REMEMBERING AN EVENTGUIDE TO WRITING
In writing assignment chapters, the left-hand page will tell you what major part of the chapter you’re in, what page you’re on, and the chapter title . . .
PLANNING AND DRAFTING 51 GUIDE TO WRITING
. . . and the right-hand page will tell you the title of the specific section you’ve opened to.
PREFACE FOR STUDENTS xxxiii
The Handbook
The Handbook offers a complete reference guide to grammar, word choice, punctu- ation, capitalization, use of numbers and abbreviations, spelling, ESL troublespots, sentence structure, and words that are frequently misused. We have designed the Handbook so that you can find the answers you need quickly, and we have provided examples from a nationwide study we did of college students’ writing. The examples appear in regular black type, with the corrections in blue in a different font. The grammatical and other specialized terms that are used in the Handbook are all highlighted in white boxes in the text and defined in white boxes in the margins, so that you never have to look elsewhere in the book to understand the explanation. In addition to a section on ESL problems, blue boxes throughout the rest of the Handbook offer specific support for ESL students.
Marginal annotations refer to other parts of the book and to helpful online resources.
Coach Kernow told me I ran faster than ever before.
ESL Note: It is important to remember that the past perfect is formed with had followed by a past participle. Past participles usually end in -ed, -d, -en, -n, or -t: worked, hoped, eaten, taken, bent.
Before Tania went to Moscow last year, she had not really speak Russian.
For practice, go to bedfordstmartins.com/ theguide/exercisecentral and click on The Past Perfect and/or A Common ESL Problem: Forming the Past Perfect.
In the Handbook, corrections appear in blue type (A); white boxes in the text highlight terms that are defined in the margins (B); blue boxes offer ESL support (C); and codes for different sections offer a convenient shorthand for you and your instructor (D).
vb
G5
progressive tense A tense that shows ongo- ing action, consisting of a form of be plus the -ing form of the main verb: I am waiting.
The past action identified by the verb had called occurred before the past action identified by the verb claimed.
G5-b Use the correct verb endings and verb forms.
The five basic forms of regular verbs (such as talk) follow the same pattern, add- ing -s, -ed, and -ing as shown here. The forms of irregular verbs (such as speak) do not consistently follow this pattern in forming the past and the past participle. (See R2-a.)
Infinitive or base: talk or speak
Every day I talk on the phone and speak to my friends.
Third person singular present ( s form): talks or speaks
VERBS H-21
For ESL Writers
Certain verbs — ones that indicate existence, states of mind, and the senses of sight, smell, touch, and so on — are rarely used in the progressive tense. Such verbs include appear, be, belong, contain, feel, forget, have, hear, know, mean, prefer, remember, see, smell, taste, think, understand, and want.
I am belonging to the campus group for foreign students.A
B
D
C
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Brief Contents