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Second Edition Writing Better English FOR ESL LEARNERS This page intentionally left blank Second Edition Writing Better English FOR ESL LEARNERS ED SWICK New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc All rights reserved Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher ISBN: 978-0-07-170202-7 MHID: 0-07-170202-4 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-162803-7, MHID: 0-07-162803-7 All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs To contact a representative please e-mail us at bulksales@mcgraw-hill.com TERMS OF USE This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc (“McGraw-Hill”) and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work Use of this work is subject to these terms Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hill’s prior consent You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms THE WORK IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” McGRAW-HILL AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE McGraw-Hill and its licensors not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free Neither McGraw-Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work Under no circumstances shall McGrawHill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise Contents Introduction vii Preparing to Write Verb Tenses Auxiliaries 16 The Passive Voice 26 The Subjunctive Mode 31 Conjunctions 38 Pronouns 44 Possessives and Plurals 62 The Comparative and Superlative 68 Beginning to Write 75 Sentence Completion 75 Writing Original Sentences 87 Understanding the Format 87 Writing According to the Format 88 Story Completion 115 Understanding the Format 115 Completing Stories with Original Phrases 115 Writing Letters 151 The Friendly Letter 151 The Business Letter 157 Writing Original Themes 167 Appendix A: Irregular Verbs in the Past Tense and Past Participle 173 Appendix B: Verbs and Tenses 177 Answer Key 187 This page intentionally left blank Introduction Writing in any language is a difficult skill to acquire Therefore, as an ESL student you should approach writing in English carefully In order to write well, you want to first have an understanding of grammatical structures, vocabulary, and tense usage You practice those concepts until you can use them with relative ease Then you are ready to practice writing original material This book does two things: It gives you an abundant review of basic structures It provides various forms of writing practice within a controlled program that focuses on improving the skills needed to write accurately In Chapter you will have the opportunity to learn or review grammar basics By checking the Answer Key at the end of this book, you can find the correct or example answers to the exercises If you have an English-speaking friend, you might ask him or her to check your work If you wish, you can follow your progress by using a very simple method After each exercise, count every word that you have written—even little words like the, a, and, or but Then count every error you have made in spelling, tense, word order, missing words, or any other potential mistake Divide the number of words you have written (W) by the number of errors (E) you have made The result is a number (N) that you can compare after every exercise you write: W⫼E⫽N If you wrote sixty words and made twelve errors, you would come up with: 60 ⫼ 12 ⫽ If the number is getting larger, you are making progress vii viii Introduction After completing the review exercises, you will be ready to begin Chapter In this chapter you will complete sentences with your original phrases, and you will use your own ideas as you write You will see a sentence similar to this: John borrowed to get to work You might write something like this: John borrowed his father’s new car to get to work For each exercise in Chapter you will compose ten short, original sentences while using a phrase as the specific element in each sentence For example: Sample phrase: The new car Used as the subject: The new car is in the garage Used as the direct object: Mary loved the new car Used after the preposition to: A man came up to the new car You may, of course, use dictionaries and grammar books as aids in order to write as correctly as possible You could give yourself a time limit (fifteen minutes or thirty minutes) for writing the exercise, but use the same number of minutes each time you write In Chapter you will fill in the missing phrases or sentences in a story They can be any phrases or sentences that you wish, but they must conform to the plot of the story For example: The Diamond Ring The robber crept into the hallway of the dark house and turned on the light On the desk he saw a beautiful silver box holding a diamond ring, which he put in his pocket Then he opened the window, jumped to the ground, and fled down the street Chapter deals with letter writing Each letter can be written within the same framework of time (fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, or longer) There is a difference between “friendly” letters and “business” letters This part of the writing program will help you to write both types of letters Introduction In Chapter you will write original stories The stories are to be based on the assigned topic, and they should include the grammar structures indicated For example: Sample title: Lost in the Desert Include these structures: the relative pronoun which to want to in the past perfect tense the conjunction if You would then write a story about someone lost and roaming the desert You would probably write of heat and thirst and of the difficulties of finding a way to safety And somewhere in your story you would have three sentences similar to these (which include the required sample structures): She believed she saw a lake, which, unfortunately, was only a mirage She had often wanted to climb a sand dune If she found water, she knew she would survive If you feel you have not done well enough in any chapter of this book, not go on to the next chapter Instead, repeat the chapter that needs improvement Set a standard of quality for yourself and conform to it Use the Answer Key not only to check your work but also to find suggestions for how to write appropriate sentences for any of the exercises ix .. .Second Edition Writing Better English FOR ESL LEARNERS This page intentionally left blank Second Edition Writing Better English FOR ESL LEARNERS ED SWICK New York Chicago... 75 Writing Original Sentences 87 Understanding the Format 87 Writing According to the Format 88 Story Completion 115 Understanding the Format 115 Completing Stories with Original Phrases 115 Writing. .. intentionally left blank Introduction Writing in any language is a difficult skill to acquire Therefore, as an ESL student you should approach writing in English carefully In order to write well,