Ebook: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style, 2nd Edition

I knew the English language cold; or at least quite well; or at least, I thought I did. So, imagine my shock when I decided to study German. I discovered that I did not know what "cases" are, let alone how they work. I could not tell the difference between a Predicate Nominative and an Infinitive. Verb conjugation? What the devil was that? I did not know any of the terminology used in the study of a language. The instructor sat there casually talking about the definite article (Der, Die, and Das) without explaining that this was a translation of the word "The." I sat in class watching as the other students, who were all 30 years my junior, chattered away while I listened for some term that sounded familiar from that far away place from my youth called "High School English." I must have known some of this material at some point, but I seemed to have forgotten everything.

For me, this book was an excellent way to go back and relearn. Many of these "Idiot's Guides" really are for idiots. This one is an exception since Dr. Rozakis seems to have an aversion to talking down to her readers. She assumes an ability to learn and absorb new information, and accordingly has created a lengthy, and in-depth "textbook" that covers lots of ground. She gives you easy examples in the explanations, tougher ones in the examples, and the most complex grammar and useage problems in the review sections. While this is no way to learn English for the first time, it is a superb way to learn it the second time. Your brain is quickly scrambled, and then at some point it becomes scrambled a little less so. Along the way you find the answers to hundreds of little language dilemnas that have troubled you over the years.

I loved the book, but I do have to comment on the author's style: I spent most of a month on this book; taking it in bite-sized pieces. This was enough exposure to prompt some derangement of the mind. Dr. Rozakis has built her life around this language, and it has clearly person-handled her brain. (She cured my sexist language ways as a secondary benefit.) Accordingly, her examples are ever-so-slightly twisted; just the ticket when spending an hour or so with gerunds, appositives, or the present perfect progressive tense.

After, reading some of the other reviews, I wish to add one or two comments. Dr. Rozakis has chosen to cover everything, and while there are some exercises, do not expect a work-book. This book is best purchased by someone who knows English fairly well and is looking for a brush-up, or who desires to atone for those afternoons in high school English when they were daydreaming about girls/boys. I think it would be suitable as well for those for whom English is a second language, as long as they understand that this is a fairly advanced text, and that the style is 100% American.