This page intentionally left blank Brief Contents Preface for Instructors v Why Use This Book? — for Students xiii How to Use This Book xv Grammar without Tears 1 Unit One Understanding the Basic Sentence 18 Lesson 1 Fragments 20 Lesson 2 Run-ons: Fused Sentences ma Splices 31 Unit Two Making Subjects and Verbs Agree 43 Lesson 3 Nearest-Noun Agreement Errors 45 Lesson 4 Agreement with There is and There was 53 Lesson 5 Agreement pound Subjects 60 Unit Three Using Correct Verb Tenses 68 Lesson 6 Present, Past, and Tense Shifting 69 Lesson 7 The Past and the Perfect Tenses 77 Unit Four Understanding Pronouns 87 Lesson 8 Pronoun Agreement 89 Lesson 9 Vague Pronouns: This, That, and It 98 Lesson 10 Choosing the Correct Pronoun Form 107 Lesson 11 Who, Whom, and That 116 Lesson 12 Eliminating Sexist Pronouns 125 Unit Five mas Correctly 135 Lesson mas with And, But, Or, and Other Coordinating Conjunctions 138 Lesson 14 Commas with Transitional Terms 147 Lesson 15 Commas with Adverb Clauses 156 Lesson 16 Commas with Introductory Elements 164 Lesson 17 Commas with Adjective Clauses 172 Lesson 18 Commas with Appositives 181 Lesson 19 mas 190 Unit Six Using Apostrophes Correctly 202 Lesson 20 Apostrophes in Contractions 203 Lesson 21 Apostrophes Showing Possession 210 Lesson 22 Unnecessary Apostrophes 219 1 10/3/11 4:49 PM Unit Seven Using Other Punctuation and Capitalizing Words 229 Lesson 23 Quotation Marks with Other Punctuation 231 Lesson 24 Semicolons 238 Lesson 25 Colons 246 Lesson 26 Capitalization 254 Unit Eight Writing Clear Sentences 265 Lesson 27 Parallelism 267 Lesson 28 Passive Voice 275 Lesson 29 Dangling Modifiers 282 Unit Nine ESL Choosing the Right Article 293 Lesson 30 Incorrect Plurals and Indefinite Articles with Noncount Nouns 296 Lesson 31 Using A/An, Some, and The 303 Lesson 32 Making Genera