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Impression number 10 9 8 7 6 5 Year 2014 2013 2012 Scanned by Onyx2000 Acknowledgements The author and publishers are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copyright material in this book: Malcolm Bradbury: one extract (p. I 53) from Who Do You Think You Are? reproduced by permission of the author and Martin Seeker and Warburg Ltd; Glenda Cooper and the Independent: one extract (p. I76) from the article 'ldolising rock stars can be bad for your health' of 4th April I997; William Golding: one extract (p. I6I) from Lord of the Flies reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd, London, and also reprinted by permission of the Putman Publishing Group, New York.
Copyright© I954 by William Gerald Golding, renewed I982; Ernest Hemingway: one extract (p. I6o) from A Farewell to Arms, copyright I929 Charles Scribner's Sons' copyright renewed© I957, reprinted with permission of Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, and also reprinted with permission of Jonathan Cape Ltd, London, and the Executors of the Ernest Hemingway Estate; Simon Hoggart: one extract (p. I52) from On the House reproduced by permission of the author and Robson Books Ltd; Laurie Lee: one extract (p. I 59) from Cider with Rosie reproduced by permission of the author and The Hogarth Press; Thomas Mann: one extract (p.
I64) from Death in Venice reproduced by permission of the author and Martin Seeker and Warburg Ltd, London, and also reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, New York, from Death in Venice and Seven Other Stories, translated by H. Lowe-Porter; Angela Neustatter and The Guardian: one extract (p. I 79) from the article 'Mum, I hardly missed you'; Suzanne Moore and the Independent: one extract (p.
I77) from the article 'Too many 'ologists make you boring' of 4th April I997; William Sansom: one extract (p. I74) from Christmas© I968 by William Sansom; Dylan Thomas: two extracts (pp. I49, I 5o) from A Prospect of the Sea reproduced by permission of the author and Dent; James Vance Marshall: one extract (p. I62) from Walkabout Acknowledgements III ©James Vance Marshall 1969 (first published as The Children by Michael Joseph, r 9 59) reprinted by permission of Penguin Books Ltd; John Wain: one extract (p.
142) from Samuel Johnson reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London, on behalf of the estate of John Wain. Copyright John Wain 1974; Herbert Wendt: one extract (p. 134) from The Road to Man reprinted by permission of The Lutterworth Press; P. Wodehouse: one extract (p.
r5o) from Right Ho, ]eeves reproduced by permission of the executors of the estate of Lady Wodehouse, and also reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agents, Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc, 845 Third Avenue, New York, NY roo22. Every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge ownership of copyright. The publishers will be glad to make suitable arrangements with any copyright holders whom it has not been possible to contact. Credits Front cover: © Philip Date - Fotolia.com Back cover: © Jakub Semeniuk/iStockphoto.com, © Royalty- Free/Corbis, © agencyby/iStockphoto.com, © Andy Cook/ iStockphoto.com, © Christopher Ewing/iStockphoto.com, © zebicho - Fotolia.com, © Geoffrey HolmanliStockphoto.com, © PhotodisdGetty Images,© James C.com, © Mohamed Saber - Fotolia.com IV Contents Only got a minute? viii Only got five minutes? X Part one: Words and sentences 1 English today 3 Standard English 3 English in the world 4 Modern trends 6 English idioms 7 Colloquial language 9 Accent 10 Who, what and why? 11 2 How words work 14 Nouns 15 Pronouns 16 Adjectives 17 Verbs 18 Adverbs 19 Prepositions 20 Conjunctions 21 Interjections or exclamations 22 Words with more than one function 23 3 Sentence structure 25 Basic units of language 25 Subject 26 Object 27 Complement 28 Agreement of subject and verb 29 Verbs and tenses 30 Phrases 33 Clauses 34 Contents V 4 Punctuation (1) 37 Full stop (.) 37 Question mark (?) 39 Exclamation mark(!) 40 Comma(,) 41 Hyphen (1) 45 Apostrophe 47 Capital letters 49 5 Punctuation (2) 53 Colon(:) 53 Semicolon (;) 55 Hyphen (2) 56 Dashes 58 Paired brackets 59 Quotation marks 60 6 Help with spelling 64 Doubling letters 64 Doubling the l 65 When to omit the final-e 66 ei or ie? 67 Changing y to i 68 -ise or -ize? 68 Miscellaneous 69 The formation of plurals 69 list of words commonly misspelt 71 7 Words that get confused 75 8 Common errors (1) alphabetical 92 9 Common errors (2) 101 Ambiguity in the use of participles 101 Ambiguity caused by position of words 102 Split infinitive 102 Should or would? 