One Day in the Life of the English Language

Preface xi
Navigation Tips xix
Introduction
The Starting Idea: You and Your Audience 1
Preview of the Following Pages 7
December 29, 2008, as History 10
Two Disclaimers 20
On Using Sentences from the Real World 23
Formal Usage-Its Rules and Value 31
"If you don't have grammar, you don't have sense" 40
1Actants, Actions, Ongoing States: Nouns, Verbs, and the Sentences They Form
Why Learn the Parts of Speech? 45
Fundamentals 49
Fine Tuning 56
Deep Focus 71
2Words That Modify and Orient: Adjectives, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Prepositions, Articles, Interjections
The Power of Small Words Well Deployed 88
Adjectives 89
Adverbs 99
Conjunctions 114
Prepositions 123
Articles 128
Interjections 133
3Who Is He/She? Pronouns
A Whole Chapter on Pronouns? 134
Fundamentals 135
Fine Tuning 150
Deep Focus 160
4Punctuation, Part I-The Comma: Promiscuous Uses
Introduction: Punctuation Substitutes for Oral Emphases, Facial Expressions, and Body Language 167
Fundamentals 169
Fine Tuning 193
Deep Focus 200
5Punctuation, Part II-The Colon, Semicolon, and More Mysteries of Punctuation The Colon and Semicolon 207
The Apostrophe 217
The Dash 228
The Quotation Mark 232
End Punctuation and Combining Sentences 241
6Diction: Sentences as Clockwork
On the Interconnectedness of Words 254
Fundamentals 258
A Microconclusion 286
Appendix I: Fifteen Myths of Digital-Age English 293
Appendix II: Using This Book to Teach College Writing: A Microguide 301
Fifty Key Terms: A Microglossary 317
Works Cited
General Sources 329
December 29, 2008, Examples 335
Index 351