Comments for Education Degree College - Top Teaching Degrees

Comment on The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing by Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 01:59:41 +0000

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

First Rate Guide to Writing, October 20, 2003

Crazy Mel W "crazymel" (San Marcos, CA United States) -

This review is from: The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Paperback)

I have taught English at the college level since 1989 and spend a great deal of time treating just the same errors that this text redresses. If you are an English instructor, I would highly encourage you to buy this book and consider adopting it for your classes. If you seek to write better prose, it would behoove you to buy this book, read it, and put its lessons into practice. Michael Harvey writes clearly and does not ask you to do anything stupid. I have never found a book that does that. Believe me, I have looked.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comment

Comment on The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing by Crazy Mel W "crazymel"

Crazy Mel W "crazymel" — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 01:21:24 +0000

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

The Cure for Mediocre Writing, October 5, 2005

SCOTT A. MACPHEE (Coeur d'Alene, ID United States) -

This review is from: The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Paperback)

I use this book in my AP Language and Composition class. My Seniors suffer all the typical problems . . . wordiness, imprecise use of language, poor introductions and conclusions, and weak transitions. Nuts and Bolts addresses all of these, and does so in a clear, convincing manner.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to tighten his writing.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comment

Comment on The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing by SCOTT A. MACPHEE

SCOTT A. MACPHEE — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:48:20 +0000

52 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

Hip, Handy, and Highly Literate, November 13, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Paperback)

I first encountered "Nuts and Bolts" several years ago, when it was just a web-site. Back then, Yahoo! gave it one of their "cool sites" awards (complete with cute little sunglasses.) It became such a hit on the web, Hackett decided to give Professor Harvey a publishing contract.

Its great that they did, because the other college writing handbooks are either deadly dull or sprouting whiskers. Nuts and Bolts is neither dry nor bewhiskered -- it is hip, handy, and highly literate. This new book could (and should) evict Strunk and White, Turabian, Chicago Style Book, and all the other has-beens and never-weres as the one book every college student (yes, including science majors) should carry in their book bag. (Dissertation-writers may still need Chicago for their fine brush-work, but everyone else will find this jack-of-all-topics addresses most high-school and college needs.)

What's so great about this book? Essentially, it provides one-stop shopping for the essentials of good college term-paper writing -- usually dispensed in travel-sized doses of only three or four pages.

Nuts and Bolts presumes little, but teaches much. It rides no high horses, grinds no axes, curries no favors. Yet it is both idiot- and pedant -proof. Never written an essay before, but want to know what one is? Nuts and Bolts will tell you, without making you feel stupid for having asked. (Enlightening but non-overwhelming flashback to Montaigne included). Want to know what good sentences look like? (hint: active verbs) How to cite a "blog" in an essay? (take that, Strunk and White!) "Nuts and Bolts" does all this and (much) more while always remembering that brevity is the soul of pedagogy.

Finally, though it crisply marches student essays from the first head-scratch to the last push of the "print" button, its elegant writing and efficient layout make Nuts and Bolts ideal for sustained soaks or surgical strikes as needs dictate. Perfect example: Nuts and Bolts provides side-by-side comparisons of how each of the three major citation-systems expect students to format books, articles, websites (etc.) in their bibliographies and footnotes. A veritable god-send for the student triple-majoring in English Lit, Psychology, and Bio!

This book is written so clearly, and presumes so little background on the part of its reader (Professor Harvey has obviously studied the average scantily-trained college student in its native habitat) that you almost don't realize how supremely intelligent it is. Though it will probably mostly be assigned for remedial purposes, the book is so engagingly written it will inspire even very good writers -- teachers and professors included -- to carry it around in their own soft-sider brief cases. Adios, Strunk and White. Hello, Nuts and Bolts.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comment

Comment on Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition thumb-notched with Win/Mac CD-ROM and Online Subscription by Daniel L Pratt

Daniel L Pratt — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 04:45:28 +0000

128 of 139 people found the following review helpful:

Significantly Improved Classic, August 4, 2003

Daniel L Pratt (USA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition thumb-notched with Win/Mac CD-ROM and Online Subscription (Hardcover)

This dictionary, MW11 for short, may be the first to list bubkes, coscenarist, or MEGO. Entries now appear in a sans-serif font, basically an improvement, though the abbreviation for Illinois looks absurd.

The cover claims 10,000 new words and meanings, including long ball, peloton, rabbit-eared bandicoot (who would seek that under r rather than b?), dance card, megapixel, qi, ki. So what is missing from the previous edition, MW10? An informal survey of a half dozen pages shows that practically nothing of value is gone (lonelily, pein, Daoist are deleted). Changes include a few new senses, illustrative quotes, revised definitions, and antedatings. The entry for -er now shows beautifuller with double l, in concord with the entry for -ful. There are about 70 more pages; MW10 had only about 5 more than MW9.

