If you struggle with English grammar and/or never learned how to write a letter, this book is for you. If you, like me, are a 30-something mature student with life experience, this is a decent reference at best. It's long, it's dry, and it's mostly common sense and high school language skills. I barely cracked this book open, and when I did it was usually because our instructor wanted the assignment to look like "the example in Chapter X" or something, and then I'd spend far too much time figuring out WHICH example in that chapter she was referring to...