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Laurie Ellen Rozakis, Ph.D.

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Birth name Laurie Ellen Neu Born July 20, 1952 (age 56) New York, NY Nationality American Area(s) Writer, Editor, Professor, Public Speaker

Notable works The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style The Complete Idiots Guide to Writing Well

Official website http://www.farmingdale.edu/CampusPages/ArtsSciences/AcademicDepartments/EnglishHumanities/Rozakis/index.html

Laurie Rozakis, Ph.D. (b. July 20, 1952) is a professor and a prolific author known mainly for her expertise in grammar, writing, and test preparation.

Contents [hide] 1 Biography 3. Writing Career 3.1 Review Books and Test Preparation 3.2 The Complete Idiots Guides 3.3 Scholarship 3.4 Video Instruction 4 Speaking Career 5 Honors and Awards 6 Personal life 7 References 6 External links

[edit] Biography Rozakis is well-known as a writer of the humorous "Complete Idiots" books and as an expert on writing, grammar, usage, and test preparation. She earned her B.A. (summa cum laude) from Hofstra University in 1973; her M.A. from Hofstra University in 1975; and her Ph.D. (with distinction) from the State University of New York, Stony Brook, in 1984.

Rozakis got her start as a writer in 1981, when she published a review book on the Advanced Placement exam in English Literature with ARCO. To date, she has published more than 100 books and articles.

In addition to writing, Dr. Rozakis has been teaching for 35 years. She began her career at Commack High School South (1973-1984) while earning her master’s degree from Hofstra University and her doctorate in English and American literature from The State University of New York at Stony Brook. From 1979-1886, she also worked as an adjunct instructor of English at Hofstra. After completing her Ph.D. in 1984, the newly-minted Dr. Rozakis took a job at Farmingdale State College, rising to the rank of full professor of English and Humanities.

[edit] Writing Career 3.1 Review Books and Test Preparation Her first work was a series of books for ARCO, many in test preparation (The New GED, College English Placement and Proficiency Exam, Reading Power: Getting Started, and Power Reading.) Building on her expertise, she continued writing widely on test preparation, most recently publishing three test prep books for elementary and middle-school students through Scholastic: Be a Super Test Taker ( 2007), Get Test Smart! (2007), and the Scholastic Guide to Test-Taking and Study Skills (2001).

3.2 The Complete Idiots Guides Between 1995 and 2003, Rozakis wrote more than a dozen books in the Complete Idiots Guide series, including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creative Writing, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Research Methods, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Grammar and Style, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to College Survival, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Interfaith Relationships, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Well, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to American Literature, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Speaking in Public with Confidence, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Buying and Selling Collectibles, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Shakespeare, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Office Politics (with her husband Bob Rozakis), The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Dealing with Your In-Laws, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Freelancing. She has revised many of the books extensively for subsequent editions.

3.3 Scholarship Dr. Rozakis’ early scholarship focused on writing, including articles on evaluating writing for SUNY Councils on Writing, The Missouri English Bulletin, Exercise Exchange, and Kansas English. Subsequently, she turned to early American literature, publishing “A New Source for Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne” in American Transcendental Quarterly: A Journal of New England Writers (1986). This was followed by “Puritan Punishment for Adulterous Conduct” in The Nathaniel Hawthorne Review (Vol. XV, No. 2, 1990). In 2004, she wrote essays on Louis Simpson and Alicia Ostriker for Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature. Greenwood Press, Emmanuel S. Nelson, ed. Her most recent scholarship was analyses of classic American novels for the PBS televisions series The American Novel (2007).

3.4 Video Instruction Recently, Rozakis has combined her expertise with writing and speaking in a series of instructional videos. These include a 10 CD/video series: “Upgrade Your Writing Skills” (2006-07) and a 4 CD/Video series: SAT Subject Test, English (2008) for Video Aided Instruction.

[edit] Speaking Career Dr. Rozakis has a flourishing career as a public speaker, giving frequent lectures, seminars, and interviews. Her television work includes serving as the “Vocabulary Judge” in the Word of the Day final contest on Live! With Regis and Kelly, being an grammar expert on Fox Good Day, New York, and being part of a panel on the CBS “The Morning Show” and another on the Maury Povich Show.

She has been interviewed for Newsday, The Los Angeles Times Sacramento Bee, the New York Times, The Chicago Tribune,	National Public Radio Morning Edition, New York Daily News, the Newark Star-Ledger, Seventeen Magazine, The New York Post, and the Dallas Morning News on grammar and test preparation. 

She often gives seminars on study skills, most recently at the Miami-Dade Medical College, Miami, Florida; the North Middle School, Martinsburg, West Virginia; and libraries on Long Island.

[edit] Honors and Awards Dr. Rozakis has received a number of noteworthy awards, most recently being named the Town of Oyster Bay “Woman of Distinction” in the Arts (2008). She won The State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1994 and number of fellowships, including several Joint Labor/Management Committee Individual Development Awards, a Porter Fellowship, a Farmingdale College Foundation Faculty Merit Award, and an Empire State Challenger Fellowship. Her career and life are profiled in the reference books Contemporary Authors and Something About the Author.

[edit] Personal life Since 1974, Rozakis is married to the celebrated comic book writer and editor Robert “Bob” Rozakis. He is well known as DC's Answer Man, answering trivia questions from readers in the Daily Planet back-up feature in many 1970s comics. He has also had an online presence in this capacity since the mid-1990s.

They have two children: son Charles "Chuck," an equity analyst married to Rebecca (nee Gillespie); and daughter Samantha "Sammi," a graduate student majoring in special education at Hofstra University.

Rozakis has also taught creative writing courses "for the Farmingdale (NY) Youth Council and CTY, a Johns Hopkins University summer program for gifted students."

[edit] References 1. Booklist, July, 1994, p. 1939. 2. Book Report, January, 1988, p. 36. 3. Children's Bookwatch, August, 1994, p. 3. 4. Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC 5. Get Test Smart! Scholastic (New Products: The Latest Offerings in Books, Hardware, Internet and Software), District Administration, 43.3 (April 2007), p. 76. 6. Instructor, February, 1993, p. 45. 7. School Library Journal, February, 1994, p. 116; July, 1994, p. 108.

Laurie Rozakis (http://www.farmingdale.edu/CampusPages/ArtsSciences/AcademicDepartments/EnglishHumanities/Rozakis/index.html)

[edit] External links Official website Dr. Laurie Rozakis' homepage http://www.farmingdale.edu/CampusPages/ArtsSciences/AcademicDepartments/EnglishHumanities/Rozakis/index.html Dr. Laurie Rozakis' blog http://rozakile.blogspot.com/