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For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control Number is available from the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-9932-3 ISBN-10: 0-7645-9932-1 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1B/SQ/QU/QW/IN 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page iv About the Author Geraldine Woods began her education when teachers still supplied ink wells to their stu- dents. She credits her 35-year career as an English teacher to a set of ultra-strict nuns armed with thick grammar books. She lives in New York City, where with great difficulty she refrains from correcting signs containing messages such as “Bagel’s for sale.” She is the author of more than 40 books, including English Grammar For Dummies, Research Papers For Dummies, College Admission Essays For Dummies, and The SAT I Reasoning Test For Dummies. 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page v 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page vi Dedication For the students who labor (and occasionally smile) in the grammar portion of my English classes. Author’s Acknowledgments I owe thanks to my colleagues at the Horace Mann School, who are always willing to discuss the finer points of grammar. I appreciate the work of Kristin DeMint, Sarah Faulkner, and Neil Johnson, editors whose attention and intelligence guided my writing. I also appreciate the efforts of Lisa Queen, my agent, and of Roxanne Cerda and Kathy Cox, Wiley acquisi- tions editors. 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page vii Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Project Editor: Kristin DeMint Acquisitions Editor: Kathleen M. Cox Copy Editors: Sarah Faulkner, E. Neil Johnson Editorial Program Coordinator: Hanna K. Scott Technical Editor: Sue Williams, PhD Senior Editorial Manager: Jennifer Ehrlich Editorial Assistant: Nadine Bell Cover Photos: © Getty Images Cartoons: Rich Tennant ( www.the5thwave.com) Composition Services Project Coordinator: Adrienne Martinez Layout and Graphics: Denny Hager, Stephanie D. Jumper, Lynsey Osborn, Melanee Prendergast, Heather Ryan Proofreaders: Leeann Harney, Jessica Kramer, Henry Lazarek, Joe Niesen, Dwight Ramsey Indexer: Joan Griffitts Special Help Michelle Hacker Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page viii Contents at a Glance Introduction 1 Part I: Laying Out the Concrete Slab: Grammar Basics 7 Chapter 1: Placing the Proper Verb in the Proper Place 9 Chapter 2: Matchmaker, Make Me a Match: Pairing Subjects and Verbs Correctly 23 Chapter 3: Who Is She, and What Is It? The Lowdown on Pronouns 35 Chapter 4: Finishing What You Start: Writing Complete Sentences 49 Part II: Mastering Mechanics 65 Chapter 5: Exercising Comma Sense 67 Chapter 6: Made You Look! Punctuation Marks That Demand Attention 81 Chapter 7: One Small Mark, a Whole New Meaning: Apostrophes 91 Chapter 8: “Let Me Speak!“ Quotation Marks 101 Chapter 9: Hitting the Big Time: Capital Letters 113 Part III: The Pickier Points of Correct Verb and Pronoun Use 125 Chapter 10: The Case of It (And Other Pronouns) 127 Chapter 11: Choosing the Best Pronoun for a Tricky Sentence 141 Chapter 12: Traveling in Time: Tricky Verb-Tense Situations 155 Chapter 13: Are You and Your Verbs in the Right Mood? 167 Part IV: All You Need to Know about Descriptions and Comparisons 177 Chapter 14: Writing Good or Well: Adjectives and Adverbs 179 Chapter 15: Going on Location: Placing Descriptions Correctly 189 Chapter 16: For Better or Worse: Forming Comparisons 205 Chapter 17: Apples and Oranges: Improper Comparisons 215 Part V: Writing with Style 227 Chapter 18: Practicing Parallel Structure 229 Chapter 19: Spicing Up and Trimming Down Your Sentences 243 Chapter 20: Steering Clear of Tricky Word Traps 255 Part VI: The Part of Tens 267 Chapter 21: Ten Overcorrections 269 Chapter 22: Ten Errors to Avoid at All Cost 273 Appendix: Grabbing Grammar Goofs 277 Index 293 02_599321 ftoc.qxp 4/3/06 11:10 PM Page ix . Sentences 24 3 Chapter 20 : Steering Clear of Tricky Word Traps 25 5 Part VI: The Part of Tens 26 7 Chapter 21 : Ten Overcorrections 26 9 Chapter 22 : Ten Errors to Avoid at All Cost 27 3 Appendix: Grabbing Grammar. or Worse: Forming Comparisons 20 5 Chapter 17: Apples and Oranges: Improper Comparisons 21 5 Part V: Writing with Style 22 7 Chapter 18: Practicing Parallel Structure 22 9 Chapter 19: Spicing Up and. please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-7 62- 2974, outside the U.S. at 317-5 72- 3993, or fax 317-5 72- 40 02. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. Wiley