Donde Va La Coma

Journalist and ""Language Defender"" for the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, Avila has put together a compact yet comprehensive guide about the correct ways to use the comma and other punctuation marks, as well as prepositions and pronouns for Spanish composition. Writing in a style accessible to Spanish-speaking readers with a high school education and/or two to three years of university-level instruction, Avila offers advice in an entertaining and matter-of-fact tone. He draws examples of correct and incorrect usage from popular song lyrics, journalistic writing, and literature. The detailed table of contents allows specific topics to be located quickly, and each chapter ends with a brief summary set off in a shaded box. Finally, rhetorical questions posed as if coming from the reader introduce new material and acknowledge possible points of confusion. In ""Terminolog!a"" (""Terminology""), one of the book's three appendixes, Avila defines parts of speech and other linguistic terms for the lay reader in clear yet non-patronizing language. This helpful book can be used as a supplementary text in Spanish-language composition classes and by beginning students of Spanish syntax. Recommended for public, school, and academic libraries. Laura Callahan, Univ. of California, Berkeley