English Grammar Workbook For Dummies with Online Practice (For Dummies (Language & Literature))

**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! 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... Introduction 11 Foolish Assumptions 12 Icons Used in This Book 13 Beyond the Book 13 Where to Go from Here 14 Part 1: Building a Firm Foundation: Grammar Basics 16 Chapter 1: Tailoring Language to Suit Your Audience and Purpose 18 Climbing the Ladder of Language Formality 18 Matching Message to Situation 22 Answers to “Tailoring Language to Suit Your Audience and Purpose” 25 Chapter 2: Identifying the Major Elements of a Sentence 29 Going to the Heart of the Matter: The Verb 29 Zeroing in on the Subject 36 Adding Meaning: Objects and Complements 40 Answers to Questions about Major Elements of a Sentence 42 Chapter 3: Having It All: Writing Complete Sentences 49 Finding Subjects and Verbs that Match 50 Checking for Complete Thoughts 52 Improving Flow with Properly Joined Sentences 54 Setting the Tone with Endmarks 59 Proper Sentence or Not? That Is the Question 61 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Complete Sentences 63 Answers to Complete Sentence Problems 64 Part 2: Clearing Up Confusing Grammar Points 73 Chapter 4: Finding the Right Verb at the Right Time 75 Using Past, Present, and Future Tense at the Right Times 75 Putting Perfect Tenses in the Spotlight 78 Speaking of the Past and Things That Never Change 80 Romeo Lives! Writing about Literature and Art in Present Tense 85 Hitting Curveballs: Irregular Forms 86 Getting a Handle on Common Irregulars: Be and Have 89 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Verbs 92 Answers to Problems on Verbs and Verb Tenses 92 Chapter 5: Agreement: Choosing Singular or Plural Verbs and Pronouns 105 Meeting Their Match: Pairing Subjects and Verbs 105 Matching Pronouns and Antecedents 114 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Hitching Subjects and Verbs 120 Answers to Subject, Verb, and Pronoun Pairing Problems 121 Chapter 6: Solving Pronoun Case 133 Meeting the Subject at Hand and the Object of My Affection 133 To “Who” or To “Whom”? That Is the Question 137 You Talkin’ to Me, or I? Pronouns as Objects of Prepositions 138 Matching Possessive Pronouns to “-ing” Nouns 141 Missing in Action: Choosing Pronouns for Implied Comparisons 142 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Pronoun Case 143 Answers to Advanced Pronoun Problems 144 Chapter 7: Little Words Packing a Lot of Power: Prepositions and Interjections 153 Pinning Down Prepositions 153 Interjections Are Simple! 157 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Prepositions and Interjections 158 Answers to Questions About Prepositions and Interjections 159 Chapter 8: Writing Good or Well: Adjectives and Adverbs 164 Identifying Adjectives and Adverbs 164 The Right Place at the Right Time: Placing Adjectives and Adverbs 167 How’s It Going? Choosing Between Good/ Well and Bad/Badly 169 Mastering the Art of Articles 171 For Better or Worse: Forming Comparisons 173 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Descriptors 179 Answers to Adjective and Adverb Problems 180 Part 3: Mastering Mechanics 193 Chapter 9: A Hook That Can Catch You: Apostrophes 195 Showing Who Owns What: Possessives 195 Tightening Up Text: Contractions 198 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Apostrophes 201 Answers to Apostrophe Problems 202 Chapter 10: “Can I Quote You on That?” Quotation Marks 208 Quoting and Paraphrasing: What’s the Difference? 208 Giving Voice to Direct Quotations 210 Punctuating Titles 213 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Quotation Marks 215 Answers to Quotation Problems 217 Chapter 11: Pausing to Consider the Comma 223 Keeping Lists in Order with Commas and Semicolons 223 Directly Addressing the Listener or Reader 226 Punctuating Dates and Addresses 227 Placing Commas in Combined Sentences 230 Inserting Extras with Commas: Introductions and Interruptions 232 Setting Descriptions Apart 234 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Commas 237 Answers to Comma Problems 238 Chapter 12: Handling Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 248 Dashing Off 248 Helping Yourself to Hyphens 251 Coming to a Stop: Colons 253 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 255 Answers to Problems on Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 256 Chapter 13: Hitting the Big Time: Capital Letters 263 Paying Respect to People’s Names and Titles 264 Capitalizing the Right Time and Place 266 Working with Business and School Terms 268 Capitalizing Titles of Literary and Media Works 271 Managing Capital Letters in Abbreviations 272 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Capital Letters 274 Answers to Capitalization Problems 275 Chapter 14: Writing for Electronic Media 283 Knowing Your Audience: The Right Writing for the Right Situation 283 Shortening Your Message 287 Powering Up Your Presentation Slides 290 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Electronic Media 294 Answers to Electronic Media Problems 294 Part 4: Going Above and Beyond: The Finer Points of Grammar and Style 300 Chapter 15: Going for the Gold: The Finer Points of Verb Usage 302 Voicing an Opinion: Active and Passive Verbs 302 In the Mood: Selecting the Right Verb for All Sorts of Sentences 305 Spicing Up Sentences by Adding Interesting Verbs 310 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Voice and Mood 312 Answers to Voice and Mood Problems 313 Chapter 16: Identifying Clauses and Their Effects 321 Locating Clauses 321 Sorting Independent and Subordinate Clauses 323 Making Clauses Work Together 325 Answers to Clause Problems 330 Chapter 17: Adding Style to Sentences 335 Speaking Verbally 335 Playing with Sentence Patterns 340 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice Honing Your Sentences 347 Answers to Sentence Improvement Problems 347 Chapter 18: Staying on Track: Parallel Writing 355 Geometry Meets English: Making Sentences Parallel 355 Staying in Gear: Avoiding Unnecessary Shifts 359 Following Special Rules for VIPs: Very Important Pairs 363 Drawing Parallel Comparisons 366 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Parallels 368 Answers to Parallelism Problems 369 Chapter 19: Steering Clear of Confusion: Clarity 377 Putting Descriptive Words in Their Proper Place 377 Avoiding Illogical Comparisons 388 Making Sure Your Pronouns Are Meaningful 394 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice in Writing Clear Sentences 397 Answers to Clarity Problems 398 Chapter 20: Dealing with Grammar Demons 411 Dropping Double Negatives 411 Telling Word-Twins Apart 413 Distinguishing Between Commonly Confused Words 414 Counting and Measuring Grammatically 417 Taming Tricky Verbs 419 Banishing Bogus Expressions 421 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Tricky Words 425 Answers to Grammar Demon Problems 426 Appendix: Grabbing Grammar Goofs 434 Exercise One 434 Exercise Two 435 Exercise Three 436 Exercise Four 437 Exercise Five 438 Exercise Six 440 Answers to Exercise One 442 Answers to Exercise Two 446 Answers to Exercise Three 449 Answers to Exercise Four 453 Answers to Exercise Five 457 Answers to Exercise Six 458 About the Author 460 Connect with Dummies 464 Index 466 End User License Agreement 507

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!

Annotation 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! Whether you're preparing for a college entrance exam or making a business presentation, better grammar will give you an edge. Sharpen your written and verbal communication skills with this practical guide! Clear explanations take you through grammar basics, practice exercises help reinforce what you learn, and online quizzes let you test your understanding. As you work your way through the chapters, you'll find you can master pronouns and possessives, conquer commas, tackles tenses successfully, and even perfect your presentations."--Page [4] of cover