Princeton Review: Word Smart for Business : Cultivating a Six-figure Vocabulary

Rating:
Summary: Not badly written, but scattered, unfocused information
Review: I am writing TOEIC test preparation materials and checked this book out (the 1999 version, which is 474 pages long) to help me design a business-oriented vocabulary book for ESL students. Basically, Word Smart for Business is a 4,000 entry, A-Z style dictionary. The entries are all assigned to one of twelve categories: Accounting, Business and Management, Computers and Communications, Economics, Finance, Human Resources, Insurance, Legal, Math, Real Estate, Business Slang, and Taxes. While Mr. Westbrook does include a variety of terms from each of the above categories, I did not find Word Smart for Business too helpful in my TOEIC designing task. First, I think Word Smart needs some sort of organizational scheme; perhaps the words could be organized by category or theme. A thematic organizational approach would have made the book more user friendly, in my opinion. Next, there seem to be more than a few random words (especially in the "slang" and "math" categories) in Word Smart that have little to do with business or business English. For example, while it's true that slang terms such as "no brainer" and "out to lunch" are sometimes used in a business context, aren't they just as often used in other contexts? Likewise, including math terms like the Pythagorean Theorem and the algebraic distributive law was also puzzling to me. Do people actually use these math terms in a business context? On a positive note, I liked some of the interesting charts and comics that were included with the terms. I found myself wishing there were more visuals like this in Word Smart. I was also not sure who the audience for this book was: It seems too basic for someone who is hardcore in their business knowledge, but too random and complicated for a business ESL-type student. Word Smart for Business has some interesting material, but needs a clearer focus.

Rating:
Summary: Not badly written, but scattered, unfocused information
Review: I am writing TOEIC test preparation materials and checked this book out (the 1999 version, which is 474 pages long) to help me design a business-oriented vocabulary book for ESL students. Basically, Word Smart for Business is a 4,000 entry, A-Z style dictionary. The entries are all assigned to one of twelve categories: Accounting, Business and Management, Computers and Communications, Economics, Finance, Human Resources, Insurance, Legal, Math, Real Estate, Business Slang, and Taxes. While Mr. Westbrook does include a variety of terms from each of the above categories, I did not find Word Smart for Business too helpful in my TOEIC designing task. First, I think Word Smart needs some sort of organizational scheme; perhaps the words could be organized by category or theme. A thematic organizational approach would have made the book more user friendly, in my opinion. Next, there seem to be more than a few random words (especially in the "slang" and "math" categories) in Word Smart that have little to do with business or business English. For example, while it's true that slang terms such as "no brainer" and "out to lunch" are sometimes used in a business context, aren't they just as often used in other contexts? Likewise, including math terms like the Pythagorean Theorem and the algebraic distributive law was also puzzling to me. Do people actually use these math terms in a business context? On a positive note, I liked some of the interesting charts and comics that were included with the terms. I found myself wishing there were more visuals like this in Word Smart. I was also not sure who the audience for this book was: It seems too basic for someone who is hardcore in their business knowledge, but too random and complicated for a business ESL-type student. Word Smart for Business has some interesting material, but needs a clearer focus.