Mcgraw hill handbook of english 1000073756 (1)

The definitions and explanations given in this part of the book are valuable only when they help the student to write and speak more effectively.Be- cause the types of words defined here

79 Proportionand Length

80 Mechanics of the Paragraph

81 Choice of Topic

82 Outlines

83 Beginningsand Endings

84 ManuscriptForm

85 Revision and Proofreading

86 Usingthe Library

87 Choosingthe Topic

88 TakingNotes

89 Preparingthe Outline

90 Writingthe Paper

99 TestingYour Logic

100 PropagandaTechnique Appendix

101 TakingTests

102 Sentence Analysis

and Diagraming

St Louis New York San Francisco Dallas Toronto London

COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We wish to thank these authors, pubhshers,and other holders

of copyrightfor permissionto use the following excerptsfrom

copyrightedmaterials:

The excerptsfrom Sportsmanlike Driving Reprinted by permis- sion

of the American Automobile Association ^ The excerptfrom High Jimgle, by William Beebe Reprinted by permission

of Duell,Sloan and Pearce, Inc.^ The

Eileen, copyright1938, by Ruth McKenney Reprinted by per-mission

Hart-Ltd i^ The excerpt from AnythingCan Happen, by

and Helen Papashvily Reprinted by permissionof Harper

excerptfrom This I Remember, by Eleanor

Reprinted by permissionof Harper" Brothers and

n and Company."^* The excerptfrom We Took to the

y Louise Dickinson Rich Copyright1942, by Louise

^n Rich Reprintedby permissionof J.B Lippincott

pany and Willis K. Wing,i"" The excerptfrom Mirror for

Man, by ClydeKluckhohn Copyright" 1949 by the

McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc Reprintedby permissionof theMcGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc ^^ The excerptfrom Affairs

of Rinehart " Company, Inc '^"The excerptfrom "How to Stay

in College," byRobert U Jameson Reprintedfrom the Saturday EveningPost articleby permissionof the author.^' The excerptfrom Science Remakes Our World, by James Stokley Reprinted

Certain partsof this book have previouslybeen copyrighted

under the titlesWritingand Rewriting (1955) by Harry Shaw

George S Wykoffand Harry Shaw and are reprintedwith the

McGraw-Hill HANDBOOK OF ENGLISH

Copyright (c)1960 by McGraw-Hill, Inc All RightsReserved

Copyright1952 by Harry Shaw and VirginiaShaffer All Rights

Reserved Printed in the United States of America This book,

permissionof the publishers.

IX

Library of Congress CatalogCard Number: 59-10723

10 DiagnosticTests in Usage 64

11 Subjectand Verb Agreement 70

19 Prepositionand ConjunctionUsage 143

iii

22 DiagnosticTest on Commas, Semicolons,

83 Beginningsand Endingsof Themes 396

JTheResearch Paper |

87 Choosingthe Topicof a Research Paper 407

The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English, Second Edition,

is designed to help the student build the skills he needs to

express himself with clarity,ease, and appropriateness It describes American English as it is actuallyused by careful

speakers and writers and shows why some kinds of

sion

expres-are considered more effective than others In addition

must know, this book emphasizes the importance of clear

intelligentreading and listening.Types of faulty thinkingare analyzed and exercises are provided to develop the student's abilityto recognize and avoid such errors in his

This new edition of the McGraw-Hill Handbook of contains a number of new features which the authors believe will enhance the usefulness of the book A newformat employing a second color gives increased promi-nence

Eng-to rules, principles,and section numbers. Expanded

with the form and content of college entrance and

placement tests and shows him

ways in which he can im- prove

his performance. A comprehensive review of sentencediagraming brings together in one place all of the principles

of sentence analysisand provides the explanations and

tice

vii

This book makes a completelyfunctional approachto

grammar, usage, and mechanics. Rules are clearly stated,

principlesand helpshim to see how they applyto

his own writing.

The natural-sounding practicesentences in the

McGraw-Hill Handbook of English greatly simplifythe task of both

solelyto embody an error. They are drawn from more than

seven thousand student themes analyzedfor this purpose

on safe driving, travel,or an illuminatingincident from the

lifeof a literary figure,so that the student adds to his knowl-edge

grammar

levels of instruction The drillthat follows each major prin- ciple

is arrangedin two sections The firstbeginswith easy

sentences and moves on to the kind of sentences that nor- mally

providessentences of greater maturity.These may be usedfor superiorstudents or for review with students who have

In recognitionof the fact that language changes,the

Edition,have scrutinized every explanation,illustrative

example,and practicesentence to ensure its appropriate- ness

to remind the student that at any given time there are

VIRGINIA SHAFFER HARRY SHAW

viii

For assistance in preparing the manuscript, the authors

are indebted to a number of people. Miss EHzabeth Con- nelly,

former Head of the English Department at the Patter- son

Park High School in Baltimore, and Mrs Thea Hodes,

former teacher of superior children at School No 49 in Bal- timore,

read parts of the manuscript and offered valuable

advice on the adjustment of the material to suit the needs of students of varying ability.Mrs. PhilipEdwards, Director

and her assistants gave invaluable help in locatingillus- trative

Miss Bernice Wiese, Supervisor of School Libraries in Balti- more,

examined the section on the use of the library.Sug- gestions

from Mr Simeon Round, Mrs Anna Bloom, and

Mr Ellis Newton on "The Theme" and "The Research

Forest Park High School and at McCoy College of The Johns

while using the materials in this book.

IX

GUIDE TO EXERCISES

Asterisks indicate key exercises and achievement tests.

Grammar " adjectives, recognition of, 25; adverbs,

recog-of, 26; clauses, *

achievement test on kinds of, 44-45;

41-42; recognition of noun, 43-44; nouns, capitahzing, 2;

of adjective,33-34; recognition of adverbial, 34-35;

function and recognition of noun, 31-32; sentences, choppy,

51-52; combining simple, 51-52; kinds of, 49-50; ^variety

in, 51-52; verbs, principal parts of, 14; verbals and, 17.

USAGE " '^achievement tests in, 146-151; adjectives andadverbs, 135-136, 141-143; ^agreement, pronoun and an-tecedent,

87-90; subject and verb review, 80-84; verb and

78-79; ""case, of personal pronouns, 99-102, 104-105; of relative

pronouns, 108-112; diagnostic tests, 64-69; lie and

lay,121-122; like and

145; pronoun, reference of, 94-97; sit and set, 122; '^

tense,

sequence of, 126-128; verbs, past tense and past participle,

118-120; review, 128-129; subjunctive, 132-133.

CAPITALIZATION" *capitoZzzafion,157-159.

PUNCTUATION" flbbreDiaiions, 227; ^achievement tests

in, 212-215; "^apostrophe, 205-207; capital letter and comma

review, 176-177; colon, and review with semicolon,

198-201; comma, with appositivesand limiting expressions,

italics, 225; numbers, 228-229; parenthesesand brackets,

WORD

" diction,alliteration and rhyme, 290-291; choice

284-285; specific words, 281, 282; dictionary, 243^247; "fine" writing, 284-285; idiom, 271-272; prgon, 279-280; pro-nunciation,

256-258; of plurals, 254; spelling lists, 248-251; vocabulary,of

SENTENCE

" achievement test on electivesentences,

360-363; analysisand diagraming, 489^90; comparison,

illogical constructions, 338-339; modifier,*

dangling,

352; fused, 312; incomplete, 309, 321-322; loose and

peri-354; review (incomplete, "run-on," fused), 312-314;

shiftsin construction,in verb tense, 349-350; splitconstruc- tions,

PARAGRAPH

" ^coherence, throughorder of ideas,

375-377; throughtransitional expressions, 380-381; letters,in-coherent,

377; topicsentence, 367, 373-374; "^

unity in,368

xi

WHOLE THEME" *^^^^'^^^"392-395.

RESEARCH PAPER" *^^^^"^!/.use of card catalogue, 401;

limiting topic, 409; note taking, 412, 414

PRECIS AND THE PARAPHRASE" F^cfs and para-phrase,

423-424

WRITING FOR SPECIAL VURVOSES" betters,

*requestfor adjustment, 439; sympathy, 450; *thank-you,

of speakersor writers, 454-455; propaganda techniques,

464; name-calling, 464; thinking,about advertisements,464;

logicin,459^61, 466-467; in reading statistics,466

TESTS " achievement in effective sentences, 360-363;

Grammar is not a static thing.It changes and

grows as men put new life into it, and it has different levels for different occasions In the casual English of informal con- versation,

many people today are using "It's me," or "Drive

appear informal writing.

