Improve Your Grammar

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. Mark Harrison has been an ELT author for over twenty years. He has written a range of books, mainly in the areas of grammar and testing.

‘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.’

• IntroductionHow to use this bookKEY TERMSUnit 1: Parts of speechUnit 2: Parts of a sentenceKEY GRAMMARUnit 3: Singular or plural subjects and verbsUnit 4: Correct tense formationUnit 5: Using more than one verb tenseUnit 6: Modal verbsUnit 7: Using the passiveUnit 8: Direct and indirect questionsUnit 9: Conditionals (If...)Unit 10: Using adverbsUnit 11: EmphasisingUnit 12: Negative words and phrasesUnit 13: Gerunds and infinitivesUnit 14: Articles: a/an, theUnit 15: Relative clauses: who, which, that, etc.Unit 16: Comparing and contrastingUnit 17: Describing similarities and differencesUnit 18: Using noun phrasesKEY PUNCTUATIONUnit 19: Commas (1): correct usesUnit 20: Commas (2): incorrect usesUnit 21: Colons and semicolonsUnit 22: Hyphens, dashes and bracketsUnit 23: ApostrophesUnit 24: Inverted commasUnit 25: Capital lettersCONNECTIONS WITHIN SENTENCESUnit 26: Linking: contrastingUnit 27: Linking: addingUnit 28: Linking: causesUnit 29: Linking: resultsUnit 30: SignpostingUnit 31: Using pronouns correctlyUnit 32: Avoiding repetition of wordsPRODUCING GOOD SENTENCESUnit 33: Parallel structuresUnit 34: ParticiplesUnit 35: Incomplete sentencesUnit 36: Avoiding long and disorganised sentencesUnit 37: Avoiding too many short sentencesUnit 38: Building successful long sentencesFEATURES OF WRITINGUnit 39: Hedging (1); with verbs and adverbsUnit 40: Hedging (2): with adjectives and phrasesUnit 41: Giving a definitionUnit 42: Introducing an exampleUnit 43: CitingUnit 44: ParaphrasingUnit 45: Incorporating dataUnit 46: Formal language (1)Unit 47: Formal language (2)Unit 48: The language of argumentUSING THE RIGHT WORDSUnit 49: The language of critiqueUnit 50: Using prepositions (1)Unit 51: Using prepositions (2)Unit 52: Creating longer wordsUnit 53: Using single words for impactUnit 54: Using phrasal verbsUnit 55: Collocations (1)Unit 56: Collocations (2)Unit 57: Commonly misused wordsUnit 58: Commonly confused words: homonymsUnit 59: Key spelling rulesUnit 60: Common spelling mistakesUnit 61: Writing an email to your tutorUnit 62: Covering letters and CVsKeyIndex