Student Handbook For English [Paperback]

Written by James Durran this small sized book is all you need to pass your English GCSE's. It tells you what you need to do to get the best grade possible for yourself. It helps you improve your grammar, spelling and the order in which you should layout your essays. This, considering its size, is very good and with the price you can't go wrong.

Hi,
I always suggest that our GCSE English Language and Literature students buy a personal copy of this excellent pocket-sized publication from age 13 years upwards and wholly learn its contents thoroughly by their exam sits.
For all student coursework assignments, it's a superb, definitive companion to enable students to substantially improve their grades and along with an excellent Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus in tow they benefit no end.
Dr George Brown

Having just done my GCSE in English Language, I think I am in a fairly reasonable position for reviewing this book!

This book is quite simply, amazing. It covers everything you would need to know to pass a GCSE and the layout is comprehensive but surprisingly simple and there are plenty of little cartoon pictures to keep you entertained along the way. The six sections in it have the following headings: "Toolkits for Reading", "Toolkits for Writing", "Drafting and Redrafting", "Punctuation", "Presentations" and "Technical Terms", all of which give a detailed analysis for each different part covered in the sections.

The first section (Toolkits for Reading) covers basic skills for reading and quoting from texts and then goes into a more detailed overview of how to, for example, read a poem, read a persuasive text, etc. It gives different questions that you can ask yourself to answer the question fully as well as different techniques to look out for that the writer of the text may have used.

The second section (Toolkits for Writing) goes straight into how you should go about writing different types of text, including how to write to explain and how to write a short story. For each type of text that you may have to write it talks about the purpose and audience of the text as well as how you should go about planning it and any preparation that may need to be done. A particularly useful part was the useful words and phrases it gives that are appropriate to each type of text.

The third section (Drafting and Redrafting) explains the stages of writing, from note-making to checking and then goes on to explain each stage with example of how it would be done. At the end of the section, it also gives tips on using a computer for writing and about making your work readable and well presented.

The fourth section (Punctuation) is a collection of simple rules about the different types of punctuation as well as a page on paragraphing. For each piece of punctuation there are examples on how they are used in a text and some common mistakes that are made.

The fifth section (Presentations) goes through the steps that you should take to plan and prepare a formal presentation. It begins with key questions such as what the purpose of it is and who your audience will be. Then it explains the structure and what type your visual aids should be, if any. There are also tips on making notes for prompts during the speech and key things to do during the presentation itself, such as making eye contact with the audience and speaking slowly and loudly to make it clear, and also some helpful phrases for different parts of your presentation.

The sixth section (Technical Terms) covers the definitions of words that will help you to understand how language and texts work, covering many aspects of the English language. This section spans across about twenty-five pages, so pretty much any word you would need is in here!

Overall, it's a really great book. I found that it worked best for me as more of a reference style book where I would go to it if I needed particular tips on, for example, one area of writing or if I needed the definition for a word that I didn't know. I would recommend this to any one of a secondary school age, as it is really easy to understand and has all the information and tips you could need.