Grammar and style at your fingertips

Grammar and style at your fingertips

A member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Lara M. Robbins GRAMMAR & STLYE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS ii ALPHA BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore, Auckland 1311, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Copyright © 2007 by Lara M. Robbins All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of information contained herein. For information, address Alpha Books, 800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46240. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2006920583 Note: This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering professional services in the book. If the reader requires personal assistance or advice, a competent professional should be consulted. The author and publisher specifically disclaim any responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book. Publisher: Marie Butler-Knight Editorial Director: Mike Sanders Managing Editor: Billy Fields Executive Editor: Randy Ladenheim-Gil Senior Development Editor: Christy Wagner Production Editor: Megan Douglass Copy Editor: Krista Hansing Cover/Book Designer: Kurt Owens Indexer: Johnna Vanhoose Dinse Layout: Chad Dressler Proofreader: Aaron Black ISBN: 1-4295-5007-4 electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No iii CONTENTS Dedicated to the ones I love … Merry and Jerry Bush, for their constant love and support, and a place to call Home in Missouri. Gail and Phil Rector, for always counting me as family. Christie and Dan Brinkman, for our enduring friendship as we continue to grow up together, and for a loving place to escape to in Hawaii. Mahalo. Renee and David Harney, for two of the world’s three greatest nieces: Madeline and Annabelle. And Chelsea Peterson, for being the first of the world’s greatest nieces! iv v CONTENTS Chapter 1 Nouns and Pronouns 1 1.1 Nouns 2 1.2 Compounds 8 1.3 Pronouns .11 1.4 Noun and Pronoun Properties 17 Chapter 2 Verbs .21 2.1 Verbs 22 2.2 Verb Forms .31 2.3 Verb Properties 34 2.4 Subject and Verb Agreement .42 Chapter 3 Modifiers 45 3.1 Adjectives 46 3.2 Adverbs 50 3.3 Modifiers: Regular, Dangling, and Misplaced .52 Chapter 4 Prepositions and Conjunctions 55 4.1 Prepositions .56 4.2 Prepositional Phrases .59 4.3 Conjunctions 61 Chapter 5 Sentence Structure .67 5.1 Basic Sentence Structure 68 5.2 Types of Sentences .71 5.3 Parallelism 80 5.4 Figures of Speech .82 5.5 Stylistic Devices .88 Chapter 6 Punctuation 93 6.1 Use of Punctuation .94 6.2 Periods .95 6.3 Commas 98 6.4 Question and Exclamation Marks 105 6.5 Ellipses 106 6.6 Colons and Semicolons .107 6.7 Quotation Marks 109 6.8 Apostrophes .111 vi GRAMMAR & STYLE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS 6.9 Hyphens, Dashes, and Slashes .113 6.10 Parentheses and Brackets .117 Chapter 7 Plurals and Possessives .119 7.1 Plurals 120 7.2 Possessives .126 Chapter 8 Capitalization 133 8.1 Personal Names and Titles 134 8.2 Proper Nouns 141 Chapter 9 Special Type Treatment 147 9.1 Italics .148 9.2 Boldface .159 9.3 Small Capitals 160 9.4 Serif versus Sans Serif 162 9.5 Underlining 164 Chapter 10 Spelling and Abbreviations 165 10.1 Spelling .166 10.2 Word Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181 10.3 Abbreviations 186 Chapter 11 Numbers, Signs, and Symbols 199 11.1 Numbers 200 11.2 Signs and Symbols .207 Chapter 12 Trademarks, Copyrights, Permissions, and Fair Use .211 12.1 Trademarks 212 12.2 Copyright Information .216 12.3 Permissions 221 Chapter 13 Citation 227 13.1 Source Citation .228 Chapter 14 Documentation and Reference .237 14.1 Footnotes 238 14.2 Endnotes 242 14.3 Glossaries 245 14.4 Bibliographies 246 14.5 Indexes .252 vii CONTENTS Appendix A Words to Go Glossary .261 Appendix B Reference and Resource Bibliography 275 Index 281 viii . . . . INTRODUCTION xii GRAMMAR & STYLE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Special Thanks to the Technical Editor Grammar and Style at Your Fingertips was reviewed. in the book that relate directly to what’s discussed in the text or provide more information on a related topic. GRAMMAR & STYLE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS