Discover Grammar

by David Crystal

Product Description An enthusiastic and practical approach to language learning * A riveting and valuable combination of David Crystal's language expertise and Geoff Barton's sound, practical classroom experience. * Essential reference for every student working towards GCSE and Standard Grade.

Genres: Nonfiction, Linguistics, Education

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 4, 1996

About the author

David Crystal works from his home in Holyhead, North Wales, as a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster. Born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland in 1941, he spent his early years in Holyhead. His family moved to Liverpool in 1951, and he received his secondary schooling at St Mary's College. He read English at University College London (1959-62), specialised in English language studies, did some research there at the Survey of English Usage under Randolph Quirk (1962-3), then joined academic life as a lecturer in linguistics, first at Bangor, then at Reading. He published the first of his 100 or so books in 1964, and became known chiefly for his research work in English language studies, in such fields as intonation and stylistics, and in the application of linguistics to religious, educational and clinical contexts, notably in the development of a range of linguistic profiling techniques for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. He held a chair at the University of Reading for 10 years, and is now Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. These days he divides his time between work on language and work on internet applications.

source: http://www.davidcrystal.com/

Reviews

[Jane Scholey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it sad that I've read this again? Love Crystal and his view of the beauty of the English Language. Useful text.

[Maud · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best grammar book out there. It explains everything so clearly, the activities are a great help and it uses Terry Pratchett and Yoda as examples!
There weren't any answers for the activities in this book, my school provided them which was great but be aware of this when you pick it up!

[Mafaz Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a non native English speaker, I find this book really useful. Would recommend to all my fellow teachers.

[Rebecca eley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started doing an English Language A-level and this book was on the recommended reading list. So I purchased it and duly ploughed my way through.

It is the basics of English grammar. It is a bit confusing as it talks about word types at the end and sentence structure at the beginning but by the end the sentence bit fell into place. You should probably read the word chapter first, then the ones about nouns, then verbs, then other types of words and save sentences until the end.

My only criticism is that there are no answers. I am an Accountant and so I like to know whether I am right or wrong. Most of the progress checks and tests you can guess at but I would have liked to have been able to benchmark whether I was hitting the nail on the head or not.