Understanding English Grammar

by Martha J. Kolln, Robert W. Funk

This highly praised, and top selling book on developing advanced grammar skills is a comprehensive description of sentence structure that encourages its readers to recognize and use their innate language expertise as they study the systematic nature of sentence grammar. A practical blend of the most useful elements of traditional, structural, and transformational grammar, this book emphasizes whole structures, most specifically the ten basic sentence patterns introduced in Chapter 2. Two key features separate this book from its clear organization and its user-friendly, accessible language. Users appreciate the self-teaching quality that incremental exercises provide throughout the chapters, with answers at the end of the book. For anyone interested in improving their grammar.

Genres: Reference, Writing, Nonfiction, Language, Textbooks, Read For School, Education

480 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1982

Reviews

[Whitney Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know what it's finals week and I read this entire textbook chapter by chapter for the class so iM MARKING IT AS READ ON GOODREADS

it was easy to understand and i love grammar and editing stuff so it was p nice don't roast me

[Raghad · Rating 1 out of 5]

disgusting and gross

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent grammar book. You may actually learn to enjoy diagramming sentences!

[Hayat Qaid · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has great information, but its format is messy and not easy to read.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

A text book I still return to. Have the 2nd edition in hardback. It's all marked up with notes so that's what I stick with. Made me love sentences and all the different ways you can make them. Gets me in the mood to revise.

[Ambreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a journalist and copy editor solely because of this book. Divine.

[Madly Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished. Marked to pieces. Learned a lot.

[Courtney Kleefeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this textbook for my Structures of Modern English class my first year of college. I’ve kept it since then. It’s a very good resource to keep and reuse, especially if you’re a writer or a teacher or want to tutor. Understanding the rules of English gives you the necessary tools to communicate in English. However, knowing the rules doesn’t make you a good writer, as evidenced by a few poorly written examples of English given in this book.
Knowing how to write and communicate effectively is different from knowing the rules, but knowing the rules is a good step toward understanding how to communicate effectively.
So even though the examples of the rules of English given in the book aren’t always written well, I still highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to go a step further into understanding how English works.

I really like how one of the points in the book is that English-native speakers already know a lot of the rules without knowing they know them—that’s why something “sounds right” or “sounds off.” Reading about grammar helps transfer what we don’t know we know to what we are aware of knowing.

[Gracie Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic textbook! Honestly, this is a fantastic book in general! I’ve always been a strong writer, but I am now able to explain why I write the way I do; I now have the words to express the linguistic, grammatical, and rhetorical choices I make while writing. I work as a writing tutor, and this book is an excellent resource for myself as well as my clients. Plus, I absolutely loved the class I took on grammar that characterized this textbook as required reading. Without that class, I never would have read UEG and I wouldn’t have been able to reach my full potential as a tutor.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as a grammar book goes, I really appreciate the applicability of this book. There are some rules not covered and times the practice sentences could be more applicable. Great practice on a wide variety of skills.

[Jennifer Margeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

met my needs as a Grammar textbook!

[Selah Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still hate grammar with a passion, but this book was amazingly useful and taught me a ton (mostly by teaching me exactly how much I still don't understand).

[Bhakta Kishor · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a prominent book for increasing the knowledge on vocabulary and pronunciation of English. The book’s goal is help English speakers know how to better control the language they already know by understanding the fundamentals of grammatical rules.

The authors state in the preface: “[Many native English speakers are] unable to to descrtibe what they do when they string words together, and they don’t know what has happened when the encounter or produce unclear, imprecise, or ineffective speech and writing.” This is an advanced book on grammar and sentence mechanics that seeks to address this issue and make English speakers better writers.

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[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a textbook; how much am I supposed to like it?

#1: It is way to freaking expensive! It should be half the damned price it was. And, sadly, there was a 9th ed. just out when we got this but that would've been even more expensive.

Anyway, we read about 4/5th of this book before we moved on to other grammar topics (TG) so I am counting it as read. Looking back through the index I think I will go ahead and finish the rest, also, as it could be useful.

I think it was a fairly effective text for standard grammar and Reed-Kellogg diagramming, but, honestly, I haven't read/used any other grammar texts so I have no standard of comparison.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was helpful and, at the end of this semester, I see that it taught me enough about grammar that I didn't know before. However, I think the layout of the book was pretty terrible and most things definitely could have been clearer. The author is in the process of reworking the entire text now, so maybe she'll take suggestions from students and change some things. I recommend this book if you're looking to spend some time brushing up on English grammar. If you're not willing to read everything carefully, find a different book.

[Olivia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't stand how this book was formatted. "You need to use (insert term). You will learn about those in chapter thirteen." DOES NOT HELP when you are on chapter TWO. Unlike some others I've seen reviews from I do not find diagramming enjoyable nor did this book help me understand how to do it. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

[Nathan Boleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean, it's a Grammar textbook, but I learned ample information from it. I guess I liked that I learned lots, and so I give it five stars for content, but how can you give a grammar book five stars...honestly?

[Bernadette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is dense as fuck but thankfully I read it for a class and the teacher really helped me plow through this. Diagramming sentences may be an art of the past but I am definitely going to make my students learn how to do this...

[Caitlin N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for grammar class with a focus on descriptive grammar rather than prescriptive. The book was good, clear stuff - really helpful for practical things such as identifying parts of speech and diagramming.

[Robert]

This is an English textbook. I picked this up to learn how to diagram sentences. I didn't get too far. It is now on my desk in my classroom used as a resource.

[Beybou · Rating 5 out of 5]

good

[Harish P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never knew sentence diagrams are such fun. Invaluable. It is my back-to-the-basics book.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's a textbook... what can i say?

[Clare]

Steubenville recommends

[Kareena]

(Only chapters not read because not required: chapters 9,12,15,16)

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

The class was really difficult and even my professor didn't like this text. He did better at explaining the concepts than the book. The book would come in handy when I wasn't in class, but as for teaching, I was always lost for the most part.

[Julia Manning]

I absolutely loved this book! This is the first textbook that I have read from front to back. Defiantly a book everyone should read.