A few years ago, a magazine sponsored a contest for the comment most likely to end a conversation. The winning entry? "I teach English grammar." Just throw that line out at a party; everyone around you will clam up or start saying "whom." Why does grammar make everyone so nervous? Probably because English teachers, for decades -- no, for centuries -- have been making a big deal out of grammar in classrooms, diagramming sentences and drilling the parts of speech, clauses, and verbals into students until they beg for mercy. Happily, you don't have to learn all those technical terms of English grammar -- and you certainly don't have to diagram sentences -- in order to speak and write correct English. So rest assured -- English Grammar For Dummies will probably never make your English teacher's top-ten list of must-read books, because you won't have to diagram a single sentence. What you will discover are fun and easy strategies that can help you when you're faced with such grammatical dilemmas as the choice between "I" and "me," "had gone" and "went," and "who" and "whom."
With English Grammar For Dummies, you won't have to memorize a long list of meaningless rules (well, maybe a couple in the punctuation chapter!), because when you understand the reason for a particular word choice, you'll pick the correct word automatically. English Grammar For Dummies covers many other topics as well, such as the following: * Verbs, adjectives, and adverbs -- oh my! * Preposition propositions and pronoun pronouncements * Punctuation: The lowdown on periods, commas, colons, and all those other squiggly marks * Possession: It's nine-tenths of grammatical law * Avoiding those double negative vibes * How to spice up really boring sentences (like this one) * Top Ten lists on improving your proofreading skills and ways to learn better grammar Just think how improving your speaking and writing skills will help you in everyday situations, such as writing a paper for school, giving a presentation to your company's big wigs, or communicating effectively with your family. You will not only gain the confidence in knowing you're speaking or writing well, but you'll also make a good impression on those around you!
Table of Contents
Introduction. Part I: The Parts of Speech and Parts of the Sentence. Chapter 1: I Already Know How to Talk. Why Should I Study Grammar? Chapter 2: Verbs: The Heart of the Sentence. Chapter 3: Relax! Understanding Verb Tense. Chapter 4: Who's Doing What? How to Find the Subject. Chapter 5: Having It All: The Complete Sentence. Chapter 6: Handling Complements.Chapter 7: Getting Hitched: Marrying Sentences. Chapter 8: Do You Feel Bad or Badly? The Lowdown on Adjectives and Adverbs. Chapter 9: Prepositions and Interjections and Articles, Oh My! Other Parts of Speech. Chapter 10: Everyone Brought Their Homework: Pronoun Errors. Chapter 11: Just Nod Your Head: About Agreement. Part III: No Garage, but Plenty of Mechanics. Chapter 12: Punctuation Law That Should Be Repealed: Apostrophes. Chapter 13: Quotations: More Rules Than the Internal Revenue Service. Chapter 14: The Pause That Refreshes: Commas. Chapter 15: Adding Information: Semicolons, Dashes, and Colons. Chapter 16: CAPITAL LETTERS. Part IV: Polishing Without Wax -- The Finer Points of Grammar. Chapter 17: Pronouns and Their Cases. Chapter 18: Fine-tuning Verbs. Chapter 19: Saying What You Want to Say: Descriptive Words and Phrases. Chapter 20: Good, Better, Best: Comparisons. Chapter 21: Parallels Without the Lines. Part V: Rules Even Your Great-Aunt's Grammar Teacher Didn't Know. Chapter 22: The Last Word on Verbs. Chapter 23: The Last Word on Pronouns. Chapter 24: The Last Word on Sentence Structure. Chapter 25: The Last Word on Punctuation. Part VI: The Part of Tens. Chapter 26: Ten Ways Two to Improve Your Proofreading. Chapter 27: Ten Ways to Learn Better Grammar. Index. Book Registration Information Back of Book.
Author Biography
Geraldine Woods has taught grammar at a well--regarded private school for over 16 years. Early in her teaching career she worked in a high school with a mostly remedial population, a situation that prompted her to decide what was truly essential for a basic level of correct English. She has authored over 40 books including, The Horace Mann Grammar Workbook and Teachers' Manual for English Literature and Equal Justice: A Biography of Sandra Day O'Connor. She has also published books in children's literature, biographies and various other topics.
