Description
Book SynopsisImprove your English grammar You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by using proper English language and grammar. The ability to articulate and communicate effectively is a valuable asset in all aspects of life. From writing a research paper to giving a presentation at work or just holding a casual conversation with friends or family, strong verbal and written skills are necessities in everyday communication. English Grammar Workbook For Dummies is the perfect solution for sharpening the tools in your grammar kit, with lessons and plenty of practice opportunities to help reinforce learning.Whether you need to brush up on the finer points of punctuation, need help making sense of those pesky parts of speechor anything in betweenthis approachable guide makes it fast and easy. Find FREE quizzes for every chapter online Handle pronouns with grace Master plurals and possessives Improve your proofreading skills Everyone benefits from using proper grammar and speech, and now
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 2
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 3
Part 1: Building a Firm Foundation: Grammar Basics 5
Chapter 1: Tailoring Language to Suit Your Audience and Purpose 7
Climbing the Ladder of Language Formality 8
Matching Message to Situation 10
Answers to “Tailoring Language to Suit Your Audience and Purpose” 13
Chapter 2: Identifying the Major Elements of a Sentence 15
Going to the Heart of the Matter: The Verb 15
Treasure hunt: Finding the verb 16
Choosing the correct verb for negative expressions 17
Questioning with verbs 18
Aiding and abetting: Helping verbs 19
Zeroing in on the Subject 20
When one isn’t enough: Forming noun plurals 21
Adding Meaning: Objects and Complements 23
Answers to Questions about Major Elements of a Sentence 25
Chapter 3: Having It All: Writing Complete Sentences 29
Finding Subjects and Verbs that Match 30
Checking for Complete Thoughts 31
Improving Flow with Properly Joined Sentences 33
Setting the Tone with Endmarks 36
Proper Sentence or Not? That Is the Question 37
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Complete Sentences 39
Answers to Complete Sentence Problems 40
Part 2: Clearing Up Confusing Grammar Points 45
Chapter 4: Finding the Right Verb at the Right Time 47
Using Past, Present, and Future Tense at the Right Times 47
Putting Perfect Tenses in the Spotlight 49
Speaking of the Past and Things That Never Change 51
Romeo Lives! Writing about Literature and Art in Present Tense 53
Hitting Curveballs: Irregular Forms 54
Getting a Handle on Common Irregulars: Be and Have 56
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Verbs 58
Answers to Problems on Verbs and Verb Tenses 59
Chapter 5: Agreement: Choosing Singular or Plural Verbs and Pronouns 67
Meeting Their Match: Pairing Subjects and Verbs 67
Boning up on the basics 68
Taming the tough guys: Difficult subjects 70
Dealing with tricksters 72
Matching Pronouns and Antecedents 73
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Hitching Subjects and Verbs 77
Answers to Subject, Verb, and Pronoun Pairing Problems 78
Chapter 6: Solving Pronoun Case 85
Meeting the Subject at Hand and the Object of My Affection 85
To “Who” or To “Whom”? That Is the Question 87
You Talkin’ to Me, or I? Pronouns as Objects of Prepositions 89
Matching Possessive Pronouns to “-ing” Nouns 90
Missing in Action: Choosing Pronouns for Implied Comparisons 91
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Pronoun Case 92
Answers to Advanced Pronoun Problems 93
Chapter 7: Little Words Packing a Lot of Power: Prepositions and Interjections 99
Pinning Down Prepositions 100
Interjections Are Simple! 102
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Prepositions and Interjections 103
Answers to Questions About Prepositions and Interjections 104
Chapter 8: Writing Good or Well: Adjectives and Adverbs 107
Identifying Adjectives and Adverbs 107
The Right Place at the Right Time: Placing Adjectives and Adverbs 109
How’s It Going? Choosing Between Good/Well and Bad/Badly 111
Mastering the Art of Articles 112
For Better or Worse: Forming Comparisons 113
Visiting the -ER (and the -EST): One- or two-word comparisons 113
Going from bad to worse (and good to better): Irregular comparisons 116
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Descriptors 117
