There are 12 units of study
Introduction
No matter what the language, grammar is often viewed as a difficult thing to grasp. Most of us don't really know what grammar is. You'll find out here in our first lesson. You'll be surprised to learn how simple grammar can be. Once you discover this, you'll want to read and learn more.
Verb Tenses and the Three Major Verbs In English
Unlike other languages, English grammar follows a very logical structure. In this lesson, you'll discover how the language functions and grasp the main verbs of English. In addition, we'll explore some of the language structures that can be confusing and prove that once you discover the trick, they really aren't confusing at all.
Tenses and Forms Of Verbs
Today, we'll talk about past and present tenses. We'll examine how we manipulate verbs to give specific meanings. You'll find out how to construct effective sentences in standard academic English.
The Future Perfect Tense, Gerunds and Infinitives
In this lesson, you'll see how an action is reported as complete in future time. A lot of people, including native speakers, avoid this future perfect form, but you won't. You'll discover why it's important to understand and use the future perfect. Then we'll explore the difference between the infinitive (to go) and the gerund (going) forms. You will learn when and how to use them appropriately.
Making Sense of the Modals
Native speakers know how to use most of the modals correctly. But it's common to make errors in using the right modal for the right tense (time). In this lesson, we'll make sense of these unique words that are used to help verbs give a specific meaning.
The Passive Voice
The core of this lesson is identifying the active and passive voice or, who did what to whom. This is essential because it reflects one's ability to think clearly and logically. Understanding the active and passive voice is also important because it will help you detect deceitful statements others may make in an effort to persuade you to do something.
Noun Clauses
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a clause and a phrase? Today you'll find out. You'll also learn how questions are formed in English. This is particularly important because English can be a little different from other languages. For example, Spanish generally depends on the music of the language to create a question. English depends on the word order—the verb must always come before the subject in order to form a question.
Reported Speech
To report means to say what we saw or heard—to retell what someone has already said, or what we have already experienced. Communication would be very difficult if we didn't have the reported speech form. Can you imagine yourself talking in quotes all the time? In this lesson, we'll examine what English speakers do to change a quoted speech to reported speech. You'll find out how easy it is to do this and also learn the common errors that even native speakers make.
Adjective and Adverb Clauses
Today, we'll look at practical applications of adjective and adverb clauses. These terms can be confusing, but I'll make them as clear as possible in this lesson. You'll discover that the challenge of learning them can actually be fun!
Real and Unreal Conditional, 'Wish' and 'If'
Real and unreal conditionals create a problem for many of us. A speaker can easily make errors if he or she is unaware of what's real and what's unreal. Today, you'll grasp the difference and find out what's considered acceptable English. You'll be surprised to see how often mistakes are made and how easy it is to avoid making them.
Count and Non-Count Nouns, Subject/Verb Agreement
There are many nouns in English that can't be counted. We need to know what they are so we can use the proper verb form with them. In this lesson, we'll address these nouns. We'll see how to make the verb agree with the subject of a sentence. You'll learn how to determine what verb form to use if the subject is singular, third person, plural, or non-count.
English as Second/Foreign Language Problem Spots
In this, our final lesson, we'll discuss your newly developed confidence in understanding how English grammar works. We'll talk about how what we've covered contributes to an appreciation for languages in general and English in particular.
There are 12 units of study
An Overview of Writing
Knowing how to write well is one of the most important skills you can have, whether you're writing e-mails and letters at work or essays and research papers in school. In our first lesson, we'll explore the key differences between speaking and writing plus a few techniques for continually improving your writing throughout your life. But there's more! You'll also understand the whole process of writing, starting with the prewriting stage and going all the way through the editing stage. You'll see that you truly can master writing in English, and I'll show you how!
The Creative Process
Do you ever struggle with not knowing what to write about? Many of us do. In today's lesson, you'll learn two effective methods for generating all the ideas you need: brainstorming and clustering. Then, once you have your ideas, you need to organize them. You'll do this in the outlining stage. An outline is like a detailed map of where you want to take readers in your writing. When your outline is finished, you're ready to begin writing. So, we'll also examine two crucial elements of any written piece: the topic sentence and paragraphs.