103 Negatives 104 The subjunctive 105 Part two: Using the language 10 Choosing the right word 111 Words to avoid 112 Words to choose with care 119 VI 11 Writing for a purpose 126 Writing to inform 126 Writing to persuade 130 journalism and the mass media 133 Writing to inform and persuade 134 Imaginative writing- descriptive and narrative 137 Biography- character drawing 141 12 A writer's tools 146 Simile 146 Metaphor 148 Other techniques 150 13 Creative writing 158 The reader 158 Making a word picture 159 Telling a story 160 Describing a person 164 Discussing a topic 166 Reflective writing 169 Essay writing 169 Some writing hints 170 14 Summaries and comprehension 172 Making a summary 172 Comprehension 179 15 Letter writing 186 Official and business letters 186 Personal letters 192 Email language 192 Formal invitations 193 job applications 194 16 Report writing 196 Preparation 196 A standard report 197 Longer reports 198 Report layout 199 Agendas and minutes 201 Appendix 1: Irregular verbs 205 Appendix 2: -ible or -able? 211 Contents VII minute? ilt around understanding the central parts of speech: the noun verb.
If we go back to the origins of speech, the first necessities are to identify people, animals or things (nouns) and say what they are doing or suffering (verb). If we take such imaginary first statements as 'We eat food' or 'Hunters kill animals', 'eat' and 'kill' are verbs, the other words are nouns, except for 'we'. 'We' is an example of how verbs and nouns can be central to understanding other parts of speech. It is an example of a pronoun, a word used instead of a noun.
When we add in words that tell us more about nouns (adjectives) and words that tell us more about verbs (adverbs), we have five of the basic parts of speech. Other parts of speech (prepositions and conjunctions) are concerned with linking together shorter units of words into a sentence - and, when we look at sentences, we again realise that nouns and VIII verbs are primary. A sentence must have a finite verb, one that relates to a period of time (past, present or future) and it must have a subject (a noun or noun equivalent) unless it's a command. A sentence may contain much more, but these elements are the only essential ones.
IX got five minutes? illogical and inconsistent language. What a language where 'tough' rhymes with 'snuff', but not with 'though' or 'through'? Or one which normally forms the past tense and participle by adding '-ed' or '-t', but produces such oddities as 'is', 'was' and 'been', and 'go', 'went' and 'gone'? Or one which makes a habit of creating perplexing homophones (words sounding the same) such as 'there', 'their' and 'they're' and ignoring spelling rules at every opportunity? However, it's important to remember that spelling is only a tool; it is not the most essential feature of correct English. Good spelling is highly desirable, but, with spellcheck facilities, it is possible to write good English whilst struggling with spelling. It is not possible to write good English without grasping the basics of sentence construction, English idioms and the subtleties of register.
Sentences begin in simplicity. 'The sun shone' is a simple subject- finite verb construct. We can add many extras and still preserve the simple sentence format: 'In the month of July, on the Fylde coast more famous for its blustery winds and sudden showers, the sun shone on 24 days out of 3 r.' The essential element of a sentence is a finite verb, so, when we wish to add more of those, we have to turn the sentence into something more complicated. Such sentences are joined together by conjunctions: 'The sun shone and the wind dropped'.
Here the two halves are equal, but sometimes you will wish to make one part the main clause, the other a subordinate clause. In this case you use a subordinating conjunction ('as', 'when', 'where', 'if' and dozens of others): 'When the sun came out, the wind dropped'. Many of the errors committed by writers of English are errors of detail. For instance, one of the major difficulties for speakers and writers of English as a foreign language is with the choice X of prepositions.
