Grammar to Go : How It Works and How to Use It

This brief text offers basic coverage of grammar and punctuation through a unique focus on sentence diagramming that enables students to visualize and understand how words connect. Grammar to Go can serve as a basal text or as a supplement for courses with an emphasis on learning basic grammar and punctuation skills.

In response to reviewer feedback, the Second Edition offers a wide range of new material to help students hone their skills?including more coverage of word choices, new writing exercises in every chapter, answers in the back for selected exercises, updated sample sentences that make them more relevant to students level of grammar sophistication, and a guide to diagramming in the Instructor's Manual.

• Process approach: Unlike a handbook, this book helps students understand how language works, emphasizing understanding over memorization. As they master the skills of each level of grammar, the concepts and patterns become automatic. Students move incrementally from the simplest sentence patterns to more complex grammatical topics.
• Teaches the diagram frame: The authors teach students how to "see" the various parts of the sentence through the use of diagramming. Students begin to understand words based on their position and function on the diagram frame, enabling them to understand how words relate and connect.
• Hones critical thinking skills: The text involves students in the process of learning the rules, allowing them to discover them by reasoning and evaluating as they construct sentences within particular patterns.
• Incorporates memorization in context: Instead of having students memorize a long list at once?parts of speech for example?students memorize what they need at appropriate times and bring it into the process.
• Uses student-friendly layout: The text separates "quick tips," parts of speech, and common misunderstandings into easy-to-read boxes for quick reference throughout the text.
• Offers simple explanations at a college level: The friendly and engaging language avoids unnecessarily foreboding vocabulary and terminology while not "dumbing down" the content.
• Provides ample practice: Each new concept is reinforced with examples and exercises following the explanations. Additional review and practice appear at the end of each chapter.

Barbara Goldstein, Professor of English, has taught English composition and English grammar at Hillsborough Community College for more than 20 years. After serving as Dean of the Associate in Arts program at the Dale Mabry campus for four years, Dr. Goldstein returned to her first love, the classroom. A recipient of the Florida Association of Community College's Curriculum Commission Exemplary Practice award, she was the first director of the award-winning HCC Writing Center and currently serves as the center's faculty advisor.

Jack Waugh currently teaches World Humanities, Asian Humanities, and Honors World Humanities at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida. He serves as Program Manager for the Humanities Department. His keen interest in English grammar began when he learned diagramming from a college professor who required her students to diagram thirty sentences per class period for an entire semester. Dr. Waugh taught English for 20 years and still enjoys teaching grammar and writing classes now. One of his chief joys in teaching is seeing students actually understand the rudiments of English grammar.

Except for three years of teaching high school English in Atlanta, Karen Linsky has spent her entire teaching career at Hillsborough Community College. She has taught a wide variety of courses, including Prep Writing, English Composition, American Literature, Linguistics, College Study Skills, and Leadership Development. For the past ten years, she has been very involved in the HCC Honors Institute, developing courses, teaching numerous classes, participating in conferences and extra-curricular activities, and traveling internationally with students. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Emory University, Professor Linsky received a NISOD Excellence Award from the University of Texas at Austin for her work in establishing the HCC Writing Center; she is also a certified Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Instructor.