MICHAEL SWAN English grammar book?

[khan kharoti]

I have started preparation for CSS 2018 . Some friends suggested for me that I should study the Michael swan first and then go forward. Now I am little confuse that from where I should study this very book. How to start studying this book ? Please seniors guide me in this regard. All replies are welcome.

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[Here2Learn]

To learn English, you need to do it as you learnt your first language. This is called Natural way of acquiring language. Listen to poems, English audio books, bbc radio, or you may even watch bbc for kids (think it is called Ceebies or something). Move to speaking, practice those words in your speech so they become part of you and syntax is imprinted on your mind. Also for reading and writing, just pick up your favorite author and write what he has written. That way, the author's words and sentence structure wi become part of your writing.

Focus on building vocabulary and how those words are used in a sentence. You don't have to learn strict grammatical rules, you don't even know the rules of uou first lang but you can communicate in it. Also language changes so no need to be too harsh on rules. Also learn basic things required fir competitive exams like idioms, pair of words etc. The above tips might not apply to you, because I don't know your level of English.

[Almas khan]

Originally Posted by khan kharoti

I have started preparation for CSS 2018 . Some friends suggested for me that I should study the Michael swan first and then go forward. Now I am little confuse that from where I should study this very book. How to start studying this book ? Please seniors guide me in this regard. All replies are welcome.

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it is in advanced level grammar book, once you are done with your basic grammar practice, you can begin with correction of errors from that book and then proceed according to your requirements. you can stress on your weak areas after that.

[Here2Learn]

I would like to think that his book is much easier than other traditional Grammar books, for he describes how language works and doesn't prescribe the usage of English language. You can even judge from the alphabetical order of the grammatical "rules" (why put rules in inverted comma? Rules are never fixed for descriptive grammarians!).
As for where you start from, of course, you'd be confused. He doesn't begin with tenses first etc or the way we are taught by any English teacher at school. He starts alphabetically, and my understanding of this approach is that his book is kinda reference and you can go to it to seek clarification at an instant. The best part of this book is that it gives examples with incorrect usage too. So any topic of English that interests you or that comes to the fore front of your mind to learn more about, just go through it from that book.

If you read a bit about Michael Swan and why he writes books for English Usage, you'd understand that as a learner of Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching, he is more into just explaining theoretical side of Grammar and he even claims this over his website www(dot)mikeswan(dot)co(dot)uk that he is more into descriptive Grammar (describing the way English language works) etc.

Hope that helps!

[Here2Learn]

And by the way, think of a child whenever you learn language, the way children acquire language.. they don't think of advanced or basic grammar they just learn whatever they hear and they imitate. There are children of age even below 5 who know how to use the word "apparently" you may search "the apparently kid" over the internet and ask yourself how did that child learn a language without knowing the "rules". My point is not to stress out and be afraid of English language, no one can tell you specifically where to start from. You can use textbooks but even Michael Swan claims that if he were to hire himself as his research assistant, he would have turned himself down. These are his words on his own website. So learn the language in a natural way and don't categories anything as a "basic" or "advanced" level - anyone can learn anything at any instant and no one knows everything. What seems basic to some are advanced to others and what is advanced to others is basic to some.

[Almas khan]

Originally Posted by Here2Learn

And by the way, think of a child whenever you learn language, the way children acquire language.. they don't think of advanced or basic grammar they just learn whatever they hear and they imitate. There are children of age even below 5 who know how to use the word "apparently" you may search "the apparently kid" over the internet and ask yourself how did that child learn a language without knowing the "rules". My point is not to stress out and be afraid of English language, no one can tell you specifically where to start from. You can use textbooks but even Michael Swan claims that if he were to hire himself as his research assistant, he would have turned himself down. These are his words on his own website. So learn the language in a natural way and don't categories anything as a "basic" or "advanced" level - anyone can learn anything at any instant and no one knows everything. What seems basic to some are advanced to others and what is advanced to others is basic to some.

Yes you are pretty right about learning the language, but no kid jumps straight to the urdu as Mirza Ghalib spoke, there is a thing called "scheming" , which is psychology related term . Kids learn language either by imitation of bare words and then they scheme them until the time they can figure out what is suitable to say and when.

Micheal Swan is not for beginners and that is the white truth and should be told so. I really admire your genius self that it never occurred to you to consult any basic level books.

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[Here2Learn]

@AlmasKhan, Is life treating you well? I usually hate responding through texts, because a lot of other tools needed for communication are missed. I don't know if I should take your remarks, particularly the "genius self" as positive or negative. May Allah bless you for your time, though!

[UmairTheScholar]

Dear friends, will you please guide me which book fully covers sentence correction area of css? as it is a ten marks question, so shall I read the sentence correction from different books or any one book which you think has a detailed stuff on the topic?

[Gushtasip]

English grammar in use Nd exploring the world of English