Grammar By Diagram - Second Edition: Understanding English Grammar Through Traditional Sentence Diagraming / Edition 2

by Cindy L. Vitto

Overview

Grammar by Diagram, second edition is a book designed for anyone who wishes to improve grammatical understanding and skill. Using traditional sentence diagraming as a visual tool, the book explains how to expand simple sentences into compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences, and how to employ verbals (infinitives, gerunds, and participles) and other structures for additional variety.

The text addresses the most frequent usage errors by explaining how to distinguish between adjectives and adverbs; how to avoid problems of pronoun case, agreement, and consistency; how to ensure that verbs will agree with their subjects and will be appropriate in terms of tense, aspect, voice, and mood; and how to phrase sentences to avoid errors in parallelism or placement of modifiers. Six appendices incorporate further exercises, a summary of key basics from the text, and supplemental material not included in the body of the text but useful for quick reference. This new edition includes additional exercises and has been revised and updated throughout.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781551117782
Publisher:	Broadview Press
Publication date:	07/10/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	456
Sales rank:	376,498
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Cindy L. Vitto is Professor of English at Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction

CHAPTER 1 The Eight Parts of Speech
CHAPTER 2 Basic Sentence Patterns for Be and Linking Verbs
CHAPTER 3 Basic Sentence Patterns for Intransitive and Transitive Verbs
CHAPTER 4 Usage Problems Associated with Adjectives and Adverbs
CHAPTER 5 Combining and Expanding Patterns: Compound Structures
CHAPTER 6 Combining and Expanding Patterns: Complex Sentences with Noun Clauses
CHAPTER 7 Combining and Expanding Patterns: Complex Sentences with Adverb and Relative Clauses
CHAPTER 8 Usage Problems of Case, Agreement, and Consistency
CHAPTER 9 Verbs
CHAPTER 10 Verbals
CHAPTER 11 Usage Problems Associated with Verbs and Verbals
CHAPTER 12 Punctuation and Capitalization
CHAPTER 13 Sentence Transformations

Appendix 1 Additional Exercises (no answers provided)
Appendix 2 Verb Conjugations (See and Be)
Appendix 3 Irregular and Troublesome Verb Forms
Appendix 4 Summary of Clauses and Verbals
Appendix 5 Diagramming Summary
Appendix 6 Commonly Confused Words

Answer Key
Index

Editorial Reviews

Rejoice! After years of neglect, sentence diagraming can unapologetically return to college courses. Cindy Vitto’s Grammar by Diagram makes this a fruitful return by using diagraming first to lay bare the structural bones of English and then to demonstrate ways in which writers use these components to create effective sentences. Through diagraming, students see that a strong sentence is a purposefully structured unit and not a set of words aimlessly strung together. Thus Grammar by Diagram not only gives students skills for crafting better sentences but also tools for examining language with greater care.” — Candace Barrington, Central Connecticut State University, on Grammar by Diagram, second edition

“Grammar by Diagram is a dream come true for me. I grew up academically on diagraming, and I have always thought it was one of the best ways for students to visualize the structure of the language.” — George Edward Stanley, Cameron University

From the Publisher

Grammar by Diagram is a dream come true for me. I grew up academically on diagraming, and I have always thought it was one of the best ways for students to visualize the structure of the language.

George Edward Stanley Cameron University

"Rejoice! After years of neglect, sentence diagraming can unapologetically return to college courses. Cindy Vitto's Grammar By Diagram makes this a fruitful return by using diagraming first to lay bare the structural bones of English and then to demonstrate ways in which writers use these components to create effective sentences. Through diagraming, students see that a strong sentence is a purposefully structured unit and not a set of words aimlessly strung together. Thus Grammar By Diagram not only gives students skills for crafting better sentences but also tools for examining language with greater care."

Candace Barrington Central Connecticut State University