Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I: Understanding Verbs and Sentences 7
Chapter 1: Who Cares about Grammar? 9
Chapter 2: Verbs: The Engine of the Sentence21
Chapter 3: Timing is Everything: Understanding Verb Tense 35
Chapter 4: Who’s Doing What? Finding the Subject 53
Chapter 5: One with the Lot: The Complete Sentence 61
Chapter 6: Following On: Objects and Complements 75
Part II: Adding Detail and Avoiding Common Errors 87
Chapter 7: Driving a Road Train: Joining Sentences 89
Chapter 8: Accessorising: Modifying with Adjectives and Adverbs 105
Chapter 9: Filling the Gaps: Prepositions, Interjections and Articles 121
Chapter 10: She’ll Be Right: Handling Pronouns 133
Chapter 11: Making it Match: About Agreement 151
Part III: Punctuating for Precision 161
Chapter 12: Commas: Pauses That Count 163
Chapter 13: Apostrophes: They’re There for a Reason 183
Chapter 14: Quotations: He Said, She Said 197
Chapter 15: Adding Information: Semicolons and Colons 223
Chapter 16: Dots and Dashes: Ellipses, Hyphens, Dashes and Slashes 235
Chapter 17: CAPITAL LETTERS and Numerals 245
Part IV: Grammar with Style — the Finer Points 257
Chapter 18: Perfecting Pronouns 259
Chapter 19: Finetuning Verbs and Verbals 271
Chapter 20: Saying What You Want to Say: Descriptions 289
Chapter 21: Refining Your Writing: Grammar in Action 305
Chapter 22: e-Grammar: Accuracy in Electronic Communication 331
Part V: The Part of Tens 347
Chapter 23: Ten Common Grammar Errors and How to Revise Them 349
Chapter 24: Ten Things Grammar and Spell Checkers Can’t Do 355
Chapter 25: Ten Ways to Improve Your Writing 361
Chapter 26: Ten Ways two to Improve Your Editing 367
Glossary 373
Index 385