Effective Essays
In this lesson, you'll learn all about how to write effective essays. Why should you learn about this particular form of writing? The essay form will hone your writing and thinking skills, helping you develop and connect your ideas in a clear, logical, focused way. You can certainly apply these skills in any setting! A vital component of all essays is the thesis statement, so we'll spend a lot of time exploring this. When you finish with this lesson, you'll be able to write strong thesis statements that will set a sure course for your essays.
Three Types of Essays
Now it's time to try out what you've learned so far about essays! In this lesson, you'll learn about three different essay types: descriptive, narrative, and explanatory. Each type has its own distinct purpose. Descriptive essays have vivid details that help your readers get involved in what you're writing. Narrative essays tell stories, starting at the beginning and moving logically to the end. Explanatory essays allow you to explain something you know about to your readers. I've provided lots of examples to show you how to write each kind of essay. You'll have fun with these!
Compare and Contrast Essays
You'll be able to apply the essay styles you learned about in the previous lesson to many other kinds of essays, including the one you'll learn about today: the compare and contrast essay. These essays let you examine, describe, and explain the similarities and differences between at least two topics. Additionally, you'll get acquainted with the importance of transitions and see what they can do for your writing. Rest assured—I'll provide you with lots of examples to walk you through how to write these very interesting pieces.
Cause and Effect Essays
Have you ever struggled to explain to your child what the effects of a certain course of action would be? Or have you ever tried to explain to your boss how one thing caused something else to happen? You may not have realized it, but you were engaging in the logical thinking required to understand cause and effect relationships. In today's lesson, you'll sharpen your logical skills by learning how to write cause and effect essays. Sometimes you'll analyze how one cause produced several different effects. At other times, you'll analyze how one effect had several causes. Once again, I'll provide you with sample essays that will point the way in your own writing.
Argumentation Essays
Do you feel confident in presenting or defending your opinions? In this lesson, you'll acquire one of the most important skills in writing: how to argue your point of view convincingly. You'll learn how to develop a sound thesis, organize your supporting evidence, and explain your argument fairly and persuasively. Most important, you'll learn how to think critically, as well as recognize and avoid fallacies. This will be a most interesting lesson, and as always, I'll provide you with many examples to guide you along your way.
Correcting Your Wording
In the past seven lessons, you've explored the prewriting, outlining, writing, and revising stages of the overall writing process. In the balance of this course, you'll strengthen your grammar skills so that you can perform the final stage—editing—with a keen eye and a sure hand. In this lesson, you'll study the art of wording. You'll learn how to rephrase wordy, redundant, pretentious, and vague language. You'll also understand what homophones and homonyms are and safely discern the right word to use. Finally, you'll learn to guard against slang and clichés so you can communicate well in any setting. Most of all, you'll see how fun and useful grammar can really be!
Take Care With Verbs
Native English speakers and writers often struggle with verbs, so this tricky area will be something ESL learners will want to be extra careful about. Verbs can be the most powerful words in your sentences, but if you don't use them correctly, they become powerfully confusing. Today, we'll examine verb tenses and inflections, subject-verb agreement issues, and active vs. passive voice. When you finish this lesson, you'll use verbs with confidence!
Other Parts of Speech
Having spent the entire previous lesson looking at verbs, you now need to learn about the other parts of speech. So we'll review important features of nouns and pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. Next we'll look at the three types of clauses: noun, adjective, and adverb clauses. Finally, you'll gain another important technique for trimming wordiness: reducing clauses to simple phrases.
Common Writing Problems
The English language, though certainly not the most difficult, can present native and non-native speakers alike with challenging problems. In this lesson, you'll see how to avoid some common problems with subjects and objects so that your writing will always be clear. Next, you'll laugh as you learn about mistaken and dangling modifiers. These misplaced and unclear words and phrases often create as much unintentional humor as they do confusion! Finally, you'll discover how to tell possessives and contractions apart. This is sure to be an entertaining, as well as informative, lesson!
Punctuation and Wrap-Up
In our last lesson together, we'll focus on punctuation, paying special attention to the helpful but often misused comma. In addition, you'll learn how to skillfully use semicolons, colons, and dashes, along with the concluding punctuation marks. Next, you'll see how you can apply what you've learned about academic writing to your workplace. Finally, we'll wrap everything up with a review of the key points of the course. You should be very proud of all that you've learned
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