Review of The Essentials of English, A Writers Handbook

Author: Ann Hogue White Plains, NY: Pearson Longman, 2003 By Julie Vorholt-Alcorn, Portland State University, Portland, OR

Clear and comprehensive, The Essentials of English: A Writers Handbook succeeds as an excellent reference book. It delivers in . . . [containing] all, or almost all, of the information that writers need to produce a correct and polished piece of writing (x). This is the definition of a handbook, according to the Preface. The book was written especially for intermediate-advanced non-native English learners. However, The Essentials of English is appropriate for all English writers, both non-native and native. A quick Internet search shows that some university English courses for native speakers are using The Essentials of English as their textbook. In fact, The Essentials of English could become an all-time favorite for many teachers and students of ESL, EFL and English. The handbook covers a wide range of topics in its 432 pages which are then followed by an answer key and a thorough index. The topics are divided into 8 parts: The Basics, Clear Sentences, Grammar, Punctuation, Mechanics, Writing and Revising, Formats, and Reference Lists. Each part provides explanations as well as some practice exercises. Special Tips boxes highlight common mistakes and provide additional explanations and information. To read a complete, detailed list of the subtopics within each part, go to the Companion Website at http://www.longman.com/essentials. This URL is also printed on the back of the book. Despite the handbooks considerable length, The Essentials of English is user-friendly. It is organized and easy to follow. The vocabulary and sentence structures are comprehensible by intermediate non-native English learners. Only common, daily language is used. In other books, sometimes examples of research papers or a texts index may introduce more challenging vocabulary, becoming an obstacle for ESL students. However, that does not occur here. Even the books production facilitates its easy usability. Because it is spiral bound, its convenient to leave it open on a desk and reference it as needed while writing or while teaching a class. To put The Essentials of English to the test, I reflected on my students questions in my intermediate and advanced ESL writing classes and then used the handbook to search for the answers. The section on Research Papers is thorough, even including tips on making a schedule and taking a library tour. Citing your sources in MLA style concludes with a sample research paper, with highlighted notes to communicate formatting tips. APA style is found in the section on Reference Lists. Even though it is printed in a different part of the book, the APA section covers the same points as the MLA part, including the sample research paper.

For tips on writing on a computer, section 43 on pages 312-3 provides the answers. There is a chart listing 3 major do/dont tips. For example, the handbook reminds students that spellchecking programs do not catch all errors. Later, acceptable e-mail format and content and a sample e-mail message are covered (334-5). E-mails are included in the section on document formats, which also includes business letters, addressing business envelopes, resumes, and even lab reports. The samples with highlighted comments are clear models to follow. In addition to writing tips, The Essentials of English offers clear explanations of grammatical points. They are easily located in the book as illustrated in the following example. Imagine you want to answer, When do we use excited versus exciting? These are the steps that you might take to answer your question. The index does not list these words, but the Reference List includes Pairs of ing/-ed Adjectives, which it also refers to as participial adjectives (385). Part 3, Grammar, includes a section called Special Situations with Adjectives and the subtopic, Participial adjectives: boring or bored? (v). Therefore, even students who may not know the grammatical terminology can find the information they need. This particular answer took me about three minutes to locate. My intermediate students recently studied different patterns of paragraph organization, all of which are included: compare and contrast, process, narrative, and more. In my attempt to find something missing from the handbook, only thank you letter yielded no results. It was obviously a struggle to find anything that was omitted, and even without that specific document, the index includes Letters: personal, greeting and closing in (455), which should be adequate to write a letter. Clearly, The Essentials of English: A Writers Handbook passed my test with flying colors! A workbook titled Exercises to Accompany The Essentials of English is also available.

Julie Vorholt-Alcorn currently teaches ESL Writing at Portland State University. Prior to earning her M.A. in TESOL, she taught English to middle school, high school, and adult students in the USA,Turkey, and China. She has trained language educators in Kazakhstan. Vorholt-Alcorn currently serves as the Chair for the TESOL Materials Writers Interest Section.