Universal Keys for Writers

Anyone studying the demise of pedagogy in the modern era could conceivably scrape some benefit from the barnacled hull of this immensely ugly and poorly coordinated excuse for a textbook; unfortunately, most of its users will be unwitting students, whose native enthusiasm for the subtle music and expressive rigor of the English language will be sorely beleaguered by this leaden-spirited assault on the natural fluidity of thought and word.

Note well that this is a book that may have "users" but not "readers," since it is ultimately unreadable: while it is credited to two authors (who acknowledge many more), it utterly lacks a distinctive and coordinating authorial voice--an absence that is mirrored by its layout, which is a riot of ocular insult that seems to have been conceived in total ignorance of the fundamentals of intelligible layout and typography.

In personal expression, such a lack of coherent authority is a simple token of weakness; but in a textbook designed to instruct, the absence is as fatal as setting off on a sea voyage in an ill-provisioned canoe with no navigational equipment.

Sadly (and predictably), the authors' lack of attention to the basic exposition of their subject is complemented by a superstructure of irrelevant sociological preachment and innuendo that adds a note of Stalinist coercion to the proceedings: at every turn, what should be straightforward and responsible grammatical exercises are warped into an endless cycle of variations on the theme of Political Correctness. This tendency receives continual support from an equally inexhaustible reservoir of false and viscid references to popular culture that can only sicken the healthy soul with their patronizing fakeness.

In short, this is an Orwellian nightmare that no caring teacher should inflict on his students, and no thinking school board should approve: Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate.

This book was in excellent condition when it arrived and I used it generously during my English Comp II class. I was then able to sell it back to the school and pretty much got back what i almost paid for it. It was well worth the purchase.