Understanding ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Since the study of writing is closely linked to the study of grammar, the book Understanding English Grammar should be a good supplemental text in any writing class.

In grade school, students acquire some understanding of grammatical terms. Most study parts of speech and classification of sentences-such as simple, compound, complex and compound-complex. Many also learn to recognize declarative, interrogative and exclamatory sentences. In junior high, they often study clauses-adverb, adjective, etc.-and may study phrases: such as prepositional and verbal-infinitive, participle and gerund.

In senior high, students also often diagram sentences. While diagramming is helpful in understanding grammatical relationships, it often seems, to the student, to fragment the sentence and serves more to confuse that to enlighten. Understanding English Grammar uses a new approach that clearly explains how every word or word group relates to all elements in every sentence. Understanding the grammar of sentences can help students become better readers and writers.