First things first: If there was a ten star rating it would apply
to this book. Secondly, I found these authors through another of
their books, "Precalculus With Limits - A Graphing Approach". That book was just as well written. Truth be told, I would buy any of their books, sight unseen. They are a students
teacher and a teachers teacher. They don't sacrifice rigor, nor do they forget the mathematical maturity of their student audience. Using their books alone, and self-study (no classes,
tutors, or the intellectual diet pill category of "Calculus Made
Simple" or "Calculus The Easy Way" silver bullets I filled a forty year gap in math studies in 1-1/2 years to the point of
acing the AP Calculus and AP Physics Exams. Knowing calculus prior to beginning physics with calculus is an absolute necessity. I am no genuis. I do not have exceptional ability. I simply had the advantage of two textbooks written by teachers who
really care and take a mentoring approach to writing. All of this
has really been a long-winded way of saying that with this book
and a healthy dose of strong motivation and perserverance you will succeed in your calculus courses.

The best book about Calculus I ever seen. Read it and you will know all about you need to love mathematics.

This is no doubt the best textbook I have ever owned in any subject. I've never been able to actually read through a math text untill this book came along. The analytic graphs are colorful (and the 3-D generated ones are simply astounding) which is totally different from the dull, dreary, and nightmarish math texts from my past. This math book is unlike any other I have seen before -- in a class of its own. There are plenty of examples, charts, and many many exercises(some especially challenging). I went through Calculus I and have taught myself Calc II within a matter of weeks. Highly recommended.

If you're a verb-challenged troglodyte, you should read this book. If you're a budding Bob Woodward, you should own this book. Effective Writing is the book for anyone who wants to learn to write, focus their writing, or sharpen their editing. Using numerous examples, Bruce Ross-Larson demonstrates how to write sentences with variety, construct paragraphs that hang together and assemble all of that into the finished product. Ross-Larson's breezy, non-instructional style makes this 269-page book as easy a read as a romance novel.

This book is a compilation of three of Ross-Larson's more subject-specific books: Stunning Sentences, Powerful Paragraphs, and Riveting Reports. Not surprisingly, those are also the titles of the three sections into which Effective Writing is divided. The table of contents for each section identifies every tip so a deadline-pressured scribe can quickly zero in the advice sought, whether it's for "Interruptive Dashes" or "Make Your Points in Compelling Ways."

Ross-Larson's occupation as a writing coach is a primary reason for the success of this book. President of the American Writing Institute, he has helped improve the writing of executives at the World Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Census Bureau, among others. His experience in dealing with non-writers shows. No grammar guides here; there's no spelling secrets. Only practical, easy-to-understand advice on how to polish that rough stone of an idea into a sparkling gem.

He takes it for granted that his readers recognize good writing, even if they can't (yet) do it themselves: "So, to move from the common to the stunning," he advises, "begin to look for patterns in good writing that you can emulate." He also assumes some basic knowledge of parts of speech such as prepositional phrases and clauses. Some of his observations seem boringly obvious: "Most sentences should convey one idea - or two closely related ideas." Yet there are plenty of mental prods here for even the veteran pen-dragger, such as his advice on repetition: "Repetition - far too often avoided - can be a powerful rhetorical device. It can bring order and balance to a sentence's parts. And it can rivet a word to the reader's frontal lobe with more impact than elegant variation ever could." Each suggestion is supported by several examples culled from published articles and reports, with the point he's trying to make italicized.

But this isn't a mere primer. Ross-Larson doesn't hesitate to tempt readers to attempt more advanced forms of paragraph structure. For instance, he devotes 4 1/2 pages to "undermining," which he refers to as "a clever way to make your point stand out while taking the claws out of an opposing view." He describes how to "undermine a premise at the end of a paragraph" as well as how to "undermine a premise immediately." Or even to "undermine a premise in the middle of a paragraph." Of course, examples abound.

It is this hefty use of examples that contributes to readability of this book. For experienced writers, the examples can serve to blow away the syntactical cobwebs and refresh prose that may have grown stale. For beginners, the examples are mini case studies on which to linger.

For journalists, the section on report writing may have less relevance. Reporters facing daily deadlines rarely have time to take advantage of Ross-Larson's detailed approach to planning and drafting lengthy reports. However, for the college student writing a term paper or a junior executive trying to impress her boss with that seamless sales analysis, the time spent on these pages will be a great investment.

This book is written in a style light enough to engage even those who hated English in high school. Still, there's enough meat inside that every serious student of language ought to consider adding Effective Writing to that select group of books which occupy a corner of every writer or editor's desk.

Bruce Ross-Larson has now given us a fitting sequel to his classic Edit Yourself, which I have used since the 1980s to help me cut the fat out of what I write -- and improve clarity. When I worked in the World Bank I had him teach these arts to my staff. This saved me a lot of managerial time which I could devote to strategic pursuits like planning and innovating. Not exercising my red pencil on the prose of my mostly non native English speakers.

