Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 2
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 3
Unit 1: Exploring Grammar and Style 5
Chapter 1: Sampling the Ingredients of Grammar and Style 7
What This Year's Sentence Is Wearing: Understanding Grammar and Style 8
Getting to Know the Elements of Grammar and Style 9
Parts of speech 10
Parts of a sentence 11
Small but important: Punctuating, capitalizing, and spelling 15
Recognizing Your Grammar Profile 18
Chapter 2: Adapting Language to Every Situation 21
Grasping the Power and Limits of Standard English 21
Adjusting Language to Suit Your Audience 22
Wanna get something to eat? Friendspeak 22
Conversational English 24
Standard English 24
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 29
Whaddya Know? Chapter 2 Quiz 31
Answers to Chapter 2 Quiz 33
Unit 2: Exploring Parts of Speech 35
Chapter 3: People to See, Places to Go, Things to Remember: Recognizing Nouns 37
Identifying Nouns 38
Naming people with nouns 38
Naming places with nouns 39
Naming things with nouns 40
Naming ideas and emotions with nouns 41
Sorting Out Singular and Plural Nouns 42
Adding the letters S or ES to form plurals 42
Plurals that break the rules 44
Attaching "This," "These," and Other Words to Nouns 45
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 47
Whaddya Know? Chapter 3 Quiz 49
Answers to Chapter 3 Quiz 50
Chapter 4: Meeting the Pronoun Family 51
Working Hard: Pronouns and Their Jobs 51
Replacing nouns 52
Replacing pronouns 53
Doubling back with -self pronouns 53
Creating connections, asking questions 54
Tracing Pronoun Traits 55
Person and number 56
Gender and number 58
Case 59
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 61
Whaddya Know? Chapter 4 Quiz 63
Answers to Chapter 4 Quiz 64
Chapter 5: Existing and Acting with Verbs 65
Expressing Meaning with Verbs 66
Tense 66
Number 66
Mood 66
Voice 67
Meeting the Families: Linking and Action Verbs 67
Linking verbs: A giant equal sign 68
Forms of "be" 68
Synonyms of "be" 68
Savoring sensory verbs 69
Lights! Camera! Action verb! 70
Pop the Question: Locating the Verb 71
Calling the Help Line for Verbs 73
The big three 73
Timing is everything: Creating a time frame with helping verbs 77
Don't ask! Questions and negative statements 77
Adding shades of meaning with helping verbs 79
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 81
Whaddya Know? Chapter 5 Quiz 84
Answers to Chapter 5 Quiz 85
Chapter 6: Two Real Really Good Parts of Speech: Adjectives and Adverbs 87
Clarifying Meaning with Descriptions 88
Adding Adjectives 88
Adjectives describing nouns 89
Adjectives describing pronouns 89
Adjectives attached to linking verbs 90
Pop the question: Identifying adjectives 90
Articles: Not just for magazines 91
Stalking the Common Adverb 93
Pop the question: Finding the adverb 94
Adverbs describing adjectives and other adverbs 95
Choosing Between Adjectives and Adverbs 97
Sorting out "good" and "well" 98
Dealing with "bad" and "badly" 98
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 100
Whaddya Know? Chapter 6 Quiz 103
Answers to Chapter 6 Quiz 104
Chapter 7: Tiny but Mighty: Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections 105
Proposing Relationships: Prepositions 105
Prepositional phrases 106
Pop the question: Questions that identify the objects of the prepositions 108
Why pay attention to prepositions? 108
Connecting with Conjunctions 110
Improving flow and adding meaning with conjunctions 110
Pairing up conjunctions 112
Interjections Are Easy! 113
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 114
Whaddya Know? Chapter 7 Quiz 116
Answers to Chapter 7 Quiz 117
Unit 3: Basic Elements of a Sentence 119
Chapter 8: Who's Doing What? Identifying the Subject-Verb Pair 121
Baring the Bones of a Sentence: The Subject-Verb Pair 121
When One Is Not Enough: Compound Subjects and Verbs 122
Pop the Question: Locating the Subject-Verb Pairs 123
Popping the question for questions 124
Unusual word order 125
Not missing in action: Detecting you-understood 126
Don't Get Faked Out: Avoiding Fake Verbs and Subjects 128
Verbals 128
"Here" and "there" sentences 129
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 131
Whaddya Know? Chapter 8 Quiz 133
Answers to Chapter 8 Quiz 134
Chapter 9: Handling Complements 135
Getting a Piece of the Action: Complements for Action Verbs 135
Receiving the action: Direct objects 136
Rare, but sometimes there: Indirect objects 139
No bias here: Objective complements 141
Completing the Equation: Subject Complements 142
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 146
Whaddya Know? Chapter 9 Quiz 148
Answers to Chapter 9 Quiz 149
Chapter 10: When All Is Said and Done: Complete Sentences 151
Completing Sentences: The Essential Subjects and Verbs 151
Not flying solo: Verb forms ending in -ing 152
