Resources for Improving your Grammar

This post is copied and revised from my ICTY English course weblog at http://ictyenglish.blogspot.com/. I post three grammar tips on this site every week.

Writing is not all about grammar. It's also about understanding situations, relating to people, and knowing what you want to say. However, having a wide repertoire of grammatical techniques can help you to write in a more flexible and effective way.

What is the best way to continue to learn grammar at an advanced level? Here are five short answers:

1. Do some practice on an area of grammar every week. Keep learning! See the exercises listed below
2. Keep your own examples and observe patterns (and exceptions) in the language
3. Know your weaknesses. Focus on particular areas which give you difficulty (eg. articles, relative clauses, gerunds)
4. Learn as much as you can from any feedback you get on your written English
5. Remember that almost every grammatical 'rule' is likely to be breakable in some situations (so don't become slave to rules!).

Books

As English becomes more of a diverse and international language it is less and less possible to point to an authority and say 'that is the correct way!' (or 'that is a mistake!'). But there are generally agreed conventions for British and American English grammar which you need to know, especially when you write.

For reference, I would recommend Advanced Grammar in Use (Second edition 2005) by Martin Hewings (Cambridge University Press, http://www.cambridge.org/elt/catalogue/grammarvocab/grammarinuse/#en-gb, ISBN 0521532914 with answers). This book covers grammatical points in an imaginative way, giving examples and practice exercises on facing pages. Also has useful summaries at the back. If you buy this book for self-study, make sure you get the one with the answer key! The third edition of this book also has a CD Rom. There is an Intermediate level English Grammar in Use by the same author.

For more practice exercises, try Advanced Language Practice (Second edition 2004) by Michael Vince (Macmillan Heinemann, http://www.macmillaneducation.com/ , ISBN 0435241249 with answers).

Online Grammar Resources

My top recommendation is the BBC Learning English site athttp://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml. This is an Excellent resource for reading, grammar and vocabulary - updated every day. Always worth a visit.

I would also recommend the OWL (Online Writing Lab) at Purdue University for guidance on grammar and writing: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/index.html.

For your questions on grammar try the Blue Book of Grammar at http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/cnt_gram.asp
or this FAQ site http://www.drgrammar.org/faqs/ and Paul Brian's Common Errors site at thttp://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/errors.html

For questions on usage you might try the vast Alt. English Usage at http://alt-usage-english.org/index.shtml. This is searchable and very good for settling disputes over usage, such as: 'Do we say different from, different to or different than?'

You should be able to find answers to most of your questions on these sites. If you can't, email me and I will see if I can find an answer for you!

Practice Online

For quick practice exercises and tests on most areas of grammar see http://www.world-english.org/.

For some useful quizzes on English grammar, donated by teachers, see http://a4esl.org/ (uses mostly Java and Flash). Also see the bilingual quizzes here.

I would also strongly recommend the pages on tenses at Englishpage.com. All the tenses are explained clearly and there are online practice exercises for each one. See http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html.

A teacher, David Tillyer, has produced a useful summary of a tricky area - gerunds and infinitives - at http://www.geocities.com/gwyni_99/gerinfless.html. He also offers a list of verbs and practice tests.

For articles, see my own site at http://articlespace.blog-o-matic.com/.