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100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses (Edition 001) | 
| Creator: Editors Of The American Heritage Dictionaries
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
Buy New: $5.95
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 8984
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 4.5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0618493336
Dewey Decimal Number: 428.1
UPC: 046442493338
EAN: 9780618493333
Publication Date: September 10, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
The 100 Words series continues to set the standard for measuring and improving vocabulary, with a new title focusing on words that are best known for getting people into linguistic trouble. 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses is the perfect book for anyone seeking clear and sensible guidance on avoiding the recognized pitfalls of the English language.
Each word on the list is accompanied by a concise and authoritative usage note based on the renowned usage program of the American Heritage Dictionaries. These notes discuss why a particular usage has been criticized and explain the rules and conventions that determine what's right, what's wrong, and what falls in between. Troublesome pairs such as affect / effect, blatant / flagrant, and disinterested / uninterested are disentangled, as are vexing sound-alikes such as discrete / discreet and principal / principle. Other notes tackle such classic irritants as hopefully, impact, and aggravate, as well as problematic words like peruse and presently.
A great graduation gift or stocking stuffer for anyone who cares about language, 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses is guaranteed to help keep writers and speakers on the up-and-up!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Terrible! February 20, 2006
117 out of 130 found this review helpful
If you need this book, you will not understand it. If you understand it, you don't need it! Unless you were the one student in thousands whose jaw dropped in rapt fascination when your seventh-grade teacher diagrammed the parts of speech, you will not follow the alleged explanations in this book. The explanations come straight out of that seventh-grade grammar text. Such and such a word is the intransitive past participle of another word. There, that cleared it up, didn't it! There is almost never a simple declarative sentence about how to use a confusing word... here is a lovely example from page 88...
"The adjective precipitate and the adverb precipitately were once applied to physical steepness but are now used primarily of rash, headlong actions. Precipitous currently means "steep" in both literal and figuratrive senses: 'the precipitous rapids of the upper river; a precipitous drop in commodity prices.' But precipitous and precipitously are also frequently used to mean "abrupt, hasty," which takes tham into territory what would ordinarily belong to precipitate and precipitately..."
Hope that cleared it up for you!
This book suffers from "junior high math teacher's syndrome," where if you didn't understand the problem, and found the courage to raise your hand, the teacher just looked at you as if you'd just gotten off the special-ed bus and repeated exactly the same indecipherable explanation using the exact same words, only slightly slower and with more condescension.
The writers of this book are dictionary editors, and therefore presume that telling us the part of speech and Greek or Latin derivation will make things clear. They do not. I write for a living, in part. I do not think I found one confusing word clarified by this book in a way I will incorporate in my work.
 My compliments to a perfect complement to writing well. November 4, 2004
28 out of 31 found this review helpful
If you've ever had the argument with yourself or another whether it was "insure" or "ensure" you know that after a minute of deliberation - they both seem correct. This book gives comprehensive definitions and usage examples for word sets like these, and always casts the tie-breaking vote, so you can write with more confidence with a minimal amount of research time.
This is a great book for even the most confident and competent writer, and for a tiny volume packs a big punch, requiring almost no time to fully explore usage conventions for commonly misused words, then offering concise, decisive advice as to which word in the pair most aptly applies, including, as is sometimes the case with "insure" and "ensure," when both may be technically correct, but one is preferred. Clearly cross referenced, thorough, and easy to use, the 100 words are well chosen and presented.
A lot of little reference books, especially word books, seem to be written more for novelty or get mired down in a lot of frippery, but this book is an actual workhorse, something that will get used, and often. A great book for anyone who writes for business or pleasure, as well as students and even copy editors. I've only had it two weeks and already use it more than my dictionary. I highly recommend this to anyone.
I still get confused by LIE and LAY.... November 1, 2004
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
...and I've finally found something I can keep close at hand for moments like that. 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses is an awesome reference source that takes up very little desk space and is easily kept handy for moments when you are wondering whether you are seeking a "discreet" or "discrete" affair, or if a combustible gas is "flammable" or "inflammable." Moreover each entry carefully explains the origins of the word, the controversies over usage, and the proper context for a particular use of a word. Every entry has a note, although some of the notes are cross-references to another word where the full explanation is found ("flammable" for example, references "inflammable"). This is a great gift for the student or writer in your life, or for anyone who cares about correct word usage!
 Could of passed... February 23, 2006
15 out of 22 found this review helpful
To me, this book was simply a dictionary of 100 words sorted in alphabetical order. What I was hoping for was a book that would describe the common misuses of words and separate out differences between misused words. Instead, it seems each word was just simply stated and then defined. It's a great book to simply read about words and their meanings, but just wasn't what I expected. Not an expensive book, so I'm not complaining too much.
Not bad - but somewhat lacking October 12, 2004
11 out of 14 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed much of the book and learned something from it. The best thing about the book is the detailed information presented on some words as to how they are used and why they were chosen. This adds a great deal of interest and information. The biggest shortcoming of the book is that only some of the words have explanatory information - and one is left to wonder why some other words even made it and what is the point of their being there. Given that it is such a short book and has only 100 words chosen for it, one wonders why more detailed and interesting information wasn't included for all of the entries. I'd say the writers just got lazy and used many of the 100 words for "fill". Given its price, it isn't bad, but it isn't what it could and should have been with just a tiny bit more effort.
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