While the world’s refugee population reaches record high numbers, countries offering third-country resettlement are increasingly shifting toward policies of exclusion and austerity. This edited volume envisions a more humane future for refugee resettlement. Combining anthropology with a variety of professional perspectives (education, health care, theology, administration, politics, and social work) ethnography is used to demonstrate the efficacy of programs and interventions that create a...

Prepositions (words like above, from, in, of and with which relate one part of a sentence to another) are, though few in number, among the most frequently used words in English. They are also among the most frequently misused: writers and speakers alike seem to have endless trouble in choosing the right or acceptable preposition. The sad result is widespread uncertainty, confusion and misunderstanding. Addressed to both native speakers and to learners of English as a second language, Saving o...

The spirited and scholarly #1 New York Times bestseller combines boisterous history with grammar how-to’s to show how important punctuation is in our world—period.In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss, gravely concerned about our current grammatical state, boldly defends proper punctuation. She proclaims, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and nece...

One of the English language’s most skilled and beloved writers guides us all toward precise, mistake-free grammar.As usual Bill Bryson says it best: “English is a dazzlingly idiosyncratic tongue, full of quirks and irregularities that often seem willfully at odds with logic and common sense. This is a language where ‘cleave’ can mean to cut in half or to hold two halves together; where the simple word ‘set’ has 126 different meanings as a verb, 58 as a noun, and 10...

"Very much a manual for the 21st century . . . a welcome addition to the bookshelf of anyone who cares about language-and is willing to argue about it." — New York Times Book ReviewEarly in the history of English, the words "grammar" and "glamour" meant the same thing: the power to charm. Roy Peter Clark, author of Writing Tools, aims to put the glamour back in grammar with this fun, engaging alternative to stuffy instructionals. In this practical ...

No book had more influence on twentieth-century attitudes to the English language in Britain than Henry Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage. It rapidly became the standard work of reference for the correct use of English in terms of choice of words, grammar, and style. Much loved for his firm opinions, passion, and dry humour, Fowler has stood the test of time and is still considered the best arbiter of good practice. Now one of today's leading experts on thelanguage, David Crystal...

Knowing every rule and writing with perfect correctness will take your students only so far in their quest for excellence. For, beyond grammar, there's rhetoric -- language use that separates craftspersons from scribblers. Readers, too, must be able to discuss how a writer presents a case or constructs an argument. The higher scores on nearly all state assessments and college entrance exam rubrics demand knowledge of rhetorical devices and their effects. When your students are ready to g...

Do you cringe when a talking head pronounces “niche” as NITCH? Do you get bent out of shape when your teenager begins a sentence with “and”? Do you think British spellings are more “civilised” than the American versions? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’re myth-informed.In Origins of the Specious, word mavens Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman reveal why some of grammar’s best-known “rules” aren’t—and never were—rules at all. This playfull...

For Who the Bell Tolls is a book that explains the grammar that people really need to know, such as the fact that an apostrophe is the difference between a company that knows its s*** and a company that knows it's s***, or the importance of capital letters to avoid ambiguity in such sentences as 'I helped my Uncle Jack off his horse.'David Marsh's lifelong mission has been to create order out of chaos. For four decades, he has worked for newspapers, from the Sun t...

An old joke goes like this: What’s the difference between a good girl and a nice girl? Answer: The good girl goes to a party, goes home then goes to bed, whereas the nice girl goes to the party, goes to bed, then goes home. The distinction made between the two types of young ladies would probably have been appreciated by Shakespeare. While we think of “nice” nowadays as being a synonym for pleasant it wasn’t always so; originally the word’s meaning conveyed the naughtiness implied in the j...

Essential English Grammar is packed with easy-to-follow explanations and summaries, practical tips on how to avoid common grammar mistakes, interesting facts about the historical and regional use of English and a special section on punctuation. This clear, straightforward guide to modern English grammar will help you to improve your knowledge of the language and perfect your grammar.NOT GOT MUCH TIME?One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you starte...

The author of Reading the OED presents an eye-opening look at language “mistakes” and how they came to be accepted as correct—or not.English is a glorious mess of a language, cobbled together from a wide variety of sources and syntaxes, and changing over time with popular usage. Many of the words and usages we embrace as standard and correct today were at first considered slang, impolite, or just plain wrong.Whether you consider yourself a stickler...