Answers to Adjective and Adverb Problems 118
Part 3: Mastering Mechanics 125
Chapter 9: A Hook That Can Catch You: Apostrophes 127
Showing Who Owns What: Possessives 128
Tightening Up Text: Contractions 129
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Apostrophes 132
Answers to Apostrophe Problems 133
Chapter 10: “Can I Quote You on That?” Quotation Marks 137
Quoting and Paraphrasing: What’s the Difference? 137
Giving Voice to Direct Quotations 139
Punctuating Titles 140
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Quotation Marks 142
Answers to Quotation Problems 143
Chapter 11: Pausing to Consider the Comma 147
Keeping Lists in Order with Commas and Semicolons 148
Directly Addressing the Listener or Reader 150
Punctuating Dates and Addresses 150
Placing Commas in Combined Sentences 152
Inserting Extras with Commas: Introductions and Interruptions 154
Setting Descriptions Apart 155
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Commas 157
Answers to Comma Problems 158
Chapter 12: Handling Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 165
Dashing Off 165
Helping Yourself to Hyphens 167
Coming to a Stop: Colons 168
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 170
Answers to Problems on Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 171
Chapter 13: Hitting the Big Time: Capital Letters 175
Paying Respect to People’s Names and Titles 176
Capitalizing the Right Time and Place 177
Working with Business and School Terms 178
Capitalizing Titles of Literary and Media Works 180
Managing Capital Letters in Abbreviations 181
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Capital Letters 182
Answers to Capitalization Problems 183
Chapter 14: Writing for Electronic Media 187
Knowing Your Audience: The Right Writing for the Right Situation 187
Shortening Your Message 190
Powering Up Your Presentation Slides 192
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Electronic Media 195
Answers to Electronic Media Problems 196
Part 4: Going Above and Beyond: the Finer Points Of Grammar and Style 199
Chapter 15: Going for the Gold: The Finer Points of Verb Usage 201
Voicing an Opinion: Active and Passive Verbs 201
In the Mood: Selecting the Right Verb for All Sorts of Sentences 203
Indicating facts: Indicative mood 204
Issuing commands: Imperative mood 204
Telling lies: Subjunctive mood 205
Spicing Up Sentences by Adding Interesting Verbs 207
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Voice and Mood 208
Answers to Voice and Mood Problems 210
Chapter 16: Identifying Clauses and Their Effects 215
Locating Clauses 215
Sorting Independent and Subordinate Clauses 217
Making Clauses Work Together 218
Answers to Clause Problems 221
Chapter 17: Adding Style to Sentences 225
Speaking Verbally 225
Identifying verbals 226
Telling time with verbals 227
Playing with Sentence Patterns 228
Introductory elements 228
Combining ideas and changing word order 231
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice Honing Your Sentences 233
Answers to Sentence Improvement Problems 234
Chapter 18: Staying on Track: Parallel Writing 239
Geometry Meets English: Making Sentences Parallel 239
Staying in Gear: Avoiding Unnecessary Shifts 242
Following Special Rules for VIPs: Very Important Pairs 245
Drawing Parallel Comparisons 247
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Parallels 248
Answers to Parallelism Problems 249
Chapter 19: Steering Clear of Confusion: Clarity 255
Putting Descriptive Words in Their Proper Place 255
Inserting single-word descriptions 256
Relocating longer descriptions 257
Dangling descriptions 259
Getting caught in the middle: Vague descriptions 262
Avoiding Illogical Comparisons 263
Completing half-finished comparisons 263
Being smarter than yourself: Illogical comparisons 265
Making Sure Your Pronouns Are Meaningful 267
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice in Writing Clear Sentences 269
Answers to Clarity Problems 270
Chapter 20: Dealing with Grammar Demons 277
Dropping Double Negatives 277
Telling Word-Twins Apart 279
Distinguishing Between Commonly Confused Words 280
Counting and Measuring Grammatically 281
Taming Tricky Verbs 282
Banishing Bogus Expressions 283
Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Tricky Words 287
Answers to Grammar Demon Problems 288
Appendix: Grabbing Grammar Goofs 293
Index 313
