English Grammar Workbook For Dummies, with Online Practice, 3rd Edition

Appendix

Grabbing Grammar Goofs

How sharp are your eyes? This appendix is the grammatical equivalent of an optometrist’s chart. If you can see it with 20/20 vision, you’ll spot 30 mistakes in each of the first four exercises. Of course, after you spot the errors, your mission is to correct them. The errors may involve faulty structure or word choice, punctuation, capitalization, and anything else the English Grammar Workbook For Dummies, 3rd Edition covers.

Spotting and correcting errors prepares you for standardized writing tests. The last two exercises in this chapter go even further by mimicking a common format. If you’re preparing for one of those tortures — sorry, exams — these exercises will help. Even if you aren’t sharpening No. 2 pencils for the SAT, the ACT, or a similar challenge, you can still improve your grammar and writing style by working through exercises seven and eight.

Exercise One

Sneak a peek at the college catalogue (from a university that exists only in my mind) in Figure A-1. This course description has many faults — 30, by my count. Your count may differ slightly depending on how you group your answers. Don’t worry about numbers — your mission is to search and destroy the mistakes.

FIGURE A-1: A scary sample course description that needs some work (in more ways than one).

Exercise Two

This letter from a made-up publisher, in Figure A-2, is full ...