Improve Your English (ages 9-14 years)

Improve Your English is an essential companion to the other three books in the Teach Your Child to Write Good English series. It is aimed at 8-14 years olds but can also be used with candidates taking GCSE foundation examinations.

The book focuses on specific concepts of punctuation, grammar and spelling that children find hard to grasp. It explains how sentences are built up and can be made more interesting by the correct use of clauses and connectives or by eliminating dull words like nice or got and replacing them with more interesting vocabulary. As children progress it becomes more important to be accurate with punctuation and spelling; valuable marks in examinations can be lost by poor spelling. The book focuses on the correct use of homophones, words that sound the same but are spelt differently, like their, there and they're (which are a problem for many young writers).

The parts of speech are explained in a simple, understandable way, encouraging the child to use colourful verbs, adjectives and adverbs to make their writing more descriptive. The page, which describes the ghost that haunts spookily, encompasses all the different parts of speech at a glance, making complex ideas easy for children of all abilities to understand at a glance.

Following the introduction, the book, presents a series of eight graded exercises so the child can correct sentences using capital letters and punctuation, wrongly spelt words, points of grammar and match vocabulary to suitable meanings. Added to this there are suggested answers at the back of the book.

This book is essential for any child wishing to brush up on their punctuation and grammar skills, especially those working through the three companion books. However, they have been particularly helpful for children learning English as a second language and those with specific learning difficulties. All Guinea Pig books are presented in a fun way with bold headings and simple cartoon drawings that children relate to and this book is no exception.