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, , … ; ? ( & “ ! e / * . . . ” * b / ; ? ) * k ” ; , , … ; m ” D t * & a “ ? * , , ... ; ; “ & ? * h s ! ? G an ua e HELP YOUR KIDS WITH g g L r s t , , . A ; … ! a & “ ! ” B * & . , . . , ” * j & ? ) * Q ; , … ; ? p ” n / * & y “ ? * , , ... ; ; “ & ? * ( R ! ? w . , . . , ” * j & ? ) * Q ; A STEP-BY-STEP VISUAL GUIDE TO GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION, AND WRITING HELP YOUR KIDS WITH Grammar Punctuation Spelling Communication skills – P U N C T U ATI O N LONDON, NEW YORK, MELBOURNE, MUNICH, AND DELHI Senior Project Editor Victoria Pyke Senior Designer Jim Green Project Editors Carron Brown, Camilla Gersh, Project Designers Paul Drislane, Matilda Gollon, Ashwin Khurana Hoa Luc, Mary Sandberg US Editor John Searcy Publishing Director Jonathan Metcalf Managing Editor Linda Esposito Associate Publishing Director Liz Wheeler Managing Art Editor Diane Peyton Jones Art Director Phil Ormerod Publishers Laura Buller, Andrew Macintyre Jacket Editor Manisha Majithia Preproduction Controller Adam Stoneham Jacket Designer Laura Brim Senior Producer Gemma Sharpe First American Edition, 2013 Published in the United States by DK Publishing 345 Hudson Street New York, New York 10014 13 14 15 16 17 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 001—187017—6/13 Copyright © 2013 Dorling Kindersley Limited All rights reserved Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-1-4654-0849-5 DK books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. For details, contact: DK Publishing Special Markets, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014 or [email protected]. Printed and bound by South China Printing Co. Ltd, China Discover more at www.dk.com US_004_005_Imprint.indd 4 02/06/14 10:16 AM 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