American-English: The Official Guide

When was the last time you reviewed your beliefs about writing? Took a look at the language "rules" with all their exceptions? Tried to discover your own writing style? Probably never! We all sopped up grammar rules in school as if they were manna handed down from on high. And now, as grownups, you see more clearly that those were just "ideas of rules" that you were made to learn, nothing cast in stone or made official.At last, comes an official guide to American-English - as unique as the country that uses it. No hard-and-fast rules to learn, since you are dealing with a language comprised of a variety of other languages. American-English is like no other for the simple reason it lacks a set of rules we can all agree on. So why try!What makes this book official is the use of guidelines - not rules - on which you the writer can learn your own options, make your own decisions, and choose the ones that best fit your style of writing. And that doesn't include the styles set by creators of corporate style manuals that reflect only how employees of that corporation are to write.American-English reviews the parts of speech by emphasizing the way those words function and how to choose words that readers will understand.You'll also review the strange curly cues, dots, and lines that form punctuation - to provide readers with the sound of your written voice. And finally, you'll find guidelines to put it all together, including help in learning ways to improve word usage, sentence structure, paragraph patterns, spelling, the use of numbers, and avoiding biased language (PC means "polite and courteous" here). You'll find a succinct list of Grammar Glitches and a full index to guide your special-needs search.