0%

Book Description

Improve 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 speech—or anything in between—this 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 you can too!

Table of Contents

  1. Cover
  2. Introduction
    1. Foolish Assumptions
    2. Icons Used in This Book
    3. Beyond the Book
    4. Where to Go from Here
  3. Part 1: Building a Firm Foundation: Grammar Basics
    1. Chapter 1: Tailoring Language to Suit Your Audience and Purpose
      1. Climbing the Ladder of Language Formality
      2. Matching Message to Situation
      3. Answers to “Tailoring Language to Suit Your Audience and Purpose”
    2. Chapter 2: Identifying the Major Elements of a Sentence
      1. Going to the Heart of the Matter: The Verb
      2. Zeroing in on the Subject
      3. Adding Meaning: Objects and Complements
      4. Answers to Questions about Major Elements of a Sentence
    3. Chapter 3: Having It All: Writing Complete Sentences
      1. Finding Subjects and Verbs that Match
      2. Checking for Complete Thoughts
      3. Improving Flow with Properly Joined Sentences
      4. Setting the Tone with Endmarks
      5. Proper Sentence or Not? That Is the Question
      6. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Complete Sentences
      7. Answers to Complete Sentence Problems
  4. Part 2: Clearing Up Confusing Grammar Points
    1. Chapter 4: Finding the Right Verb at the Right Time
      1. Using Past, Present, and Future Tense at the Right Times
      2. Putting Perfect Tenses in the Spotlight
      3. Speaking of the Past and Things That Never Change
      4. Romeo Lives! Writing about Literature and Art in Present Tense
      5. Hitting Curveballs: Irregular Forms
      6. Getting a Handle on Common Irregulars: Be and Have
      7. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Verbs
      8. Answers to Problems on Verbs and Verb Tenses
    2. Chapter 5: Agreement: Choosing Singular or Plural Verbs and Pronouns
      1. Meeting Their Match: Pairing Subjects and Verbs
      2. Matching Pronouns and Antecedents
      3. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Hitching Subjects and Verbs
      4. Answers to Subject, Verb, and Pronoun Pairing Problems
    3. Chapter 6: Solving Pronoun Case
      1. Meeting the Subject at Hand and the Object of My Affection
      2. To “Who” or To “Whom”? That Is the Question
      3. You Talkin’ to Me, or I? Pronouns as Objects of Prepositions
      4. Matching Possessive Pronouns to “-ing” Nouns
      5. Missing in Action: Choosing Pronouns for Implied Comparisons
      6. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Pronoun Case
      7. Answers to Advanced Pronoun Problems
    4. Chapter 7: Little Words Packing a Lot of Power: Prepositions and Interjections
      1. Pinning Down Prepositions
      2. Interjections Are Simple!
      3. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Prepositions and Interjections
      4. Answers to Questions About Prepositions and Interjections
    5. Chapter 8: Writing Good or Well: Adjectives and Adverbs
      1. Identifying Adjectives and Adverbs
      2. The Right Place at the Right Time: Placing Adjectives and Adverbs
      3. How’s It Going? Choosing Between Good/ Well and Bad/Badly
      4. Mastering the Art of Articles
      5. For Better or Worse: Forming Comparisons
      6. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Descriptors
      7. Answers to Adjective and Adverb Problems
  5. Part 3: Mastering Mechanics
    1. Chapter 9: A Hook That Can Catch You: Apostrophes
      1. Showing Who Owns What: Possessives
      2. Tightening Up Text: Contractions
      3. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Apostrophes
      4. Answers to Apostrophe Problems
    2. Chapter 10: “Can I Quote You on That?” Quotation Marks
      1. Quoting and Paraphrasing: What’s the Difference?
      2. Giving Voice to Direct Quotations
      3. Punctuating Titles
      4. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Quotation Marks
      5. Answers to Quotation Problems
    3. Chapter 11: Pausing to Consider the Comma
      1. Keeping Lists in Order with Commas and Semicolons
      2. Directly Addressing the Listener or Reader
      3. Punctuating Dates and Addresses
      4. Placing Commas in Combined Sentences
      5. Inserting Extras with Commas: Introductions and Interruptions
      6. Setting Descriptions Apart
      7. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Commas
      8. Answers to Comma Problems
    4. Chapter 12: Handling Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons
      1. Dashing Off
      2. Helping Yourself to Hyphens
      3. Coming to a Stop: Colons
      4. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons
      5. Answers to Problems on Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons
    5. Chapter 13: Hitting the Big Time: Capital Letters
      1. Paying Respect to People’s Names and Titles
      2. Capitalizing the Right Time and Place
      3. Working with Business and School Terms
      4. Capitalizing Titles of Literary and Media Works
      5. Managing Capital Letters in Abbreviations
      6. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Capital Letters
      7. Answers to Capitalization Problems
    6. Chapter 14: Writing for Electronic Media
      1. Knowing Your Audience: The Right Writing for the Right Situation
      2. Shortening Your Message
      3. Powering Up Your Presentation Slides
      4. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Electronic Media
      5. Answers to Electronic Media Problems
  6. Part 4: Going Above and Beyond: The Finer Points of Grammar and Style
    1. Chapter 15: Going for the Gold: The Finer Points of Verb Usage
      1. Voicing an Opinion: Active and Passive Verbs
      2. In the Mood: Selecting the Right Verb for All Sorts of Sentences
      3. Spicing Up Sentences by Adding Interesting Verbs
      4. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Voice and Mood
      5. Answers to Voice and Mood Problems
    2. Chapter 16: Identifying Clauses and Their Effects
      1. Locating Clauses
      2. Sorting Independent and Subordinate Clauses
      3. Making Clauses Work Together
      4. Answers to Clause Problems
    3. Chapter 17: Adding Style to Sentences
      1. Speaking Verbally
      2. Playing with Sentence Patterns
      3. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice Honing Your Sentences
      4. Answers to Sentence Improvement Problems
    4. Chapter 18: Staying on Track: Parallel Writing
      1. Geometry Meets English: Making Sentences Parallel
      2. Staying in Gear: Avoiding Unnecessary Shifts
      3. Following Special Rules for VIPs: Very Important Pairs
      4. Drawing Parallel Comparisons
      5. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Parallels
      6. Answers to Parallelism Problems
    5. Chapter 19: Steering Clear of Confusion: Clarity
      1. Putting Descriptive Words in Their Proper Place
      2. Avoiding Illogical Comparisons
      3. Making Sure Your Pronouns Are Meaningful
      4. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice in Writing Clear Sentences
      5. Answers to Clarity Problems
    6. Chapter 20: Dealing with Grammar Demons
      1. Dropping Double Negatives
      2. Telling Word-Twins Apart
      3. Distinguishing Between Commonly Confused Words
      4. Counting and Measuring Grammatically
      5. Taming Tricky Verbs
      6. Banishing Bogus Expressions
      7. Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Tricky Words
      8. Answers to Grammar Demon Problems
  7. Appendix: Grabbing Grammar Goofs
    1. Exercise One
    2. Exercise Two
    3. Exercise Three
    4. Exercise Four
    5. Exercise Five
    6. Exercise Six
    7. Answers to Exercise One
    8. Answers to Exercise Two
    9. Answers to Exercise Three
    10. Answers to Exercise Four
    11. Answers to Exercise Five
    12. Answers to Exercise Six
  8. About the Author
  9. Connect with Dummies
  10. Index
  11. End User License Agreement
18.227.190.93