Improve Your Grammar: The Essential Guide to Accurate Writing

by Vanessa Jakeman, Ken Paterson, Mark Harrison

Overview

Packed with clear guidance on the nuts and bolts of grammar and plenty of examples, this text will help students master the fundamentals of English grammar and tackle written assignments with confidence.

60+ bite-sized units help students overcome common areas of difficulty, such as forming different tenses, using connectives to link ideas and build an argument, punctuating sentences and choosing the right words.

Each unit is presented on a double-page spread, making it easy for students to flick through the book and quickly find the unit they need. Short, focused exercises at the end of each unit - with answers provided at the back of the book - make this text ideal for both self-study and classroom use. This 3rd edition contains four new units on hedging, being critical and collocation.

Improve Your Grammar is an essential resource for students of all disciplines and levels wanting to excel at writing, and can be used as a self-study workbook or on tutor-led grammar modules.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350933637
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/16/2022
Series:	Bloomsbury Study Skills
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	168
Sales rank:	305,948
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.65(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Vanessa Jakeman has co-ordinated English Language and EAP programmes and worked extensively in the field of English Language Testing, in the UK and overseas.

Ken Paterson is currently a freelance writer, having finished a twenty-year career at the University of Westminster, UK, as Director of the Centre for English Learning and Teaching.

Table of Contents

Introduction
How to use this book
KEY TERMS
Unit 1: Parts of speech
Unit 2: Parts of a sentence
KEY GRAMMAR
Unit 3: Singular or plural subjects and verbs
Unit 4: Correct tense formation
Unit 5: Using more than one verb tense
Unit 6: Modal verbs
Unit 7: Using the passive
Unit 8: Direct and indirect questions
Unit 9: Conditionals (If...)
Unit 10: Using adverbs
Unit 11: Emphasising
Unit 12: Negative words and phrases
Unit 13: Gerunds and infinitives
Unit 14: Articles: a/an, the
Unit 15: Relative clauses: who, which, that, etc.
Unit 16: Comparing and contrasting
Unit 17: Describing similarities and differences
Unit 18: Using noun phrases
KEY PUNCTUATION
Unit 19: Commas (1): correct uses
Unit 20: Commas (2): incorrect uses
Unit 21: Colons and semicolons
Unit 22: Hyphens, dashes and brackets
Unit 23: Apostrophes
Unit 24: Inverted commas
Unit 25: Capital letters
CONNECTIONS WITHIN SENTENCES
Unit 26: Linking: contrasting
Unit 27: Linking: adding
Unit 28: Linking: causes
Unit 29: Linking: results
Unit 30: Signposting
Unit 31: Using pronouns correctly
Unit 32: Avoiding repetition of words
PRODUCING GOOD SENTENCES
Unit 33: Parallel structures
Unit 34: Participles
Unit 35: Incomplete sentences
Unit 36: Avoiding long and disorganised sentences
Unit 37: Avoiding too many short sentences
Unit 38: Building successful long sentences
FEATURES OF WRITING
Unit 39: Hedging (1); with verbs and adverbs
Unit 40: Hedging (2): with adjectives and phrases
Unit 41: Giving a definition
Unit 42: Introducing an example
Unit 43: Citing
Unit 44: Paraphrasing
Unit 45: Incorporating data
Unit 46: Formal language (1)
Unit 47: Formal language (2)
Unit 48: The language of argument
USING THE RIGHT WORDS
Unit 49: The language of critique
Unit 50: Using prepositions (1)
Unit 51: Using prepositions (2)
Unit 52: Creating longer words
Unit 53: Using single words for impact
Unit 54: Using phrasal verbs
Unit 55: Collocations (1)
Unit 56: Collocations (2)
Unit 57: Commonly misused words
Unit 58: Commonly confused words: homonyms
Unit 59: Key spelling rules
Unit 60: Common spelling mistakes
Unit 61: Writing an email to your tutor
Unit 62: Covering letters and CVs
Key
Index

Editorial Reviews

'Improve Your Grammar' is a straightforward, jargon-free, easy-to-use book, written by people who have clearly spent many years noting the main problems that writers have, and who have produced a focused, well-presented book designed to solve those problems.'” —English Australia Jourbanal (review of previous edition)

“'This book is an extremely welcome addition to the Bloomsbury Study Skills series. The coverage is comprehensive, but it is presented in a straightforward and clearly accessible way. Not a centimetre of space in the 150 pages is wasted and the authors have packed in lots of instructive, informative but also interesting content.'” —Education and Training (review of previous edition)

From the Publisher