Grammar is for use The definitions and explanations

given in this part of the book are valuable only when they help the student to write and speak more effectively.Be- cause

the types of words defined here function in many different kinds of sentences, it is important to remember that a given word is not always used as the same part of

another, an adjective in a third How a word is used determines what part of speech it is.

Sailingis my favorite sport (Noun)

We were sailingacross the bay. (Verb)

Far off we could see a small sailingvessel. (Adjective)

In the

pages that follow, the essential principlesof

marare reviewed If there has been some tendency to permit

gram-variations of the forms commonly accepted as correct, thesevariations are presented.

52-61 If

1

" CI^IS NOUNS

1 NOUNS

la Definition.

man, officer,Thomas Jefferson, park,street,desk,team,courage

A common noun is the name of any one of a class of

letter

horse, child, garden,alley, tub, book, engineer

or thing.Itis written with a capitalletter.(See Section 21g )

General Grant, President Lincoln,Patterson Park,Linden

from

any object.

honesty, intelligence,grace

class,crowd, army, fleet, family

Note: Abstract nouns and collective nouns are usually

common nouns.

EXERCISE 1

Identifythe proper nouns in the followinglistand write

them with a capitalletteron a separatesheet of paper

2

" "^B NOUNS

1e Case

Nouns have tlireecases: nominative, objective, possessive.

Nouns in the nominative and objectivecases have the same

form: boy (nominative), boy (objective).The possessive

case requiresan apostrophe ( boys' ) or an apostropheand 5

(boy's) (See Section 26.)

If Uses of nouns in the nominative case.

The most importantuses of nouns in the nominative case are the following:

1 Subject of a verb (See Section 3.)

rolled over the deck

2 Predicate noun, also called predicatecomplement, predicatenominative, or subjectivecomplement (See

Section 14b.)

A predicatenoun is a noun used in the predicate (see

Glossaryof Grammatical Terms) to pointback to the sub-ject

Itfollows the verb be (am, is,are, was, been, be,were )

or some other linkingverb ( become, seem).

NOUNS 19

The man on the witness stand seemed a person of hon-esty

. )

canyon with me?

Night having fallen,we camped near the trail

5 Appositivewith a noun in the nominative case. (See

Melody,my horse,saw me from the corral

1g. Uses of nouns in the objectivecase.

The most importantuses of nouns in the objectivecase

1 Direct object ofa verb.

We won the game. (Game isthe direct objectof the verb

Shall I giveTed a sweater at Christmas? {Ted is the in- direct

objectof the verb Sweater isthe direct object.)

3 Object of a preposition.

Mother broughtsome souvenirs from Atlantic City {At- lantic

Cityis the objectof the prepositionfrom.)

4 Appositivewith a noun in the objectivecase. (See

We met Mr Townley,the sheriff.

1h NOUNS

5 Objective complement,or predicate objective (See

Section 14i.)

We elected Walter president.

I consider her a good player.

6 Subject ofan infinitive (See Section 14g )

I wanted John to go to the movies.

Sallyasked the chairman to take a walk with her

7 Object ofan infinitive (See Sections 3gand 14h.)

His desire to pleasethe voters was great.

The shipwas anchored to save fuel.

8 Object ofa participle (See Sections 3gand 14h.)

Waving his hat Rusty gallopeddown Main Street

Emilyisthe girl drivingthe car.

9 Object ofa gerund (See Sections 3gand 14h.)

Catchinga mustang is not an easy job.

Playingtennis is goodexercise.

The ranch was sold last year

We stayedhome allday.

1h Uses of nouns in the possessivecase.

case:

relationshipthat mightbe expressed by ofor forthe use of.

The child'sball,his mother, a days journey,members

lounge

Have you heard about Ruth's winning the contest?

6

EXERCISE 4Arrange the nouns in these sentences in two columns

in the objectivecase in another column Beside each noun,

write the reason why you have listed it as nominative or

objective.