Past verb forms that can't stand alone 153
Do not "be" alone 155
Complete Thoughts, Complete Sentences 157
Reaching the End of the Line: End Marks 159
Connecting Ideas 161
Breaking Away from Sentence Fragments 166
Placing fragments in the right context 166
Steering clear of inappropriate fragments 167
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 169
Whaddya Know? Chapter 10 Quiz 172
Answers to Chapter 10 Quiz 173
Chapter 11: No Santas but Plenty of Clauses 175
Grasping the Basics of Clause and Effect 175
Sorting Subordinate and Independent Clauses 177
Defining the Three Legal Jobs for Subordinate Clauses 179
Describing nouns and pronouns 179
Describing verbs, adjectives, or adverbs 179
Acting as subjects, objects, or subject complements inside another clause 180
Untangling Subordinate and Independent Clauses 180
Deciding When to Untangle Clauses 182
When you're picking a pronoun 182
When you're deciding on the correct verb 182
When you're figuring out where to put commas 183
Choosing Content for Subordinate Clauses 183
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 185
Whaddya Know? Chapter 11 Quiz 187
Answers to Chapter 11 Quiz 188
Unit 4: Clearing Up Confusing Grammar Points 189
Chapter 12: Relax! Understanding Verb Tense, Voice, and Mood 191
It's All in the Timing: Tense 191
Simplifying matters: The simple tenses 191
Using the simple tenses correctly 194
Not picture-perfect: Understanding the perfect tenses 197
Employing the perfect tenses correctly 200
Speaking of the past and things that never change 204
Romeo lives! Writing about literature and art in present tense 206
The rebels: Dealing with irregular verbs 207
Giving Voice to Verbs 210
Getting Your Verbs in the Proper Mood 211
Stating the facts: Indicative 211
Commanding your attention: Imperative 211
Discovering the possibilities: Subjunctive 212
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 216
Whaddya Know? Chapter 12 Quiz 220
Answers to Chapter 12 Quiz 221
Chapter 13: Agreement: Choosing Singular or Plural Verbs and Pronouns 223
Agreeing Not to Disagree 223
Making Subjects and Verbs Agree: The Basics 224
Matching Subjects and Verbs in Some Tricky Situations 225
Compound subjects 225
Ignoring distracting descriptions 225
Each and every 227
Either and neither, alone or with partners 227
Five puzzling pronouns 229
The ones, the things, and the bodies 230
Agreeing with Relative Pronouns 231
Politics and Other Irregular Subjects 233
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 235
Whaddya Know? Chapter 13 Quiz 238
Answers to Chapter 13 Quiz 239
Chapter 14: Solving Pronoun Case 241
While We're on the Subject: Choosing Pronouns to Act as Subjects 241
Taking an Objective Viewpoint: Choosing Pronouns to Act as Objects 244
Dealing with direct and indirect objects 244
Are you talking to I? Prepositions and pronouns 244
Attaching objects to verbals 246
Knowing the Difference Between Who and Whom 247
Attracting Appositives 249
Picking Pronouns for Comparisons 250
Dealing with Pronouns and -ing Nouns 251
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 253
Whaddya Know? Chapter 14 Quiz 255
Answers to Chapter 14 Quiz 256
Chapter 15: Getting Specific: The Power of Descriptions 257
Creating Comparisons with Adjectives and Adverbs 257
Ending it with -er or giving more to adjectives 258
Creating comparisons with adverbs 260
Breaking the rules: Irregular comparisons 261
Resolving incomplete and illogical comparisons 263
On Location: Placing Descriptions Correctly 268
Troubling singles 268
Misplaced descriptions 270
Just hanging out: Danglers 272
Avoiding confusing descriptions 274
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 276
Whaddya Know? Chapter 15 Quiz 279
Answers to Chapter 15 Quiz 280
Unit 5: Spelling, Punctuation, and Capitalization 281
Chapter 16: Becoming a Better Speler Speller 283
Following the Rules of English Spelling 283
Changing Y to I 284
I before E 285
Double letters 286
Dropping the silent E 287
Taming Spelling Demons 288
How does the word end? 289
One or two? 290
Which vowel? 290
Checking the Dictionary for Spelling Help 291
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 293
Whaddya Know? Chapter 16 Quiz 295
Answers to Chapter 16 Quiz 296
Chapter 17: Little Hooks, Big Problems: Apostrophes 297
The Pen of My Aunt or My Aunt's Pen? Using Apostrophes to Show Possession 298
Ownership for singles 299
Sharing the wealth: Plural possessives 299
A few special possessions 302
Shortened Words for Busy People: Contractions 304
Making short work of common contractions 305
You coulda made a contraction mistake 306
Managing Tricky Contraction/Pronoun Pairs 307
Its/it's 308
Whose/who's 308
Your/you're 308
Their/there/they're 308
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 310
Whaddya Know? Chapter 17 Quiz 312
