 7, and enjoyed the short journey - until I was given the task to `try one yourself'. The book told me, `The verbiage should yield easily' but it wasn't cooperating for me. That's when I realised I needed to take the advice given in the introduction: "Appendix A explains the parts of a sentence in considerable detail, and you may want to turn to it before you read the rest of the book."
So, I did. Appendix A starts with Parts of a Sentence, and goes on to Parts of speech (verbs, nouns, and such). I have been finding it very heavy going: the section on parts of a sentence used parts of speech to clarify sentence structure. This confused me, and I had to skip ahead to learn the parts of speech first. I still couldn't get my brain to grasp the definitions of Verbs and Nouns though.
The description for "Verbs" begins: "The predicate of a clause is that portion which says something about the subject."
Yeah, right! What the heck is a predicate, a clause, or a subject? And whatever a verb was, it hadn't said yet!
I struggled on like this through nouns and pronouns, then took out my highlighter and started highlighting the example words in those sections. At least the page looked better now, with a bit of neon colour on it. Then I figured I would go and highlight very short definitions of the various speech parts. That's when the little light bulb lit up!
A whole page into Verbs, I came across and highlighted this: "If you have trouble identifying the verb in a sentence, try moving the statement forward or back in time. The word you change will be the verb."
Now why on earth didn't it say that as the opening sentence? Much more interesting than predicates, clauses and subjects.
There was a similar statement on identifying the subject of a sentence, and direct objects, which are also in neon yellow now. These `tips' really worked for me and I don't have to remember definitions any longer. As long as I keep in mind that a (n)oun is a (n)ame it stops me getting confused with the rest; then I apply the `tips' to get at the other parts. Great stuff!
Anyway, your attention span is short, so I'll quit here. I'm really enjoying this book, even though I am most certainly in the category of what the author calls `grammarphobes'. I've learned lots so far, and I am eager to get back to the meatier sections. With such a thorough, if heavy, grammar appendix, you pretty much get two books in one here: well worth the money.
Drug fuelled world of copyediting.January 10, 2006 34 out of 37 found this review helpful
The book is good, really good, in a groovy school-teacher sort of way. It's for those who've read Elements of Style and want a bit more. Skip the introduction, it could be better.
There are five major chapters:
1. Loose baggy sentences. 2. Faulty connections. 3. Ill-matched partners. 4. Managing numbers and references. 5. Problems with punctuation.
These chapters made me see writing in a new way - for starters I know gramatically this review's terrible and should be tightened and straighted out.
Overall I'd recommend the book for those who've finished writing the first draft of their novel, want to find a publisher, and can't afford a line editor.
Reading this book will improve your game to another level, even if it is a bit hard going at times.
Superb and indispensibleApril 15, 2005 K. Foster(London, UK) 37 out of 46 found this review helpful
I wish to thank the author, Claire Kehrwald Cook, and all those who made this book possible. This book [delete 'It'] is one of *the* leading authorities on editing and writing well as it brings many authoritative texts together from Strunk & White, Bernstein, Fowler [insert comma], and Follett [delete 'so that' clause]. As a result you don't have to read umpteen different books on editing.
I also managed to save myself a pretty penny as this book only cost me 6.06 - a large saving on all those other editing books that start at 35 and offer the same information.
[if you're wondering what the bits in the square brackets are doing in the above text, you'll just have to buy this book to find out!]
