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Grammar and Usage for Better Writing

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rameshvary8634
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227 views

Grammar and Usage for Better Writing

Granner pdf

Uploaded by

rameshvary8634
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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AMSCO

A M S C O S C H O O L P U B L I C AT I O N S , I N C .
315 Hudson Street, New York, N.Y. 10013
Contributing Editors

Auditi Chakravarty
Director of Language Arts
Amsco School Publications, Inc.

Bonnie Boehme
Editor
Nesbitt Graphics, Inc.

This book has been adapted from the following Amsco publications:

Building Power in Writing


By Henry I. Christ

English Alive: Complete Edition


By Harold Levine

Text and cover design: Nesbitt Graphics, Inc.


Composition: Nesbitt Graphics, Inc.

When ordering this book please specify:


Either R 798 W or GRAMMAR AND USAGE FOR BETTER WRITING

Please visit our Web site at www.amscopub.com

ISBN 1-56765-117-8

NYC Item 56765-117-7

Copyright © 2004 by Amsco School Publications, Inc.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the
publisher.

Printed in the United States of America.

1234 6789 08 07 06 05 04
Contents

Introduction: How to Use This Book vii

Part ONE Parts of Speech 1


The Subject 3
The Predicate 7
Verbs 10
Action and Linking Verbs 13
Helping Verbs and Verb Phrases 16
Verbs in Contractions 19
Nouns 22
Common and Proper Nouns 24
Plural Nouns 27
Possessive Nouns 34
Compound Subjects 38
Compound Verbs 41
Nouns as Direct Objects 45
Nouns as Indirect Objects 48
Pronouns and Antecedents 52
Personal Pronouns 55
Pronouns in Contractions 58
Review of Verbs, Nouns, and Pronouns 61
Adjectives 68
Predicate Adjectives and Predicate Nouns 72
Adverbs 79
Forming Adverbs from Adjectives 84
Recognizing Adverbs and Adjectives 86

iii
Review of Adjectives and Adverbs 89
Prepositions 94
Prepositional Phrases 98
Conjunctions 102
Interjections 108
Review of Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections 111

Part TWO Sentence Composition 115


Characteristics of Good Sentences 116
Comparing Sentences 117
Writing Sentences 120
Revising Sentences 121
Clear, Forceful Sentences 123
Conciseness (Economy) 123
Clarity and Specificity 126
Varying Sentences 132
Unity 145

Part THREE Common Usage Errors 149


Problems with Sentence Structure 150
Simple Sentences 150
Compound Sentences 151
Complex Sentences 152
Sentence Fragments 155
Run-on Sentences 164
Problems with Nouns 171
Plurals of Nouns 171
Possessives of Nouns 172
Problems with Verbs 175
Using the Correct Tense 175
Principal Parts of Verbs 177
Agreement of Subject and Verb 181
Troublesome Verb Pairs 185
Problems with Modifiers 189
Adjectives and Adverbs Confused 189
Double Negatives 190
Other Errors 191

iv CONTENTS
Problems with Pronouns 193
Personal Pronouns 193
Indefinite Pronouns 196
Possessive Pronouns 198
Problems with Punctuation 201
End Punctuation 201
The Comma 202
Quotation Marks 209
Punctuating Titles 210
Problems with Capitalization 214
In Letters 214
In Quotations 214
First Words 214
Proper Nouns and Proper Adjectives 215
Problems with Spelling 221
Frequently Misspelled Words 221
Words Often Confused 223
Seven Helpful Spelling Rules 224
Contractions 230

Part FOUR Basic Paragraph Composition 231


The Paragraph 232
A Note About Paragraph Length 233
Unity in the Paragraph 235
The Topic Sentence 239
The Clincher Sentence 242
Developing a Paragraph with Reasons 244
Arranging the Reasons 245
Arranging the Reasons—Another Look 248
Developing a Paragraph with Examples 249
Varying Sentence Beginnings 253

Index 259

CONTENTS v

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