Vicky S on Warriner's

My old Warriner's (Revised Edition with Supplement, Complete Course, Copyright 1969) is still my single source for writing and grammar. You could plan your whole course of home study from just the contents, although nothing beats having the book. The amazing thing about Warriner's is that in addition to having all the following information, it has hundreds of examples and exercises, all packed into this paperback size hard cover of 800+ pages. Here are the contents followed by some brief excerpts from the preface.

Contents:

Part One: Grammar
Parts of Speech, Parts of a Sentence, Phrase, Clause

Part Two: Usage
Levels of Usage (Standard vs. Substandard English), Agreement, Pronouns, Verbs, Modifiers

Part Three: Composition: Sentence Structure
Sentence Completeness, Coordination/Subordination, Clear Reference, Placement of Modifiers, Parallel Structure (really important!), Unnecessary Shifts in Sentences, Sentence Conciseness, Sentence Variety, Effective Diction, Exercises in Sentence Revision

Part Four: Composition: Paragraphs and Longer Papers
The Effective Paragraph, Expository Writing, Language and Logic, Exercises in Composition, Research Paper, Letter Writing

Part Five: Aids to Good English
Information in the Library, Reference Books, Dictionary, Vocabulary

Part Six: Speaking and Listening
Discussion and Debate, Effective Speech

Part Seven: Mechanics
Capitalization, Punctuation, Manuscript Form, Spelling

Part Eight: A New Look at Grammar
Structural and Transformational Grammars

College Entrance and Other Examinations
Tests of Verbal Aptitude, Composition Tests

Supplement
Making Writing Interesting


From the Preface (citation above):

"The teacher of senior English occupies a difficult but challenging position. Because the course he teaches is in large part a summary of all the English courses that have preceded it, he feels obligated to review, or reteach, everything. Two thoughts impress upon him the magnitude of his responsibilities. The first is the image of the college English instructor lurking in the future of his college-bound students, ready and, it often seems, eager to find weaknesses in their high school preparation. The other is the even more sobering knowledge that for his terminal students the senior English class may be the last chance to master language skills that will help them meet the speaking and writing demands of a lifetime."

About teaching literature vs. teaching writing: "Relatively few college students fail because of inadequate preparation in literature compared to the number who fail because they cannot write."

About expository writing: "In teaching expository writing, a teacher must deal with four kinds of composition problems; the problem of the word; the problem of the sentence; the problem of the paragraph; and the problem of the longer composition."

And "The most important and perhaps most difficult thing to achieve in teaching expository writing is good organization. Organization can be most concretely taught through the paragraph which, in small compass, demands most of the important writing skills."

Interesting to note that author John Warriner taught English in junior and senior highschools and in college. Co-author Francis Griffith had a doctoral degree in education from Columbia University, and was for many years Chairman of English and Speech in a Brooklyn, New York, High School.