English Brushup

The fourth edition of this quick and practical guide to grammar, punctuation, and usage skills contains important features that distinguish it from other grammar workbooks. The text's three-part format highlights the 16 most vital grammar skills up front, leaving the rest of the text for secondary topics and additional grammar activities. A self-teaching approach enables students to see exactly what they need to brush up on, and gives them focused examples and practice exercises to speed them to mastery. Finally, the manageable size and short, well-organized chapters give students just the coverage they need.

John Langan has taught reading and writing at Atlantic Cape Community College near Atlantic City, New Jersey, for over twenty-five years. The author of a popular series of college textbooks on both writing and reading, John enjoys the challenge of developing materials that teach skills in an especially clear and lively way. Before teaching, he earned advanced degrees in writing at Rutgers University and in reading at Rowan University. He also spent a year writing fiction that, he says, "is now at the back of a drawer waiting to be discovered and acclaimed posthumously." While in school, he supported himself by working as a truck driver, a machinist, a battery assembler, a hospital attendant, and an apple packer. John now lives with his wife, Judith Nadell, near Philadelphia. In addition to his wife and Philly sports teams, his passions include reading and turning on nonreaders to the pleasure and power of books. Through Townsend Press, his educational publishing company, he has developed the nonprofit "Townsend Library"--a collection more than thirty new and classic stories that appeal to readers of any age.