Grammar Guide

Independent Learning Skills

Are grammar books prescriptive or descriptive?
To study grammar, it helps to identify whether you have a descriptive or a prescriptive view of
grammar. Neither is right or wrong, but which one you believe can affect how you feel about
grammar and the teaching and learning of grammar.
Students and teachers who have a prescriptive view of grammar believe that grammar books give (or
prescribe) the rules that should be followed. Generally, these people do not like making mistakes.
They believe that there is a correct version of the language that should be followed. They may feel
anxious about making mistakes and expect to be corrected if they do make mistakes. They may
believe that regional dialects and regional usage of the language is incorrect as it does not conform
to the correct version of English. People who have a prescriptive view will correct native speakers
of English if they do not use correct English as described in the grammar books.
Students and teachers who have a descriptive view of grammar believe that grammar books describe
the language. They believe that language is an evolving animal that does not have a correct form.
They believe that language is constantly changing. They understand that these changes are often
caused by people making mistakes with the language. Thus, they believe that grammar books are
simply attempting to identify rules and generalise about language use. Thus, grammar books can
help but it is equally important to identify real language as it is used in everyday life. These people
may not worry about making mistakes and will probably not correct native speakers of English.
Think about this difference. Think about your opinions. Think about the way you have been taught
grammar in the past and your attitudes to learning it in the present. Discuss this with other learners
and compare your opinions.

OAC Self-Study
Browse the resources in the OAC. Find a book that you think will be useful for you. Here are some
examples:
Find the difference between affect and effect on page 28 of Practical English Usage and check
where you should be placing adverbs (pages 23-27)
Find out how you should where you should be using or not be using articles in Advanced Grammar in
Use (pages 56-62)
Find Units 12 of Longman Student Grammar and start improving your word order choices
Another task is to highlight any areas that you usually have difficulty with in your own grammar. For
example, if you have problems with articles highlight how articles are used in the text or similarly if
you struggle to remember whether some nouns are countable or uncountable highlight them in the
reading text. Then use a grammar book and see if you can match the explanations in the grammar
book with the examples you have found.

-1-

September 2009

Self-Edit Your Work

After any academic writing that you complete make sure you check your writing for errors with
punctuation, grammar and sentence structure. Look carefully for any subject-verb tense errors,
singular/plural agreement and check for any missing articles (a, an, the) or missing prepositions. Look
for any incorrect word order or sentence structure and look for places where you could link short
sentences together. Check your punctuation, especially your use of capitals and make sure you have
not repeated any words. Always do this before you hand in a piece of writing as the spellchecker on
your computer can not pick up on every error.
When you get your writing back from your tutor make a note of any grammatical errors that he/she
may have picked up and make sure that when you self-edit your next piece of writing that you also
check for the errors your tutor identified.

Keep a Grammar Notebook

Keep a notebook with you. Use it to write down sentences and phrases that you read and hear but
do not fully understand. Ask native speakers or other students to try and explain the grammar
behind the phrase or sentence you have read or heard. Write the explanations in your notebook.
Look in grammar reference books to see if you can find the correct explanation. This is a powerful
technique for analysing grammatical problems and to extend your own knowledge. Keep
investigating until you have found a solution! At the end of the year you will have a great souvenir
and something you can pass on to your younger relatives.

External Websites
There are a number of useful websites that can help you to improve your grammar skills. Please note
that these websites are not affiliated with Newcastle University.
BBC Learning English

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish

BBC Skillswise

www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar

Daily grammar lessons

www.dailygrammar.com

One Stop English

www.onestopenglish.com

ELMO has sections to help with grammar. Go to https://elmo.ncl.ac.uk or select English Language
Materials Online from the quick links menu on the Newcastle University internal home page. Click
on Study, then Search, then Skill, then Grammar. There are nine different aspects of grammar
you can work on. Choose the skill area you are most interested in and work through the exercises.
For more information in ELMO visit- http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/insessional/english/elmo/

-2-

September 2009

Books
Some recommended books to help improve your grammar skills are listed below. All are available in
either the Open Access Centre (OAC) or the Robinson library (RL).

Advanced Grammar in Use (Hewings, 1999)

[OAC]

An A-Z of English Grammar and Usage (Leech, 2001)

[OAC & RL]

Business Grammar (Bourke and Maris, 2006)

[OAC]

Collins Cobuild English Grammar (Sinclair, 2005)

[OAC & RL]

Cambridge Grammar of English (Carter and McCarthy, 2006)

[OAC & RL]

Discover English (Bolitho and Tomlinson, 1989)

[OAC]

Essential Business Grammar and Practice (Duckworth, 2006)

[OAC]

Essential Grammar in Use (Elementary) (Murphy, 1996)

[OAC & RL]

English Grammar in Use (Intermediate) (Murphy, 1994)

[OAC & RL]

Exploring Grammar in Context (Carter, Hughes and McCarthy, 2000)

[OAC & RL]

Grammar in Context (Gethin, 1996)

[OAC]

Grammar and Vocabulary for Cambridge Advanced and Proficiency (Side and Wellman, 1999)
[OAC]

How English Works (Swan and Walter, 1997)

[OAC &RL]

Longman Advanced Learners Grammar (Foley and Hall, 2003)

[OAC & RL]

Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English + Workbook (Biber, Conrad and Leech,
2003)

[OAC & RL]

Oxford Guide to English Grammar (Eastwood, 1994)

[OAC & RL]

Explaining English Grammar (Yule, 1998)

[RL

Oxford Practice Grammar (Intermediate) (Eastwood, 1992)

[OAC & RL]

Oxford Practice Grammar (Advanced) (Yule, 2006)

[OAC]

Practical English Usage (Swan, 1995)

[OAC & RL]

Test your Prepositions (Watcyn-Jones and Allsop, 2000)

[OAC]

Verbs and Tenses (Bourke, 2006)

[OAC]

-3-

September 2009