1. Get started: Find out what you know. A pretest
that covers some of the most common language
errors is included in this book. If you get an an-
swer wrong, or if you’re just not sure why you
got it right, the pretest’s key will direct you to the
chapter—or group of related errors—that can
help.
2. Choose where to begin! The chapters are care-
fully organized in a series. The program works
best if you take the units in the order you find
them. However, they can stand alone if need be.
After you take the pretest, you may want to jump
to a particular chapter on a topic of special inter-
est to you.
3. Practice out loud when working through a unit.
This will help train your ear to hear what is cor-
rect and to get you comfortable using language
or phrases that may feel unfamiliar or downright
wrong at first.
4. Test yourself to see how far you’ve come. Each
chapter is divided into manageable sections, and
each section ends with a test. Take a test when
you think you’ve got a handle on a section’s er-
rors. The test’s key will let you know whether
you’ve mastered the section.
5. Reinforce what you know. To make your new
knowledge a new habit, look for examples of the
things you’ve learned when you’re reading the
paper, watching TV, or listening to a conversa-
tion at work.
6. Test yourself again to make sure a good habit
stays stuck. At the end of the book you’ll find
review tests for the more complex grammatical
chapters. To find out if your good habits have
really sunk in, you might want to take a chapter’s
review tests a week or so after you feel you’ve
mastered the material. If you get it right, con-
gratulations! You’ve formed a good habit!Everyone has bad language habits. We hear language er-
rors on TV, at work, and even from our family—so many times
that the errors might seem correct. But they’re still errors, and
they can make us sound less sophisticated, or even less intelli-
gent, than we really are.
Fortunately, you can form new, good habits the same way
you got stuck with the bad ones: by repetition. This program
will help you do it. Here’s how:
1. Get started: Find out what you know. A pretest
that covers some of the most common language
errors is included in this book. If you get an an-
swer wrong, or if you’re just not sure why you
got it right, the pretest’s key will direct you to the
chapter—or group of related errors—that can
help.
2. Choose where to begin! The chapters are care-
fully organized in a series. The program works
best if you take the units in the order you find
them. However, they can stand alone if need be.
After you take the pretest, you may want to jump
to a particular chapter on a topic of special inter-
est to you.
Reference : When Bad grammar happens to good people.