Grammar Rules! Straight Forward English

This book provides a straightforward approach to basic English grammar and how to apply that grammar to writing skills. There are 40 lessons, each with four pages featuring practice with four different skills: parts of speech, mechanics, diagramming and proofreading. In the first part of each lesson, students complete exercises such as identifying the parts of speech in sentences, choosing the correct parts of speech, and linking parts of speech with others, (i.e. - circling an adjective and then drawing an arrow to the word it describes, etc.). In the mechanics section of each lesson, students learn a rule or common error associated with the part of speech just learned. Examples of exercises include choosing the correct form of words, identifying incorrect usage of words, correcting punctuation, improving poorly written sentences, and more. The third section of each lesson focuses on diagramming. As students work through the book, they will begin by diagramming two or three word sentences and work their way up to very complicated ones. Sometimes students will have to correct the sentences before they diagram them. The final section on proofreading contains a passage that students must edit, with errors which typically correspond to topics covered in the featured lesson. At the beginning of the book the instructions tell students the number of errors in each sentence, later changing to the number of errors found in the whole passage, and by the end of the book students are expected to find all the errors without any tips. After every ten lessons in the book, there is a two-page review section. This section follows the same format as the lessons but includes content from the previous ten lessons to make sure students are retaining what they've learned. The end of the book holds a glossary of grammar terms and answer key. While the early exercises in the book are relatively simple and may be appropriate for older elementary students, later exercises are more complex - at more of a high school level. We've changed the recommended grade level to 7-12 due to some irreverent and slightly edgy content that is more appropriate for older students (slang like "barf" and other attention-getting "gross" content, humorous mentions of actresses with revealing dresses, etc.). Not reproducible. ~ Rachel S.