Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Where to Go from Here 3 Chapter 1: Grasping Grammar Nitty-Gritty 5 Grammar: What it is! 6 The Big Ideas of Grammar 7 Making the right word choices 7 Arranging words for optimal understanding 9 Pinpointing punctuation 10 Putting Grammar to Work in the Real World 11 Chapter 2: Making Peace between Subjects and Verbs 13 Getting Reacquainted with Verbs 14 Linking verbs: The giant equal sign 14 Action verbs: The go-getters 16 Helping verbs: The do-gooders 16 Doubling your money: Compound verbs 17 Infinitives: Verb imposters 17 Identifying Subjects 18 Getting two for the price of one: Compound subjects 19 Figuring out you-understood 19 Finding subjects when words are missing 20 Grappling with unusual word order 21 Searching for the subject in questions 21 Tossing fake subjects aside 22 Give Peace a Chance: Making Subjects and Verbs Agree 22 No mixing allowed: Singles and plurals 23 Verbs that change and verbs that don''t 23 Dealing with negative statements 25 Cutting through distractions 26 Coming to an Agreement with Difficult Subjects 27 Spotting five little pronouns that break the rules 28 Finding problems here and there 29 Meeting the ones, the things, and the bodies 29 Figuring out either and neither 30 Chapter 3: Perfecting Your Pronoun Usage 33 Playing Matchmaker with Pronouns and Nouns 33 Selecting Singular or Plural Pronouns 35 Letting your ear be your guide 36 Treating companies as singular nouns 36 Steering clear of "person" problems 37 Getting Possessive with Your Pronouns 37 Keeping Your Pronouns and Antecedents Close 38 Pairing Pronouns with Pronoun Antecedents 40 Wrestling with everybody, somebody, and no one 41 Following each and every rule 42 Examining either and neither 42 Avoiding Sexist Pronouns 43 Chapter 4: Constructing a Complete Sentence 45 Creating Complete Sentences from Complete Thoughts 46 Locating subject-verb pairs 46 Not relying on context 47 Fishing for complements 48 Banning Fragments from Formal Writing 51 Enough is Enough: Avoiding Run-ons 52 Getting your endmarks in place 52 Fixing comma splices 54 Attaching Sentences Legally 54 Employing coordinate conjunctions 54 Relying on semicolons 56 Connecting Unequal Ideas 56 Giving subordinate clauses a job 57 Finding homes for your subordinate clauses 58 Making connections with subordinate conjunctions 59 Combining Sentences with Pronouns 61 Don''t Keep Your Audience Hanging: Removing Danglers 62 Dangling participles 62 Dangling infinitives 63 Chapter 5: Drawing Parallels (Without the Lines) 65 Seeking Balance 65 Striving for Consistency 68 Matching verb tenses 68 Staying active (or passive) 69 Being true to your person 70 Using Conjunction Pairs Correctly 72 Constructing Proper Comparisons 73 Chapter 6: Adjectives, Adverbs, and Comparisons 75 Spotting Adjectives 75 Describing nouns and pronouns 76 Working hand in hand with linking verbs 76 Recognizing articles as adjectives 77 Locating adjectives 78 Hunting for Adverbs 79 Sprucing up verbs 79 Modifying adjectives and other adverbs 80 Locating adverbs 80 Sorting through Some Sticky Choices 81 Choosing between "good" and "well" 81 Do you feel "bad" or "badly"? 82 Coping with adjectives and adverbs that look the same 83 Getting Picky about Word Placement 83 Placing "even" 83 Placing "almost" and "nearly" 85 Placing "only" and "just" 85 Creating Comparisons 86 Getting the hang of regular comparisons 86 Good, better, best: Working with irregular comparisons 88 Error alert: Using words that you can''t compare 90 Confusing your reader with incomplete comparisons 91 Chapter 7: Polishing Your Punctuation 93 More Rules Than the IRS: Using Apostrophes 93 Showing possession 94 Cutting it short: Contractions 97 Quoting Correctly 98 Punctuating your quotations 98 Identifying speaker changes 102 Using quotation marks in titles 102 Making Comma Sense 103 Placing commas in a series 104 Adding information to your sentence 104 Directly addressing someone 108 Presenting addresses and dates 109 Setting off introductory words 110 Punctuating with conjunctions 111 Mastering Dashes 111 Long dashes 112 Short dashes 112 Wielding Hyphens with Ease 113 Creating compound words 113 Hyphenating numbers 114 Connecting two-word descriptions 114 Creating a Stopping Point: Colons 114 Sprucing up a business letter 115 Inserting long lists 115 Introducing long quotations 115 Chapter 8: Capitalizing Correctly 117 Covering the Basic Rules 117 Capitalizing (Or Not) References to People 118 Treating a person''s titles with care 119 Handling family relationships 120 Tackling race and ethnicity 121 Getting a Geography Lesson: Places, Directions, and More 122 Locations and languages 122 Directions and areas 123 Looking at Seasons and Times of Day 123 Getting Schooled in Education Terms 123 Wrestling with Capitals in Titles 124 Writing about Events and Eras 125 Capitalizing Abbreviations 126 Chapter 9: Choosing the Right Words 127 One Word or Two? 127 Always opting for two 128 Picking your meaning 128 Separating Possessive Pronouns from Contractions 129 Its/it''s 129 Your/you''re 130 There/their/they''re 130 Whose/who''s 130 Using Words That Seem Interchangeable but Aren''t 131 Affect versus effect 131 Between versus among 132 Continual versus continuous 132 Due to versus because of 133 Farther versus further 133 Lie versus lay 134 Rise versus raise 134 Since versus because 135 Sit versus set 135 Suppose versus supposed 135 Whether versus if 136 Who versus whom 136 A Word and a Phrase to Avoid 137 Irregardless 137 Different than 138 Chapter 10: Tackling Other Troublemakers 139 Creating Noun Plurals 139 The -ies and -ys have it 140 Gooses? Childs? Forming irregular plurals 141 Making plurals with hyphenated nouns 142 Perfecting Prepositions 142 Expressing relationships 143 Eyeing the objects of prepositional phrases 144 Identifying the objects of prepositions 145 Paying attention to prepositions 145 Are you talking to I? Matching prepositions and pronouns 146 A good part of speech to end a sentence with? 147 Deleting Double Negatives 147 Chapter 11: Improving Your Writing 149 Identifying Your Audience 149 Keeping it formal 150 Knowing when conversational English will work 150 Cutting Ties with Your Computer Grammar Checker 151 Giving Your Writing Punch with Great Verbs 152 Staying active 152 Knowing when "there is" a problem 154 Recognizing that your writing "has" issues 154 Letting your subjects do more than "say" and "walk" 155 Deleting All That''s Extra 156 Spicing Up Boring Sentences 157 The clause that refreshes 158 Verbally speaking 159 Writing for Electronic Media 160 Scoping your audience 160 Being clear and concise 161 Structuring an e-mail message 163 Proofreading before you send 164 Chapter 12: Ten Ways to Improve Your Grammar Every Day 165 Pick Up a Good Book 165 Read the Newspaper 166 Sample Some Magazines 166 Delve into Strunk and White 166 Surf the Web 167 Review Style Manuals 167 Watch High-Quality TV Shows 168 Peruse the News 168 Download Podcasts 168 Listen to Authorities 169 Index 171.