I am calling this a Book Review, but really, word savvy is more of a guidebook that you should keep with you if you consider yourself in any way, shape or form a writer. Minoring in Journalism in college, a lot of these words have been hammered in to my head, but a lot of them I still struggle with. (effect, affect, for one!) For a while I tried to tackle some of the words I struggled with and practice using them until I think I’ve got it. I’ll continue to do that, but having Word Savvy nearby will definitely help me make sure that I am choosing the right word, especially with the fill in the blank quizzes after the definitions and examples of the words. I may have to print some of these out and fill in the blanks in my free time and see how I do.
The book consists of 9 chapters –
1 – Avoid the No 1 Mistake of Today’s Writers
2 – Attacking the Wrong-Word Problem
3 – Master 76 commonly confused word pairs
4 – Conquer 52 commonly misused words
5 – Purge 25 no-no’s from your speech & writing (one of my pet peeves – “could care less” is one of them!)
6 – Use tricky singulars & plurals with assurance
7 – Some surprising ways errors occur
8 – How to catch wrong-word errors
9 – Talk the Talk: Keeping abreast of buzzwords (very helpful if working on a resume!)
Anyone who is working on NaNoWriMo this month should definitely look in to getting this book and using it for when you are in the editing process (probably next month, right?) If you intend to get your book published you definitely want to make sure you are choosing the right words in your novel so that editors won’t think that you’re some sort of dummy 😉
Check out the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Word-Savvy-Right-Every-Time/dp/1599633035/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320106118&sr=8-2
About the Author
Nancy Ragno is co-author of the language arts series, World of Language and its predecessors, Silver Burdett & Ginn English and Silver Burdett English. She earned her M.A. at New York University and is a former teacher, lecturer, and textbook editor. In addition to her textbook series, she had written plays, biographies, and nonfiction for the midle grades and parts of numersous programs in language arts, reading, literature, speech, spelling, and social studies for major publishers. Her biography is included in Marquis’ Who’s Who.
Originaly from Philadelphia, she currently resides in Knoxville, Tennessee, where you may often find her at Close Encounter Village in the Knoxville Zoo, where she works as a volunteer, explaining bio-facts to visitors and assisting with there close up and personal” encounters with birds and small animals. Her interests include organize gardening, wild life research, and playing the bassoon. During her college years, she was first-chair bassooist of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, and she maintans her interest in music and support of local musical organizations, with special emphasis on the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra.
Visit www.wordsavvy-therightword.com for more about choosing the right word.
Katie 
