Understanding English Grammar

We all remember little bits of grammar throughout grade school and middle school, but by the time we get to college some of the rules seem to slip from our minds.

There are books and workbooks to help us remember those long and confusing rules and help make our writing look its best. College papers can’t have too many grammatical errors within them. Even the simplest of rules can help improve any paper; that’s why every college student should have a good grammar handbook among their textbooks to help make those papers look college-level.

“Understanding English Grammar” by Martha Kolln and Robert Funk is a wonderful handbook. Many times it comes accompanied with a workbook to help the student understand each rule better. The book goes into great detail about each rule; it starts off with the simplest of noun, verbs, and ends with the most complex ideas like rhetorical grammar. The language in this book is easy to understand and read. It breaks all the rules and ideas down to make things easier. The grammar jargon used in the book is explained early on and carried throughout the book.

Before each chapter, the book gives a preview of what will be discussed so the reader can prepare for what’s coming. Throughout the chapters, there are examples and exercises to do to help enhance the reader’s understanding of the rules; the workbook also has exercises and extra tips to remember the rules.</p?

The information you learn in one chapter is carried on to the next; it’s not dropped as the book goes on like some other handbooks. When the text comes to the extra hard concepts, the authors put more emphasis on it, using more than one chapter and more examples. There is also an appendix at the end of the book for added explanations, along with answers to the exercises.

This text is used in most college grammar courses because it is among the best texts on English grammar. It discusses many things that aren’t normally taught in primary schools anymore, things most college students should know by the time they get there.

This book is in its 7th or 8th edition and gets updated regularly. It’s very handy to have in your dorm room especially for literature majors who have many papers to write and sometimes even edit. “Understanding English Grammar” is a textbook that can be just as handy in the classroom as it is outside it. I still use it today, after I’ve graduated college.