Barrett - Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking

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ISBN: Print 978-1-62315-714-2 | eBook 978-1-62315-715-9

COLOR KEY: PRINCIPLES COMPOSITION STRUCTURE WORDS PUNCTUATION USAGE AND STYLE

I grew up in rural Missouri. My father was a cop. My mother was an Avon lady. They raised five kids to be clean, be quiet, and be good (with mixed results for quiet and good). Education was mostly left to the schools. There were no tutors, no college prep, no books on how to help children succeed at life. It worked out for me somehow: I became a constant reader, and with the help of libraries, I added to my learning.

But nobody emphasized for me that writing and speaking well were important until I was in my twenties. In grade school and high schoolwhere I felt I excelled at composition and literature analysiseverything seemed fine. It was about overall literacy, the broad strokes of language. I listened, I did the work, and I passed the tests.

But in college, that wasnt enough. Others noticed I used too many commas. Professors left embarrassing remarks about my writing on my essays. The student newspaper editors cut my wordiness to tight journalistic paragraphs that I couldnt seem to come up with on my own.

Clearly, there was a higher level of attention I could pay to my writing and speaking. So, I set out to fix my language.

There was so much I didnt know.

It turned out to be so interesting I dived in deep and eventually became a lexicographersomeone who compiles and edits dictionariesespecially dictionaries for people learning English through classwork rather than by being born into it.

Later, I became the co-host of a public radio show about words and language now heard by more than 500,000 people a week around the world. Now, I give speeches, I talk to the press about language (especially about new words and slang), and, as you can see, I write books about it. I want others to see what I see: with a little bit of help, anyone can improve their communication.

Since youre reading this, theres a good chance you or someone you know needs help with their language. To help as many people as possible, Ive written this book to be useful for a wide range of readers, writers, and learners: junior high, high school, and college students; graduate students who speak English as a second (or even third) language; or business professionals and community leaders who need a refresher on grammar points they last thought about decades ago.

This book does not cover all of English grammar. Instead, it contains frequently asked questions Ive encountered from writers, speechmakers, and language learners of all ages and kinds. It also includes facts that were eye-openers for me when I first started on my journey of communicating better. I hope this book will be your trusted companion as you express all that you have to say.

F irst, browse the book to familiarize yourself with its contents. Then, when questions come up, use the table of contents to find answers. Each entry has an index number. Related subjects appear near each other or are mentioned in a cross-reference like this: see , Nouns.

I know many readers like to dip and skim for pleasure, so Ive written this book so you can open to any page, read for a few minutes, and go away with a little nugget of information. Of course, you can read the whole thing straight through, too, if thats your style. I dont judge.

To make everything easier to understand, Ive included example sentences, lists and charts, and a glossary explaining some of the specialized language of grammar and linguistics.

A lthough this book features the word grammar in the title, it also pays a lot of attention to things that arent strictly grammar (at least in the academic linguistic sense of the word). Youll find information on writing well, spelling, style, usage, and more.

Grammar does not exist alone: it is just one of the complex ways we communicate with each other. So, this book will also motivate you to improve your communication by using correct basic grammar as a framework around finding your own voice, which, in short, is about figuring out who you are, what you want to say, who you want to say it to, and how best to do it.