Friday, February 20, 2015

Review: Word Workout

**I received two lessons of Word Workout for free. All opinions are my own.**

★★★ (5 out of 5)

As a writer (of this blog and my ever in-progress novel), you'd think grammar would be a breeze for me. Alas, that is not the case. My 9th grade teacher can attest to the fact that all of these strange grammar rules confound me, so I was more than happy to listen to the first two levels of Word Workout by Charles Harrington Elster

Although this audiobook has more to do with vocabulary, which I'm pretty good at if I do say so myself, I was pleased to find that in between lessons of 10 words there were "Style Files" about grammar, like a short lesson on the oxford comma and the difference between presume and assume. 

I may be pretty good at vocabulary, but I still learned a lot. I knew most of the words (some of which were depravity, voracious, anachronistic, rapacious, florid), but there were a few that were new to me, like diatribe, poen, gaffe, and impresario. One of my favorite parts is when Elster goes into the etymology of the word, such as, "Depravity began as the shorter word pravity, which came to English in the 16th century through Middle French pravite from the Latin pravatas, crookedness, irregularity, deformity." 

Two other things I liked about this audiobook: 1. The fun quizzes at the end of each 10 word lesson. Yes, I did answer them out loud while driving in my car. 2. Charles Harrington Elster's soothing and professorial voice. His voice makes it easy to pay attention and makes it seem like you're taking a fun college class. 

Want to expand your vocabulary? I would definitely recommend this audiobook!

Buy the book: Amazon | Goodreads 


Bloglovin ♥ Facebook ♥ Twitter ♥ Pinterest ♥ Instagram
 photo SincerelySaraPostButtonShort_zps1f3e9c17.jpg

Pin It!

22 comments:

  1. this is rally cool! As a writer is always good to learn more vocab and grammar!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the idea of an audiobook! :)

    ♥ Naomi Starry Eyes + Coffee Cups

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh this seems so neat! I love learning the little intricacies of the English language!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What an interesting idea! I tend to think my grammar is quite good but I think I sometimes import French grammar and use English words, so I could probably benefit from giving this a go ;)
    xox,
    Cee

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm so glad to see this review. When I saw this on IG, I was looking forward to it. I really need some help with my grammar skills. I'm getting very rusty. Increasing my vocab isn't a bad thing either.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think this could really help me, too. =]

    ReplyDelete
  7. Back in high school when I was forced to learn words for the SATs I would have despised, but now it sounds fun! I can especially appreciate the little grammar lessons as I'm a bit of a grammar stickler. Thanks for sharing your review :)

    Mili

    ReplyDelete
  8. So interesting! I used to (still probably do) have issues with grammar. I feel like I want to boost my vocabulary as well! I should check this out, it sounds like a lot of fun!

    ReplyDelete
  9. The audiobook could be useful for me as well. Thanks for sharing , pretty interesting!!!


    xxx


    www.noragouma.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is interesting, but audiobooks never work for me. I'm easily distracted (I only finished one chapter of Sorcerer's Stone). I think I'm more of a visual learner rather than audio. But thanks for sharing, though :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sometimes I just don't want to listen to the same 10 songs on the radio over and over again, so this gives me a nice break!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm listening to an audiobook right now too and I find the same to be true! It's harder to listen to a book than to read it, but I found Word Workout to be different because it's not a story, so my mind didn't wander. I found myself really paying attention.

    ReplyDelete
  13. It's fantastic! I think you would like it!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Haha yes me too! I hated learning all of those horrible words in school and now I love it!

    ReplyDelete
  15. P.S. -- There's also a real book version too!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I think you would like it! It's really interesting and quite fun!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks!! You should give it a listen to!

    ReplyDelete
  18. It's a great audiobook! Very interesting!

    ReplyDelete

Hello, beautiful! Thanks for leaving a comment!
Have a lovely day!
~Sara ♥

Pin It button on image hover