diff --git a/ch02-strings/e08b2_last_word_in_file.py b/ch02-strings/e08b2_last_word_in_file.py
index 4a4ab72..78b6d59 100755
--- a/ch02-strings/e08b2_last_word_in_file.py
+++ b/ch02-strings/e08b2_last_word_in_file.py
@@ -9,9 +9,7 @@ def last_word_alphabetically(filename):
 """
     output = ''
     for one_line in open(filename):
-        for one_word in one_line.split():
-            if not one_word.isalpha():
-                continue
-            if one_word > output:
-                output = one_word
+        split_line=one_line.split()
+        split_line.append(output)
+        output=max(split_line)
     return output
diff --git a/ch02-strings/e08b3_longest_word_in_file.py b/ch02-strings/e08b3_longest_word_in_file.py
index 9557144..c17fada 100755
--- a/ch02-strings/e08b3_longest_word_in_file.py
+++ b/ch02-strings/e08b3_longest_word_in_file.py
@@ -8,9 +8,7 @@ def longest_word(filename):
 """
     output = ''
     for one_line in open(filename):
-        for one_word in one_line.split():
-            if not one_word.isalpha():
-                continue
-            if len(one_word) > len(output):
-                output = one_word
+        split_line=one_line.split()
+        split_line.append(output)
+        output=max(split_line)
     return output