Example:

leopard subject zoo objectof preposition

Recentlya leopardescapedfrom a zoo in Ohio Some hunt-ershad caughtthe animal on Christmas and shippedit to theUnited States for displayin a new zoo where the animals were

not confined in cages but were allowed to roam at will over a

wide territorysurrounded by deep moats. The animals could

not

escape because the moats were too broad for even the

leopardto leap.Or so thoughtthe keepersof the zoo. But this

leopardwas a wilybeast He apparently figuredthe distance

carefullyand with a greatbound jumpedacross the moat. Fromone end of the country to another,the newspapers carried big

headlines that told of the chase Armed groups soughthim inthe parknear the zoo and in the surrounding neighborhood.Atfirstthe superintendentof the zoo wanted the beast to be caught

alive,but after a few hours,the dangerseemed so great thathunters were told to shoot the animal at sight.Because the

keepersconsidered the leopardto be a very dangerous beast,

theywarned the peoplenearbyto keep their children insideand to look for

any evidence that would lead to the capture.For two daysthe whole country read the news avidly.Then theheadlines announced that the zoo would tryto trap the animalwith food By this time some peoplehad begunto consider the

zoo and the policeto be very ineffectual Then huge piecesof

druggedmeat were placedon the groundnear a cage in whichthe leopard'smate was held,and the next morning the hungry

animal was found hardlyable to stand up because the drugwas

7

demonstrative, interrogative, reflexive, intensive, indefinite,

and reciprocal.

1 A personalpronoun is a direct substitute for a noun.

Like a noun, it has number, gender,and case. It also has

spokento (second person ), or a person or thingother thanthe speakerand the one spokento (third person).See the

followingtable of forms of personalpronouns:

Singular

8

used relative pronouns are who, which, and that Who-ever,

whichever, and whatever are less frequentlyem- ployed

compound forms; whosoever, whichsoever, and

completecase forms Relative pronouns do not show changes

(See Section 14.)Who is used to refer onlyto persons;

animals),and to persons considered as a group; that may be

The flierwho served in World War II is now an airlineoflBcial

Radar equipment which is to be used for small ships

must be installed carefully.

The crew which won the race was excused from classes.The hat that I boughtlastsummer is now out of fashion.The man that I saw was named Mortimer Taylor.

pronouns are this, that,these,those

This is the way to kick a spiral.

That is my new television set.

These are your books; those on the desk are mine.

4 An interrogativepronoun (who, whom, whose, which, what, occasionally whoever, whichever, whatever)intro-

9

duces a question.The case forms for the interrogative

Who shall demand that a pardonbe granted?

Which is the route we should take from Hammond?

What do you have in mind?

Whom do you recognize?

5 A reflexivepronoun is used for reference to the

sub-of the sentence. It is composed of one of the personal

itself, ourselves, yourselves,themselves These pronouns

speechor writing,these pronouns are not used as subjects.

Right:His laboratoryassistant burned himself.

Right: They appointedthemselves as cheer leaders

6 An intensive pronoun is used for emphasis.Intensive

Right:The nurse herselfwas at fault

Right:We students ourselves are whollyresponsible.

7 Indefinitepronouns are somewhat less exact in meaning

several,some, each The pronoun one and its compound

the possessivecase in the same way as nouns (anyone's, everybody's).Indefinite pronouns involve grammatical problemswhich are discussed in Section lid

8 A reciprocalpronoun indicates an interchangeof action

suggested by the verb This interchangemay be seen in the

followingsentences involvingthe onlytwo reciprocalpro-nouns

in English:

The two teams complimentedeach other

The members of the squadshouted at one another

10

AND VERBALS

3c Auxiliary verbs.

Auxiliary,or helping, verbs, such as may, can, must,

have, are often used with other verbs to

voice (seeSection 3d). Such combinations are called verb

phrases.

I have known Jerrysince the firstgrade (Time)

This theme was rewritten three times (Voice)

We built a largehouse in the country.

refrigerators.

The Marshall Plan helpsthe reconstruction of Europe.

A verb is in the passivevoice when its subjectreceives

the action Notice that some form of the verb be (am, is,are, was, were, been, be) is used with another verb in the

passivevoice

A largehouse was built in the country.

The doors were bolted from the inside

3e.- Mood.

the speakerthinks of the action

A verb in the imperativemood expresses a command.