Bruce has now outdone himself by giving us three books in one: Effective Writing teaches us how to write "stunning sentences", "powerful paragraphs", and "riviting reports". Still to come, I understand, is "writing for the web". But for now, Bruce has put his wealth of experience as chief editor of some of the most important publications coming out of the World Bank and the United Nations (e.g. the World Development Report and the Human Development Report), just to name two of his clients, at the disposal of the writing public. This book is so good in print that it is being converted into a web-based training service for writers, aimed at corporate intranets. Clearwriter.com is coming soon.

But you can be the first on your block to hone your writing skills and impress your readers, whether they are your bosses, clients, or customers. This book is a must for every writer's bookshelf, whether or not a native English speaker.

I read Ross-Larson's How To Edit Yourself, an invaluable resource, before reading Effective Writing. As a compilation of three useful writing guides, Effective Writing was and is an essential handbook for writing. The system detailed in Effective Writing and How To Edit Yourself is the best that I have used.

This book is ideal for a writer who already understands how to make his writing clear but wants to learn how to make his sentences sparkle.

This book provides many examples of sentence structures that will provide writers with new ideas for making more effective reports, essays, and letters.

The vocabulary is created for the book. Terms such as simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex are mentioned in the introduction, but the author creates new terms to help writers think of sentences in a new way. For example, the author explains "recast" and "conditioned" sentences as variations that can be used to spice things up. The lack of the standard terms does not make this book more difficult.

I would recommend this book to students and writers. The author explains each structure and gives examples. Rather than being read once and putting it away, this book should be kept as a reference. Your writing will improve!

This slim and inexpensive volume reviews many effective but under-utilized sentence structures, pointing out the situations in which each is most suitable. You will begin to notice the techniques in everything you read. It's the best guide I've seen for writing-in-the-small.

for many students, linear algebra is the gateway to abstract mathematics. larson and edwards have created a textbook that gives students the "big picture" of linear algebra, before delving into the details.

A great book for self-directed learning. Plenty of examples, extraordinary graphics.

I'm a Computer Science major at Converse College, and I found this book very user-friendly. (BTW, I have a used copy to sell. Email recrandall@hotmail.com)

I am a graduate student at Queen's University, Canada, and my research work is heavily involved with linear algebra. I had looked through many books on this subject, and found this book most concise and sufficient in exlaining the fundamental theories of linear algebra. I recommand this book to those who are just starting to discover the beauty of matrices.

Like the other books of The Effective Writing Series, a host of examples awaits the reader. Although this book can be read from start to finish, its merit lies in being a great addition to any writer's reference library.

The text does not rely on having a command of grammar or writing terminology. Instead, the reader is given plenty of examples showing different ways paragraphs can be structured for effectiveness.

For each example, the author explains the example, then provides more examples for reference. Also, the topic sentence for each paragraph is highlight to help ease understanding.

I would highly recommend this book for all students taking a writing course and for all writers who wish to improve their writing.

As someone who is called upon frequently to write recommendations, reports, articles, and speeches I was absolutely thrilled to find this resource and it's partner, "Stunning Sentences". I can't wait to purchase and read the remaining two books in The Effective Writing Series by this author. This particular book is clear, concise, and very easy to read. It is absolutely full of explanations and examples of ways to improve your writing. An outstanding book to keep in front of you while writing...when you're stuck just open to any page and find a technique to use to construct a new paragraph, add impact to one you just wrote, vary your style, link your paragraphs etc. I highly recommend this book to both students and adults who want to make their writing clear, smooth, correct, and less stressful!!! A primer for good basic writing that will be an invaluable resource to have nearby every time you write.

This book is so good I never did any of the homework for the class it was for, only studied the night before each test, and pulled an honest-to-God straight A in the class. But this is calculus. If the text weren't so damn expensive I would have burned it in effigy. The book has nice pictures and the business-based questions are mind-numbingly easy. The science questions blow. If you don't like science, this will re-affirm your feelings. And don't forget that the answers to the odd problems are in the back. Just the answers though, but they still help. Supposedly this book has a suppliment and a CD to it, but I never monkeyed around with that. Didn't even purchase it, come to think of it...

This is the best calculus book I've used. I purchased as a student after finding it in the library, despite it not being the required text for school. Concepts are explained well and a variety of examples are clearly worked out in each section. I highly recommend this book.

One of the best parts of this text book is the beautiful array of supplementary figures and graphs. Many worked out examples provide the reader with a thorough knowlege of the concepts before diving deeper into theory and application. This text book starts at chapter 11 (the reader should have had at most 2 semesters of calculus)

Chapter 11 on vectors and geometry of space offer a solid foundation for understanding basic vector functions and operations (dot and cross product, projection and components, etc.), 3-D geometrical shapes (paraboloid, hyperboloids of 1 or 2 sheets, etc.), as well as applications for both, also cylindrical and spherical coordinates.

