The Student's Guide to Writing: Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

by John Peck, Martin Coyle

Overview

Aimed at students wishing to improve their writing skills, this guide deals with the key basics of grammar, punctuation and spelling while also showing students how to construct a sentence, how to build a paragraph and how to structure an essay. This third edition includes an expanded 'Spot the Mistake' section.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230373884
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/31/2012
Series:	Bloomsbury Study Skills , #53
Edition description:	3rd ed. 2012
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

John Peck is now retired and was formerly Reader in Victorian Literature at Cardiff University, UK.

Martin Coyle is Professor of English Literature at Cardiff University, UK.

Table of Contents

About this book vii

Note to the second edition ix

Note to the third edition x

Part 1 Writing Correctly 1

1 Writing a Sentence 3

Producing 'correct' sentences 3

How sentences go wrong 10

Constructing 'complex' sentences 14

Summary 18

2 Punctuation 20

Full stops (and question marks) 20

Commas 23

The six uses of the comma 25

The apostrophe 29

Summary 34

3 Spelling 36

Sound-alike words 37

Avoidable errors 42

How words end 46

Summary 48

Part 2 Writing Confidently 51

4 The Well-crafted Sentence 53

Avoiding overloaded sentences 54

Standard errors, easy solutions 57

Paragraph logic 63

Summary 65

5 Polished Punctuation 67

Reinforcing the rules 68

How accurate punctuation can strengthen an essay 73

The colon and semicolon 76

Summary 80

6 Spelling and Usage 81

Syllabilising, and pronouncing slowly 81

Plurals 82

The words of your subject 83

Hyphens 84

Frequently misspelt words 86

The Top 30' usage tips 87

Part 3 Writing with Style 95

7 Writing an Essay 97

Constructing an essay 98

Constructing a paragraph 105

Constructing a sentence 107

Summary 109

8 Punctuation and Presentation 110

Direct speech 110

Presentation conventions 113

Quoting from a text 116

Summary 121

9 The Right Word 123

Addressing the reader 124

Tone and vocabulary 126

Finding a style 128

Conclusion 135

Part 4 Writing Rules 137

10 Twenty to Remember 139

11 Spot the Mistake 145

The census 145

The BBC website weather forecast 146

New product news in The Times 147

A university's description of one of its courses 147

A students' union drink promotion 148

A hard spell 148

Property details from estate agents 149

It is not de rigueur to spell de rigueur de rigeur 150

Election manifestoes 151

Compliments, or should that be complements, of the season? 153

They gave their life 154

Does 'to progress' amount to progress? 155

Madonna 156

Say what you mean, Boris 157

Signs of the times 157

Renaming 158

An 'appauling' spelling mistake 158

'Esquivalience' 159

Guidelines for aspiring writers 160

A comedy of errors 161

12 A Note on Grammar 163

Grammar summary 164

Parts of speech 165

Index 167

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Excellent, valuable text.' - Lorraine Shaw, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

'This book is a little gem! For anyone interested in the English Language and with a concern for proper usage, this book is a delight - a must!' - Mr Francis J. Dempsey, Galway - Mayo Institute of Technology, Ireland

Editorial Reviews

'Excellent, valuable text.' - Lorraine Shaw, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

'This book is a little gem! For anyone interested in the English Language and with a concern for proper usage, this book is a delight - a must!' - Mr Francis J. Dempsey, Galway - Mayo Institute of Technology, Ireland

From the Publisher