Grammar Essentials 3rd Edition

1 GRAMMARESSENTIALSGRAMMARESSENTIALST hird EditionNEW YORK Copyright 2006 Learning Express, rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC, New of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataGrammar Essentials 3rd ed. of: Grammar Essentials / Judith F. Olson, 2nd ed. 1-57685-541-41. English language Grammar Handbooks, manuals, LearningExpress (Organization) II. dc222006000600 Printed in the United States of America987654321 Third EditionFor information on LearningExpress, other LearningExpress products, or bulksales, please call or write to us at:LearningExpress55 Broadway8th FloorNew York, NY 10006Or visit us : How to Use This Bookvii1 The Right Way to Write 12 What Isa Sentence, Anyway?

2 113 Filling Out Sentence Fragments 174 Putting a Stop to Going On and On 255 Good Beginnings, Good Endings 376 Comma Sense 497 More Jobs for Commas 578 Getting Fancy with Semicolons and Colons 679 Controlling Quotation Marks 7510 The Mysteries of Apostrophes and Dashes 8311 The Finer Points of Punctuation 9112 Verbs That Follow the Rules 9913 Rebellious Verbs 10914 Don t Be Tense about Verbs 11915 Making Subjects and Verbs Agree 12716 Beating the Pronoun Odds 13917 Problem Verbs and Pronouns 14918 Modifier Etiquette15919 Tricky Words 17120 More Tricky Words 183 Conclusion 191 Grammar IQ Final Exam and Answers193 Appendix A: Two-Word Verbs203 Appendix B.

3 Additional Resources207viiINTRODUCTIONHow to Use This BookWriting is a lot like playing the piano. Somepeople enjoy it more than others, and people who are good at it studyand practice it. No one is born playing the piano, but anyone can do it if he or shewants. The same goes for writing. If you re interested in learning about writing andin becoming a better writer, this book will help you demystify and acquire the cov-eted power of the book covers the basics of writing: punctuation, usage, and s no fluff here; this book is for busy people who want to learn as much asthey can as efficiently as possible. In 20 chapters, each of which you can completein 20 minutes, you can improve your grasp of Grammar .

4 Each chapter contains aGrammar IQ Quiz, lots of examples that illustrate the grammatical rules, andplenty of opportunities for you to practice the people are afraid of writing. They look at a blank sheet of paper or anempty computer screen and say, I just don t know what to write. Even when Iknow what I want to say, I m afraid it will come out looking wrong and sound-ing stupid. But writing has three distinct advantages over You can take it writing is not instant communication andit doesn t allow for immediate response and exchange, written communi-cation can be retracted. Once words are spoken, you can never unspeakthem. However, writing can be revised until you ve written the exactwords in the exact tone you want.

5 It s a more careful, thoughtful way You can make it second advantage is that writing forces you toclarify your thoughts. If you re having trouble writing, it s usually becauseyou re not yet finished with the thinking part. Sometimes, just sitting downand writing whatever is on your mind helps you discover and organize whatyou It advantage is permanence. Ideas presented in writing carryfar more weight than spoken ideas. Additionally, these ideas can be reviewedand referred to in their exact, original form. Spoken ideas rely upon thesometimes inaccurate memories of other is nothing more than carefully considered thoughts on paper. Manygreat ideas and observations are never born because their creators don t expressthem.

6 You may have some wonderful concepts inside your head with no way toget them out where others can see them. This book can help you express your your own plan for completing the 20 chapters in this book. They redesigned to be completed in 20 minutes a day, but you may want to take more orless time with each lesson or more time with chapters you find difficult and lesswith those you know cold. You could do a chapter each weekday and come out witha better knowledge of Grammar in only a month. Or you may want to do more orfewer chapters at a time. You should, however, plan to complete at least two chap-ters a week. If you leave too much time between lessons, you ll forget what you the time you finish this book, you ll have much more confidence in yourwriting, and you ll probably be a better thinker.

7 If you practice what you velearned, it won t take long for other people to notice the new and improved 1 Grammar IQ QUIZW hich of the following sentences would be more appropriate in a business communication?The answers and explanations follow the is is was agreed upon by the editorial department that Maria would lead all meet-ings with the design team for the purpose of avoiding a too many cooks spoilthe broth order to avoid confusion, the editorial department delegated Maria to lead allmeetings with the design supervisor informed the CEO that you do not support the company'sspending plans for the upcoming fiscal CEO has been informed by your supervisor that you are not on board withthe spending plans that have been made for the company's upcoming fiscal has been discussed at great length by the board members that vacation time beincreased from two weeks to three for employees who have been with the com-pany for three board members have seriously discussed increasing vacation time from twoweeks to three for employees who have been with the company for three have been

8 Referring to this is the policy to which we have been the better choice because the language is less the better choice because it is written in the active voice, and is less wordy and the better choice because it is written in the active voice, is less wordy, and containsno a better choice because it states the idea more clearly using fewer words, and usesthe active a better choice because it is not , the words we use when we speak aren teffective when we use them in writing. This chapterdiscusses the difference between spoken and writtenEnglish, informal language, wordiness, and concepts to know: colloquial[ka LOW kwee l], colloquialism[kaLOW kwee l izm] an informal word or phraseused in conversation, but not appropriate for busi-ness communication or other formal writing active voice a sentence in which the subject(underlined) is performing the action of the verb(Johnread the letter.)

9 Passive voice a sentence in which the subject(underlined) receives the action of the verb (The letterwas read by John.)Written language makes a permanent impres-sion, one that can t be changed by rephrasing the words the way you canin a conversation. That s why it s important to think carefully before you write. Takea look at the note on the following page. What kind of an impression will it make?THE RIGHT WAYTO WRITEGRAMMAR ESSENTIALS2 Manny,Got your note today. Thought I d get right back to you. Keep you fromgetting in a tizzy about this whole moving thing. It s still kinda early topack stuff for the move cause the new building isn t even done as well wait til it like Jack has been chosen by the top dogs to head up theentire moving process with all its various aspects.

10 Due to the fact thathe hasn t started doing a thing yet, there s no sense in the rest of usgetting panicky about it. Don t freak out; it ll get ENGLISH VERSUS WRITTEN ENGLISHMany of the speaking patterns we use are not suitable in business writing. Forexample, if you listen to a conversation, you might hear incomplete sentences, sud-den subject changes, or abbreviated versions of words and phrases. Althoughthese expressions are common in casual conversation, they are confusing and inap-propriate when you are writing to a customer, supervisor, or employer. Avoid thesethings in written SentencesQuite often, we use fragments when we speak.