Grammar Essentials for Dummies.

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- About This Book -- Conventions Used in This Book -- Foolish Assumptions -- Icons Used in This Book -- Where to Go from Here -- Chapter 1 Grasping Grammar Nitty-Gritty -- Grammar: What It Is! -- The Big Ideas of Grammar -- Making the right word choices -- Arranging words for optimal understanding -- Pinpointing punctuation -- Putting Grammar to Work in the Real World -- Chapter 2 Making Peace between Subjects and Verbs -- Getting Reacquainted with Verbs -- Linking verbs: The giant equal sign -- Action verbs: The go-getters -- Helping verbs: The do-gooders -- Doubling your money: Compound verbs -- Infinitives: Verb imposters -- Identifying Subjects -- Getting two for the price of one: Compound subjects -- Figuring out you-understood -- Finding subjects when words are missing -- Grappling with unusual word order -- Searching for the subject in questions -- Tossing fake subjects aside -- Give Peace a Chance: Making Subjects and Verbs Agree -- No mixing allowed: Singles and plurals -- Verbs that change and verbs that don't -- Dealing with negative statements -- Cutting through distractions -- Coming to an Agreement with Difficult Subjects -- Spotting five little pronouns that break the rules -- Finding problems here and there -- Meeting the ones, the things, and the bodies -- Figuring out either and neither -- Chapter 3 Perfecting Your Pronoun Usage -- Playing Matchmaker with Pronouns and Nouns -- Selecting Singular or Plural Pronouns -- Letting your ear be your guide -- Treating companies as singular nouns -- Steering clear of "person" problems -- Getting Possessive with Your Pronouns -- Keeping Your Pronouns and Antecedents Close -- Pairing Pronouns with Pronoun Antecedents -- Wrestling with everybody, somebody, and no one -- Following each and every rule.

Examining either and neither -- Avoiding Sexist Pronouns -- Chapter 4 Constructing a Complete Sentence -- Creating Complete Sentences from Complete Thoughts -- Locating subject-verb pairs -- Not relying on context -- Fishing for complements -- Banning Fragments from Formal Writing -- Enough Is Enough: Avoiding Run-ons -- Getting your endmarks in place -- Fixing comma splices -- Attaching Sentences Legally -- Employing coordinate conjunctions -- Relying on semicolons -- Connecting Unequal Ideas -- Giving subordinate clauses a job -- Finding homes for your subordinate clauses -- Making connections with subordinate conjunctions -- Combining Sentences with Pronouns -- Don't Keep Your Audience Hanging: Removing Danglers -- Dangling participles -- Dangling infinitives -- Chapter 5 Drawing Parallels (Without the Lines) -- Seeking Balance -- Striving for Consistency -- Matching verb tenses -- Staying active (or passive) -- Being true to your person -- Using Conjunction Pairs Correctly -- Constructing Proper Comparisons -- Chapter 6 Adjectives, Adverbs, and Comparisons -- Spotting Adjectives -- Describing nouns and pronouns -- Working hand in hand with linking verbs -- Recognizing articles as adjectives -- Locating adjectives -- Hunting for Adverbs -- Sprucing up verbs -- Modifying adjectives and other adverbs -- Locating adverbs -- Sorting through Some Sticky Choices -- Choosing between "good" and "well" -- Do you feel "bad" or "badly"? -- Coping with adjectives and adverbs that look the same -- Getting Picky about Word Placement -- Placing "even" -- Placing "almost" and "nearly" -- Placing "only" and "just" -- Creating Comparisons -- Getting the hang of regular comparisons -- Good, better, best: Working with irregular comparisons -- Error alert: Using words that you can't compare -- Confusing your reader with incomplete comparisons.

Chapter 7 Polishing Your Punctuation -- More Rules Than the IRS: Using Apostrophes -- Showing possession -- Cutting it short: Contractions -- Quoting Correctly -- Punctuating your quotations -- Identifying speaker changes -- Using quotation marks in titles -- Making Comma Sense -- Placing commas in a series -- Adding information to your sentence -- Directly addressing someone -- Presenting addresses and dates -- Setting off introductory words -- Punctuating with conjunctions -- Mastering Dashes -- Long dashes -- Short dashes -- Wielding Hyphens with Ease -- Creating compound words -- Hyphenating numbers -- Connecting two-word descriptions -- Creating a Stopping Point: Colons -- Sprucing up a business letter -- Inserting long lists -- Introducing long quotations -- Chapter 8 Capitalizing Correctly -- Covering the Basic Rules -- Capitalizing (Or Not) References to People -- Treating a person's titles with care -- Handling family relationships -- Tackling race and ethnicity -- Getting a Geography Lesson: Places, Directions, and More -- Locations and languages -- Directions and areas -- Looking at Seasons and Times of Day -- Getting Schooled in Education Terms -- Wrestling with Capitals in Titles -- Writing about Events and Eras -- Capitalizing Abbreviations -- Chapter 9 Choosing the Right Words -- One Word or Two? -- Always opting for two -- Picking your meaning -- Separating Possessive Pronouns from Contractions -- Its/it's -- Your/you're -- There/their/they're -- Whose/who's -- Using Words That Seem Interchangeable but Aren't -- Affect versus effect -- Between versus among -- Continual versus continuous -- Due to versus because of -- Farther versus further -- Lie versus lay -- Rise versus raise -- Since versus because -- Sit versus set -- Suppose versus supposed -- Whether versus if -- Who versus whom -- A Word and a Phrase to Avoid -- Irregardless.

Different than -- Chapter 10 Tackling Other Troublemakers -- Creating Noun Plurals -- The -ies and -ys have it -- Gooses? Childs? Forming irregular plurals -- Making plurals with hyphenated nouns -- Perfecting Prepositions -- Expressing relationships -- Eyeing the objects of prepositional phrases -- Identifying the objects of prepositions -- Paying attention to prepositions -- Are you talking to I? Matching prepositions and pronouns -- A good part of speech to end a sentence with? -- Deleting Double Negatives -- Chapter 11 Improving Your Writing -- Identifying Your Audience -- Keeping it formal -- Knowing when conversational English will work -- Cutting Ties with Your Computer Grammar Checker -- Giving Your Writing Punch with Great Verbs -- Staying active -- Knowing when "there is" a problem -- Recognizing that your writing "has" issues -- Letting your subjects do more than "say" and "walk" -- Deleting All That's Extra -- Spicing Up Boring Sentences -- The clause that refreshes -- Verbally speaking -- Writing for Electronic Media -- Scoping your audience -- Being clear and concise -- Structuring an e-mail message -- Proofreading before you send -- Chapter 12 Ten Ways to Improve Your Grammar Every Day -- Pick Up a Good Book -- Read the Newspaper -- Sample Some Magazines -- Delve into Strunk and White -- Surf the Web -- Review Style Manuals -- Watch High-Quality TV Shows -- Peruse the News -- Download Podcasts -- Listen to Authorities -- Index -- EULA.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.