The total number of entries should be greeted with skepticism. There are about a thousand undefined entries in a list of "non-" words, more than a thousand in the un- list, and several thousand more in sixteen additional lists. If it occurs to you to seek coscenarist in the co- list, these lists might be of use. There are also a great many highly technical terms, such as ethylenediaminetetraacetate(s); writings that might contain these are apt to contain quite a few terms not found in this or any similar dictionary. Nonetheless, MW11 looks pretty good after a comparison of a few random pages of this dictionary with the corresponding parts of four similarly-priced dictionaries. At least two competitors have such entries as blank endorsement, blankety-blank, terra alba, or blague, but most or all omit such MW11 entries as: term of art, blanket chest, or the adjective terminate. Recently I found the word Atropos in a 1950 New-Zealand/British novel; it's not in MW11 (except in atropine's etymology), but was found in the competitors; on the other hand, only MW11 offers an explanation of what people who quirk this or that in a (usually) British novel are doing.

Definitions are sometimes a little unclear. The 85-word definition for gyroscope is apt to set your head spinning, and you may need to reread it to determine a gyroscope's purpose (I'm not sure it says). There's a sensible usage note for "hopefully", but MW11's appeal to "disjuncts" is less likely to persuade than the competitors' references to "sentence adverbs" or something similar. Many more illustrative examples would help.

One appendix contains foreign words and phrases; it's unclear why "a la mode" or Weltschmerz are in the main listing with "a la page" or Weltbild in the appendix. Other appendices list biographic and geographic entries, so, confronted with an unfamiliar proper noun, you may be unsure where to look. Gretna Green, is that biographical or geographical? (Neither, but MW11 has it nonetheless.) These appendices suit the publisher, since during MW11's life there will be new censuses that affect the geographic entries and deaths, elections, awards, etc., that affect the biographic entries, and Merriam can reset the relatively few pages of the appendices more easily than many pages of the main listing. Nonetheless, it is inconvenient for the user.

The final page contains the addresses for the Language Research Service. The introduction to MW10 informed us that there is no evidence for the form "merer", so years ago I sent the LRS their first citation; it happens that OED provided another, and an Internet search for "even merer" provides four more, but MW11's introduction still claims that there is no evidence for it. LRS is better at providing information; it gave me a Robert Frost citation to accompany my grandaunt's expression "the cat wanted the guest to make of her".

A nice feature is the date of earliest known appearance for each word. MW11 extends this to words like "jehu" that come from a proper name (less clear is why Jehu is in the main listing rather than the biographical appendix), though possibly the date applies to Jehu rather than jehu. Similarly, the date for clueless applies to its literal use, not to the modern idiomatic use whose date might interest you. Definitions are given in date order, so you can usually see how meanings develop over time. Most unfamiliar words have only a single definition, or the unfamiliar meaning you seek may be the oldest, so this is a win-win feature for the user.

The dictionary comes with a wonderful CD (optional at higher price), with which many objections disappear. It is much harder to find coscenarist, bo, ked, or Gretna Green with the print edition than with the CD, which incidentally expands abbreviations. You can locate all entries having a usage note containing the word Scottish. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be an easy way to search for all occurrences of Scottish in definitions, etymologies, and usage notes simultaneously, though there is a cumbersome way to do this with an advanced search. It seems pronunciations aren't searchable... Read more

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comments (2)

Comment on Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition thumb-notched with Win/Mac CD-ROM and Online Subscription by Robert Moore

Robert Moore — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 04:37:12 +0000

191 of 197 people found the following review helpful:

Nice updating for the standard shorter American dictionary, August 23, 2003

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition thumb-notched with Win/Mac CD-ROM and Online Subscription (Hardcover)

For several decades now, THE MERRIAM-WEBSTER'S COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY has served as the standard American English dictionary. I have done a good deal of copyediting over the years, and every publisher I have worked with has specified this dictionary (along with the Webster's Unabridged) as the standard governoring the way that American English words are spells and defined. Although one can feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of dictionaries in the reference section of any good bookstore, this volume is as close to authoritative as we have in the United States. One might have a preference for another, but this is the only one that enjoys widespread authoritative acceptance.

The dust jacket explains the ways that the new 11th edition has been expanded, but personally, while I am quite certain that it has been expanded, I have not noticed a great deal of difference from the 10th edition. It may be definitive and improved, but most of the improvements will be difficult for anyone to detect. The new CD-ROM included with it, however, is a vast improvement on the previous software that was developed based on the 10th edition. When the 10th edition first came out, CD software was not widely available. A CD version of the dictionary did eventually come out, but it was somewhat rudimentary. The new CD-ROM, however, is a huge improvement. For instance, when looking up any word, a column will display a number of words that approximate the word that your are attempting to look up. If you can merely approximate the spelling, you can frequently find the correct word. Furthermore, by double clicking on any word in the online dictionary, you will pull up the listing for that word. The CD-ROM also has a link to the Internet.

Let's face it. Buying dictionaries for most people is about as exciting as having one's oil changed. But like oil changes, dictionaries are essential. For the foreseeable future, this one is going to remain the definitive American English dictionary.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comments (6)