Answers to Chapter 17 Quiz 313
Chapter 18: Quotations: More Rules Than the Strictest Teacher 315
And I Quote 316
Punctuating Quotations 318
Quotations with speaker tags 318
Quotations without speaker tags 321
Quotations with question marks 323
Quotations with exclamation points 324
Quotations with semicolons 325
Quotations inside quotations 326
Germ-Free Quotations: Using Sanitizing Quotation Marks 327
Punctuating Titles: When to Use Quotation Marks 328
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 331
Whaddya Know? Chapter 18 Quiz 333
Answers to Chapter 18 Quiz 334
Chapter 19: The Pause That Refreshes: Commas 337
Distinguishing Items: Commas in Series 338
Using "Comma Sense" to Add Information to Your Sentence 340
List of descriptions 341
Essential or extra? Commas tell the tale 342
Commas with appositive influence 344
You Talkin' to Me? Direct Address 345
Using Commas in Addresses and Dates 346
Addressing addresses 346
Punctuating dates 347
Getting Started: The Introductory Comma 349
Words not connected to the meaning of the sentence 349
Phrases and clauses 350
Punctuating Independently 350
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 352
Whaddya Know? Chapter 19 Quiz 354
Answers to Chapter 19 Quiz 355
Chapter 20: Useful Little Marks: Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 357
Inserting Information with Dashes 357
Long dashes 358
Short dashes 358
H-y-p-h-e-n-a-t-i-n-g Made Easy 360
Understanding the great divide 360
Using hyphens for compound words 360
Placing hyphens in numbers 361
Utilizing the well-placed hyphen 361
Creating a Stopping Point: Colons 362
Addressing a business letter or an email 363
Introducing lists 363
Introducing long quotations 364
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 367
Whaddya Know? Chapter 20 Quiz 369
Answers to Chapter 20 Quiz 370
Chapter 21: Capital Letters 373
Knowing What's Up with Uppercase 373
Capitalizing (or Not) References to People 374
Sorting out job titles 374
Writing about family relationships 375
Tackling race and ethnicity 376
Capitalizing Geography: Directions and Places 377
Marking Seasons and Other Times 378
Capitalizing Work and School Terms 379
Capitalizing Titles 380
Headline style 380
Sentence style 382
?4U: Cn U AbbreV8? 383
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 385
Whaddya Know? Chapter 21 Quiz 388
Answers to Chapter 21 Quiz 389
Unit 6: Developing Style 391
Chapter 22: Adding Meaning with Well-Chosen Words 393
Going Vivid with Verbs 393
"There is" a problem with boring verbs 393
Does your writing "have" a problem? 394
Don't just "say" and "walk" away 395
Pinpointing Meaning with Nouns and Descriptions 397
Saving Time: Cutting Unnecessary Words 400
Repetition 400
Wordiness 400
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 403
Whaddya Know? Chapter 22 Quiz 405
Answers to Chapter 22 Quiz 407
Chapter 23: Grammar Gremlins 409
Deleting Double Negatives 409
Sounding Incorrect 412
Scoring D minus 412
Three terrible twos 413
You gotta problem with grammar? 413
Almost twins 414
Pairs of Trouble: Complicated Verbs 417
Sit/set 417
Hanged/hung 417
Rise/raise 418
Lie/lay 418
Lose/loose 419
One Word or Two? 420
Three for the Road: Other Common Errors 422
Between/among 422
Being that 422
Try and/try to 423
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 424
Whaddya Know? Chapter 23 Quiz 426
Answers to Chapter 23 Quiz 427
Chapter 24: Writing Stylish Sentences 429
Speaking Verbally 429
Identifying verbals 430
Choosing the correct tense 432
Sprucing Up Boring Sentences with Clauses and Verbals 434
Clauses 435
Verbals 436
Mixing It Up: Changing Sentence Patterns and Length 437
Patterns 437
Going long or cutting it short 440
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 442
Whaddya Know? Chapter 24 Quiz 445
Answers to Chapter 24 Quiz 447
Unit 7: Grammar in Action 449
Chapter 25: Adapting Your Style to Electronic Media 451
Hitting the Screen with Formal or Informal Language 452
Communicating Clearly in Texts, Tweets, and Posts 454
Dropping words 454
Dropping punctuation and capital letters 456
Abbreviating 457
Emailing Your Way to Good Grammar 458
The heading 459
The greeting 459
The body 460
The closing 460
PowerPoint to the People 461
Surveying presentation slides 462
Writing titles 462
Biting the bulleted list 464
Autocorrect and Other Error Magnets 469
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 470
Whaddya Know? Chapter 25 Quiz 472
Answers to Chapter 25 Quiz 474
Chapter 26: Writing at School and on the Job 475
A Is for Accomplished: Writing at School 475
Essays and research papers 476
Science reports 480
Get to Work: Writing on the Job 483
Letters 483
Memos 486
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 488
Whaddya Know? Chapter 26 Quiz 490
Answers to Chapter 26 Quiz 491
Index 493