Chapter 12 on vector-valued functions initiates the idea of rate, velocity, and acceleration vectors and their relationship including vector differentiation, tangent and normal vectors, and arc length and curvature.

Chapter 13 does a wonderful job introducing functions of several variables, using limits, differentials, partial differentiation rules, gradients, max/minimization, and applications.

Chapter 14 on multiple integration is much easier to understand using this text than others. Lots of physics applications using area, volume, center of mass, moment of inertia, and change of variables.

Chapter 15 returns to vectors with topics such as curl (with physical interpretation), divergence, line and surface integrals, Green's thm, Stoke's thm, flux, and parametric surfaces.

Chapter 16 concludes the text by introducing differential equations. Basic concepts, separation of variables, exactness, homogenous equations, and power series solutions offer both as a learning tool and as somewhat of a refresher course.

Overall, the book is very well-written, from the introduction which illustrates the many advantages of calculus over algebra, the insight into careers using mathematics, to the appendices with proofs of theorems, basic differentian rules and answers to odd-numbered exercises (even exercises for the first 10 chapters), this book is a work of art for any math and/or science student.

I have to agree that larson's calculus is a very comprehensive calculus text. It includes a lot of material and applications.

If you are going to selfstudy calculus, i have some advices:
1 Not every section is necessary. Some sections are mainly about applications in mechanical engineerings(actually, most applications). If you are not interested in ME, just skip them.

2 Don't go too fast. If you don't have time, just skip some sections of the end of each chapters. Especially at the end of the book. Chapter 14 is quite confusing. Read them slowly, understand piece by piece.

If you are a math major, particularly pure math, this is not a book for you. You need a book that talks more about theory.

After one confusing (first) semester of calculus using Thomas' Early Transcendentals, my school's math department switched to this text for second semester. Thank goodness! This text is much more clear, with examples that take you through the important steps of the problems. Sometimes the text will leave out a step in the example, but usually it's something from trig or pre-calc. The use of graphics in the examples are very helpful as well; the important theorems are boxed/highlighted, as are useful tips to solving the problems.

The exercise problems at the end of each section are never huge surprises. As for their difficulty, they tend to start out easy and end with the more challenging word problems. When I was confused or frustrated, it helped to go back and re-read the examples. The Thomas text's examples were extremely difficult (for us non-MIT level math students) and unrelated/inconsistent with the exercises.

The editing of Larson's text is fantastic, because there are relatively few errors (whereas Thomas' was full of them). And I especially liked the photographs and brief biographies of the famous mathematicians sprinkled throughout each chapter, because they humanize this mysterious and feared subject.

I'd say that this book made calculus less scary and much more manageable. I still had to study really hard to ace the class, but at least it wasn't because the book was overly confusing.

This is the only book I recommend to someone learning calc for the first time.

Larson's approach is practical, logical, thorough, and most importantly, CLEAR!!!!

If you just need to get something done--using Emacs to write some C++, or zipping up some files on a Unix box and ftp'ing them somewhere else--then this is the book you need. The authors assume that you know what a file, or a directory, or a compiler is. The target audience is someone for whom Unix is the third or fourth (or more) operating system they've had to work with.

The book is indexed by function, not just by command. For example, suppose you want to compress a bunch of files. Looking up compress takes you to p.140; reading the possibilities you soon discover that gzip and tar are probably the programs you want to use. You can check out tar and discover the alternatives, cpio and pax, and find out which might be most portable in your situation.

I use this book for several projects at a client site where I had to write Perl and Tcl/Tk apps. I found it invaluable for everything from help with Emacs to locating utilities.

I should also add that the book is written very much in the style of a reference manual, *NOT* of a tutorial or guide. You should be comfortable with digging in reference books before you buy this, or you might find it a frustrating book to work with. I think most programmers pick up this skill very quickly, so I think this will exclude mostly beginners.

I have used this book as a reference time and time again, and own both the first and second editions. This is not an "idiot's guide to UNIX," nor is it a reprint of man pages. It falls somewhere in between, and seems to be aimed at technical professionals who find themselves in a variety of operating systems at a moments notice such as Digital Unix (formerly OSF/1), Linux, Solaris, and AIX. You name it, I've been there.

This book won't hold your hand and teach you what a file or directory is. It is not a tutorial. It is assumed that you know the basics. I have referred to this book on numerous occasions when I had to write CGI scripts, or assigned to quick and dirty projects involving some flavor of UNIX, or porting applications to UNIX from Windows/Win-32.

So, if you are like me, and don't want to spend a few hours plowing through a UNIX man pages just to remember the syntax of gzip, tar, or locating a command you used before and don't really remember what it was, this book is for you.

Of all the UNIX books I've purchased (and there have been many), this is the only one I have used as a novice, and can continue to use to this day.

One way to rate a book is to ask yourself how much it helped you as a novice, and whether you can still use it once you've become a more advanced user. While my other UNIX books are being sold to co-workers and used book stores, this is the one book I can consistently use as a reference. This is the one I will never outgrow.