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A STEP-BY-STEP VISUAL GUIDE TO
GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION, AND WRITING
HELP YOUR KIDS WITH
Grammar
Punctuation
Spelling
Communication skills
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LONDON, NEW YORK, MELBOURNE,
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LINDA B. GAMBRELL is Distinguished Professor of Education at Clemson University.
She is past president of the International Reading Association (IRA), Literacy Research
Association, and the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers. In 2004, she
was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame. She is a former classroom teacher and
reading specialist. Linda has written books on reading instruction and published articles
in major literacy journals, including Reading Research Quarterly, the Reading Teacher,
and the Journal of Educational Research.
SUSAN ROWAN is a former Head of English and Leading English and Literacy Adviser for a
London borough. She has a Certificate in Education (Bishop Otter College of Education),
a BA in English and History (Macquarie University, Australia), and an MBA—Education
(University of Nottingham). With more than twenty-five years of teaching experience,
Susan now works as an independent English and Literacy consultant supporting schools
in London and southeast England.
DR. STEWART SAVARD is an eLibrarian in the Comox Valley of British Columbia. He has
written a number of papers on the development of school libraries, the use of online and
paper resources, and strategies for working with students to prevent plagiarism. Stewart
also has extensive experience as a classroom and Learning Assistance teacher. He has
worked on almost twenty books.
Foreword
The ability to speak and write well is essential for good communication in everyday
life and in school. Our messages—whether spoken or written—need to be clear and
easy for others to understand. While the importance of proper speaking and writing
skills is often lost in our world of texting, e-mailing, and instant messaging, these
skills are very important. Good speaking and writing skills help get a message across
clearly and accurately, and give it credibility. Writing that is riddled with errors of
grammar, punctuation, and spelling will reflect poorly on the writer, even if he or
she is very knowledgeable about a topic. A good command of the English language
and basic communication skills can lead to better grades in school and give a
student a clear advantage over someone who is less skilled in language usage.
The rules of grammar, punctuation, and spelling, and the skills needed to
communicate effectively can be bewildering. That’s why Help Your Kids with
Language Arts is an essential resource. This book presents examples that help to
make the rules of grammar, punctuation, spelling, and communication clear and
accessible. Wondering whether to say “you and me” or “you and I”? This book
will provide an easy-to-understand explanation.
This book sets out to explain in simple terms the rules of clear and effective
speaking and writing. It is divided into four chapters that focus on the key English
language arts topics: grammar, punctuation, spelling, and communication skills.
The information within each chapter is designed to make these English language
arts interesting and enjoyable to learn. Engaging examples supported by step-by-
step, simple-to-follow explanations will make even the most confusing concepts
easy to grasp. This book will equip parents with the information they need to
help students develop the skills required to communicate effectively in both
speaking and writing.
As a former teacher, I am very aware of the importance of good communication
skills. Success in school and in life is enhanced by these skills. Help Your Kids
with Language Arts is an essential resource because throughout life we refine
our use of the English language—always striving for clear and accurate
communication with others.
LINDA B. GAMBRELL
abbreviations, accents, acronyms, adjectives, adverbs,
alliteration, apostrophes, Arabic numerals, articles,
asterisks, auxiliary verbs, brackets, bullet points, capital
letters, clauses, collective nouns, colloquialisms, colons,
commands, commas, common nouns, compound sentences,
compound words, conditional sentences, conjunctions,
consonants, dangling participles, dashes, dialects, direct
speech, ellipses, exclamations, exaggeration, figures of
speech, first person, fragments, gender, homographs,
homonyms, homophones, hyperbole, hyphens, idioms,
indefinite pronouns, indicative mood, indirect questions,
infinitives, interjections, irregular verbs, italics, jargon,
linking verbs, main clauses, misplaced modifiers, moods,
morphemes, negatives, noun phrases, nouns, numbers,
objects, ordinal numbers, parentheses, participles,
personal pronouns, phonetics, phrasal verbs, phrases,
pitch, plural nouns, possessive determiners, prefixes,
prepositional phrases, present participles, pronouns,
proper nouns, puns, punctuation, question marks,
questions, quotations, relative pronouns, reported
speech, rhetorical questions, Roman numerals, roots,
sentences, silent letters, singular, slang, subject,
subordinate clauses, suffixes, syllables, tautology,
tenses, third person, tone, verbs, voices, vowels
CONTENTS
FOREWORD 6 Negatives 80
WHY LEARN THE RULES? 10 Relative clauses 82
SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE 12 Idioms, analogies, and figures of speech 84
ENGLISH AROUND THE WORLD 14 Colloquialisms and slang 86
Direct and indirect speech 88
1
GRAMMAR
2
PUNCTUATION
The purpose of grammar 18
Parts of speech 20
Nouns 22 What is punctuation? 92
Plurals 24 Periods and ellipses 94
Adjectives 26 Commas 96
Comparatives and superlatives 28 Other uses of commas 98
Articles 30 Semicolons 100
Determiners 32 Colons 102
Pronouns 34 Apostrophes 104
Number and gender 36 Hyphens 106
Verbs 38 Quotation marks 108
Adverbs 40 Question marks 110
Simple tenses 42 Exclamation points 112
Perfect and continuous tenses 44 Parentheses and dashes 114
Participles 46 Bullet points 116
Auxiliary verbs 48 Numbers, dates, and time 118
Irregular verbs 50 Other punctuation 120
Verb agreement 52 Italics 122
Voices and moods 54
Phrasal verbs 56
3
Conjunctions 58 SPELLING
Prepositions 60
Interjections 62
Phrases 64 Why learn to spell? 126
Clauses 66 Alphabetical order 128
Sentences 68 Vowel sounds 130
Compound sentences 70 Consonant sounds 132
Complex sentences 72 Syllables 134
Using clauses correctly 74 Morphemes 136
Managing modifiers 76 Understanding English irregularities 138
Commonly misused words 78 Roots 140