Clean your room.

Open your books to page 10.

A verb in the subjunctivemood indicates a condition

If you were in Europe,you would iind life very different

I wish I were in the South where it is alwayswarm.

3f Tense"

Every verb has three principal parts which are used as

16.)

The principal parts of a verb are the present, past, past

participle.''^

an irregular verb,and itspartsshould be memorized. Notice

the irregularverbs in the precedinglist

* A fourth principalpart, the present participle,is sometimes alsogiven The present participleis made by adding -ing to the present

tense form of a verb: talk,talking.The four principalparts are given

in this order: talk,talked,talked,talking.

13

EXERCISE 5Write the principal parts of each of the followingverbs.Then write sentences usingeach of these verbs in the past

tense. (For a discussion of tenses and their use, see Section

16.)

Understandingthe difference between verbs and verbalswill helpyou to avoid one of the most serious errors in

writing,the half sentence or fragment.A verb is used as

the simplepredicateof a sentence; with the subject,the verbmay make a completestatement. A verbal cannot be used

as a simplepredicateof a sentence. (See Section 55.)

He kicked the ball.(Verb)

Kickingthe ball (Verbal)

To kick the ball (Verbal)

infinitives (For helpin using verbals,see Sections 14k, 16i

1 A participleis a word which has the function of bothverb and adjective.The present participle alwaysends in

-ing {speaking, singing).The past participleis the third

principal part of the verb. The perfectparticipleconsists

of havingor havingbeen plusthe past participle (having spoken, havingbeen driven).

14

Notice the past participlesin the followinglistof principal

parts:

PAST PARTICIPLE

bring brought brought

changetheir form completely ( brought ).

The participlecan

take an objectand be modified by an adverb When it does,

the group of words taken togetheris called a participial

phrase (See Section 6b.)

The ball kicked by the playerwent into the stand (Parti- ciple

used as an adjective)

The crowd cheeringthe team could be heard a mile away.

(1: participleused as an adjectivein a participial phrase;2: objectof participle)

We followed the crowd, cheeringlustily (1: participle

used as an adjectivein a participial phrase;2: adverb

modifyingparticiple)

2 A gerundisa verbal noun. Gerunds have the same form

as present or perfect participles,but are used as nouns

Discoveringthe plansof the

enemy was the jobof the

intelligenceservice. (1: gerund;2: objectof gerund)

15

to walk to observe to have enjoyed

An infinitivemay be used as a noun, an adjective,or an

adverb

We have four daysto spendin Billings (Infinitiveused

as adjective)

Bruce was gladto have come. (Infinitiveused as adverb)

Sometimes the word to is omitted from the infinitive

Let me go with you.

Will you helpme pack?

The infinitivemay take an objectand be modified by an

adverb or an adverbial phraseor clause

The snow began to drift alongthe slope (1: infinitive;

2: adverbial phrasemodifyinginfinitive)

I intend to stay here until you arrive. (1: infinitive;2:adverbial clause modifying infinitive)

16

From the following paragraph,list in one column all

sentences.

likedhad named

Shelley,the English poet, had a tragicdeath He liked to go

out on the Mediterranean Sea in a lightsailboat which

he had named Ariel But because he was very unskillful as asailor,some of his friends worried about him constantly Shelley,

however, loved the beautyof the sea and the gracefulfashion

in which the boat slippedover the waves. One day,after visiting

some friends,he set out for his home in Lerici in spiteof a

Trelawny,who was a good sailor,wanted to accompany thewriter in a largerboat named Bolivar;but he had not obtainedport clearance papers, and the port authorities kepthim from

leaving Shelleywas in a hurry;so he set out, leavingTrelawny fuming at the shore The sailors on Trelawny's boat, gready

concerned about Shelley,watched the black clouds gathering.

tried to get news of him Meantime, Shelley'swife waited at

Lerici, feelingsure that Shelleycould not have been so foolish

see what had happenedto him Reachingthe city,she beggedfor

news and was told that Shelleyhad indeed set out justbefore the

Trelawnylearned that partsof a wreck had been cast up on theshore at Viareggio They stilldid not giveup hope,but several

dayslater the body of Shelleywas washed up on the shore He

was onlythirtyyears old when he died.

17