English Grammar For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback)) (Paperback) By (author) Geraldine Woods

Full bibliographic data for English Grammar For Dummies

Title

English Grammar For Dummies

Authors and contributors

By (author) Geraldine Woods

Physical properties

Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 384
Width: 188 mm
Height: 236 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight: 571 g

Audience

General/trade

Language

English

ISBN

ISBN 13: 9780470546642
ISBN 10: 0470546646

Classifications

BISAC category code: LAN006000
Dewey: 428.2
Nielsen BookScan Product Class: T2.1
BIC language qualifier (language as subject): 2AB

Edition

2, Revised

Edition statement

2nd Revised edition

Illustrations note

ill

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Imprint name

John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Publication date

16 February 2010

Publication City/Country

Chichester/GB

Main description

The fun and easy way to improve your grammarEnhancing your speaking and writing skills helps in everyday situations, such as writing a paper for school, giving a presentation to a company's bigwigs, or communicating effectively with family and friends. English Grammar For Dummies, 2nd Edition gives you the latest techniques for improving your efficiency with English grammar and punctuation.Teaches the rules of verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; prepositions, propositions, and pronoun pronouncements; punctuation; possessives; and proofreading skills for all communicationGeraldine Woods is the author of English Grammar Workbook For Dummies, College Admission Essays For Dummies, Research Papers For Dummies, SAT I For Dummies, 6th Edition, AP English Literature For Dummies, and AP English Language For DummiesFor speakers and writers of all skill levels, English Grammar For Dummies, 2nd Edition provides easy-to-follow, practical information for improving your command of English grammar.

Back cover copy

The fun and easy way to improve your grammarDo the parts of speech render you speechless? Does the thought of diagramming sentences make you sweat? Fear not! "English Grammar For Dummies," 2nd Edition takes the "grr" out of grammar and gives you fun, easy-to-followstrategies for understanding the rules of grammar and punctuation to improve your speaking and writing skills --without ever diagramming a single sentence!Quoting the experts -- learn when to use single quotation marks, double quotation marks, or no quotation marks at allAvoid common errors and mistakes -- discover the mismatches between singular and plural words and pronoun genderToday's technology -- brush up on the proper way to compose emails, texts, and presentations and get the latest grammar do's and don'ts for blogging, texting, and IMingPeriods, commas, and colons, oh my! -- use a little "comma sense" to make sure your writing is always punctuated properlyCapitalize on the situation -- understand what words and phrases are capitalized and which are lowercasedRules even your grammar teacher didn't know -- find outhow to avoid double-negative errors and get the last wordon the dreaded who/whom debateOpen the book and find: The building blocks of a sentenceThe rules of verbs and prepositionsTips to improve speaking andwriting skillsThe latest techniques forimproving your command of grammarUpdated examples and referencesWays to improve your proofreadingHelp for speakers or writers of any skill levelLearn to: Get down to basics with the rules of English grammarImprove your writing and verbal communication skillsBrush up on your proofreading abilitiesImprove your grades and/or test scores

Biographical note

Geraldine Woods teaches English and directs the independent study program at a high school for gifted students. She has more than 35 years of teaching experience and is the author of more than 40 books, including English Grammar Workbook For Dummies.

Table of contents

Introduction 1 Part I: Getting Down to Basics: The Parts of the Sentence 7 Chapter 1: I Already Know How to Talk. Why Should I Study Grammar? 9 Chapter 2: Verbs: The Heart of the Sentence 17 Chapter 3: Relax! Understanding Verb Tense 29 Chapter 4: Who's Doing What? How to Find the Subject 43 Chapter 5: Having It All: The Complete Sentence 55 Chapter 6: Handling Complements 73 Part II: Avoiding Common Errors 83 Chapter 7: Do You Feel Bad or Badly? The Lowdown on Adjectives and Adverbs 85 Chapter 8: Small Words, Big Trouble: Prepositions 101 Chapter 9: Everyone Brought Their Homework: Pronoun Errors 109 Chapter 10: Just Nod Your Head: About Agreement 121 Part III: No Garage, but Plenty of Mechanics 135 Chapter 11: Punctuation Law That Should Be Repealed: Apostrophes 137 Chapter 12: Quotations: More Rules Than the Internal Revenue Service 151 Chapter 13: The Pause That Refreshes: Commas 169 Chapter 14: Useful Little Marks: Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 185 Chapter 15: CAPITAL LETTERS 195 Chapter 16: New Media, New Grammar Rules 207 Part IV: Polishing Without Wax - The Finer Points of Grammar 219 Chapter 17: Pronouns and Their Cases 221 Chapter 18: Fine-Tuning Verbs 235 Chapter 19: Saying What You Want to Say: Descriptive Words and Phrases 253 Chapter 20: Good, Better, Best: Comparisons 265 Chapter 21: Parallels Without the Lines 281 Part V: Rules Even Your Great-Aunt's Grammar Teacher Didn't Know 295 Chapter 22: The Last Word on Verbs 297 Chapter 23: The Last Word on Pronouns 309 Chapter 24: The Last Word on Sentence Structure 323 Part VI: The Part of Tens 343 Chapter 25: Ten Ways Two to Improve Your Proofreading 345 Chapter 26: Ten Ways to Learn Better Grammar 349 Index 353