When Bad Grammar Happens to Good People by Ann Batko, ISBN-13: 978-1564147226

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When Bad Grammar Happens to Good People by Ann Batko, ISBN-13: 978-1564147226

[PDF eBook eTextbook]

• Publisher: ‎ Weiser; First Edition (May 15, 2004)
• Language: ‎ English
• 256 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎ 1564147223
• ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1564147226

Ever stumble when choosing between who and whom, affect and effect, “lay” and “lie”?

Are you worried that how you speak or write is holding you back at work? Do you fear you’re making frequent conversational errors, but just aren’t sure what’s correct? How you use language tells people a good deal about who you are, how you think, and how you communicate. Making simple errors in written and spoken English can make you seem less sophisticated, even less intelligent, than you really are. And that can affect (not effect) your relationships, your friendships, and even your career.

This comprehensive, easy-to-use reference is a program designed to help you identify and correct the most common errors in written and spoken English.

After a short and simple review of some basic principles, When Bad Grammar Happens to Good People is organized in the most useful way possible–by error type, such as Problem Pronouns or Mixing up Words that Sound the Same. You choose how to work your way through, either sequentially or in the order most relevant to you. Each unit contains tests at the end to help you reinforce what you’ve learned. Best of all, the information is presented in a clear, lively, and conversational style–this is not your eighth-grade grammar textbook!

Table of Contents:

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Author’s Note

Foreword

How Do We Learn to Speak Correctly?

Pretest

Grammar Review

CHAPTER 1 – Perplexing Pronouns

A Lesson on Pronoun Cases

Subjective and Objective Cases

Objective and Possessive Cases

Relative Pronouns: “Which,” “That,” and “Who/Whom”

Intensive or Reflexive Pronouns—What There for and Where NOT to Put Them

CHAPTER 2 – Vexing Verbs

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

A Lesson on Verb Tenses

Tricky Verb Tenses

The Subjunctive Mood

CHAPTER 3 – Ambiguous Agreements

Agreement With Compound Subjects

Agreement With Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite Pronouns and Personal Pronouns

CHAPTER 4 – Mangled Modifiers

Adjectives vs. Adverbs

Comparatives vs. Superlatives

Distance/Number/Quantity Modifiers

Absolute Modifiers

Imprecise and Made-up Modifiers

CHAPTER 5 – Problem Prepositions

Prepositions Expressing Fine Shades of Meaning

Unidiomatic and Superfluous Prepositions

CHAPTER 6 – Confused Connections

Boolcend Expressions

Imprecise, Pretentious, or Needless Connectors

CHAPTER 7 – Puzzling Plurals

76. Media

77.Data

78. Alumni

79. Criteria

80. Phenomena

81. Memoranda

CHAPTER 8 – Mixing up Words That Sound the Same

82. Accept vs. Except

83. Advice vs. Advise

84. Affect vs. Effect

85. Amoral vs. Immoral

86. Averse vs. Adverse

87. Beside vs. Besides

88. Biannually vs. Biennially

89. Climatic vs. Climactic

90. Could of vs. Could have

91. Elude vs. Allude

92. Imminent vs. Eminent

93. Ingenious vs. Ingenuous

94. Jibe vs. Jive

95. Tack vs. Tact

96. Tortuous vs. Torturous

CHAPTER 9 – Mixing up Words That Look the Same

97. Adapt vs. Adopt

98. Allusion vs. Illusion vs. Delusion

99. Assignment vs. Assignation

100. Childlike vs. Childish

101. Continual vs. Continuous

102. Creditable vs. Credible vs. Credulous

103. Incredible vs. Incredulous

104. Elegy vs. Eulogy

105. Epitaph vs. Epithet

106. Flaunt vs. Flout

107. Luxurious vs. Luxuriant

108. Morale vs. Moral

109. Periodic vs. Periodical

110. Persecute vs. Prosecute

111. Proceed vs. Precede

112. Respectful vs. Respective

113. Sensuous vs. Sensual

114. Simple vs. Simplistic

115. Uninterested vs. Disinterested

CHAPTER 10 – Mixing up Words Whose Meanings Are Related

116. Annoy vs. Irritate vs. Aggravate

117. Burglary vs. Robbery

118. Can vs. May

119. Compose vs. Comprise

120. Convince vs. Persuade

121. Eager vs. Anxious

122. Explicit vs. Implicit

123. Figuratively vs. Literally vs. Virtually

124. Imply vs. Infer

125. Kind of/Sort of vs. Rather

126. Let vs. Leave

127. Like vs. As/As If

128. Likely vs. Apt vs. Liable

129. Percent vs. Percentage

130. Quote vs. Quotation

131. Semiannually vs. Semimonthly vs. Semiweekly

132. Serve vs. Service

133. Take vs. Bring

134. Use vs. Utilize

Chapter 11 – Made-up Words

135. Irregardless

136. Authored

137. Critiqued

138. Gift

139. Adding “-ize”

140. Enthuse

141. Adding “-wise”

CHAPTER 12 – Wasteful Words and Infelicities

142. A half a

143. And et cetera

144. Like

145. The field of

146. Needless to say

147. Time period

148. Party

CHAPTER 13 – Mispronounced Words

149. Air vs. Err

150. Anyways vs. Anyway

151. A ways vs. A way

152. Cent vs. Cents

153. Libary vs. Library

154. Reconize vs. Recognize

155. Stricly vs. Strictly

156. Heighth vs. Height

157. Athaletics vs. Athletics

158. Goverment vs. Government

159. Irrevelant vs. Irrelevant

160. Temperment vs. Temperament

161. Lightening vs. Lightning

162. Mischevious vs. Mischievous

163. Grevious vs. Grievous

164. Histry vs. History

165. Nucular vs. Nuclear

166. Perscription vs. Prescription

167. Prespiration vs. Perspiration

168. Disasterous vs. Disastrous

169. Accidently vs. Accidentally

170. Representive vs. Representative

171. Preform vs. Perform

172. Asterik vs. Asterisk

173. Artic vs. Arctic

174. Anartica vs. Antarctica

175. Expresso vs. Espresso

Review Tests

About the Author and Editor

Ann Batko is a business communications expert and former executive editor of Rand McNally & Company. She has trained numerous advertising, marketing, and publishing executives how to be effective writers and presenters.

Edward Rosenheim is the David B. and Clara E. Stern Professor Emeritus, in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago, where he taught for 42 years. For 20 years, he was the editor of the prestigious journal Modern Philology.

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