Words: A User's Guide is an accessible and invaluable reference that is ideal for students, business people and advanced learners of English. The book is structured in groups of words that may be confused because they sound alike, look alike or seem to have similar meanings, and this approach makes it much more intuitive and easy to use than a dictionary. Contrasting over 5000 words (such as habitable and inhabitable, precipitation and rainfall, reigns and reins), Words: a User's Guide provides examples of usage adapted from large national databases of contemporary English, and illustrates each headword in typical contexts and phrases. This book gives you straightforward answers, and helps with pronunciation, spelling, style and levels of formality. For those working internationally it presents international standards and compares usage in Britain and the USA. Words: A User's Guide is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to communicate well in written and spoken English. "At last! A book about the use of words that clarifies and de-mystifies in an eminently usable way. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to write well. It is a book to keep." Sandy Gilkes, Head of the Centre for Academic Practice, University of Northampton "Rigorous, fresh, intriguing and downright useful, it deserves a place on every properly stocked reference shelf." Brian Cathcart, Professor of Journalism, Kingston University "From the pedantic to the permissive, everyone who's interested in the English language and the way we speak and write it will want a copy of this practical, entertaining book." Wynford Hicks (author of Quite Literally and The Basics of English Usage)

The Routledge Student Guide to English Usage is an invaluable A-Z guide to the appropriate use of English in academic contexts. The first part of the book covers approximately 4000 carefully selected words, focusing on groups of confusable words that sound alike, look alike or are frequently mixed up. The authors help to solve academic dilemmas, such as correct usage of the apostrophe and the crucial difference between infer and imply. Examples of good usage are drawn from corpora such as the British National Corpus and the Corpus of Contemporary American English. The second part covers the key characteristics of formal English in a substantial reference section, comprising: * stylistic features * punctuation * English grammar * the use of numbers * email writing. This is the essential reference text for all students working on improving their academic writing skills. Visit the companion website for a range of supporting exercises: www.routledge.com/cw/clark.

Words: A User's Guide is an accessible and invaluable reference that is ideal for students, business people and advanced learners of English. The book is structured in groups of words that may be confused because they sound alike, look alike or seem to have similar meanings, and this approach makes it much more intuitive and easy to use than a dictionary. Contrasting over 5000 words (such as habitable and inhabitable, precipitation and rainfall, reigns and reins), Words: a User's Guide provides examples of usage adapted from large national databases of contemporary English, and illustrates each headword in typical contexts and phrases. This book gives you straightforward answers, and helps with pronunciation, spelling, style and levels of formality. For those working internationally it presents international standards and compares usage in Britain and the USA. Words: A User's Guide is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to communicate well in written and spoken English. "At last! A book about the use of words that clarifies and de-mystifies in an eminently usable way. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to write well. It is a book to keep." Sandy Gilkes, Head of the Centre for Academic Practice, University of Northampton "Rigorous, fresh, intriguing and downright useful, it deserves a place on every properly stocked reference shelf." Brian Cathcart, Professor of Journalism, Kingston University "From the pedantic to the permissive, everyone who's interested in the English language and the way we speak and write it will want a copy of this practical, entertaining book." Wynford Hicks (author of Quite Literally and The Basics of English Usage)

The Routledge Student Guide to English Usage is an invaluable A–Z guide to the appropriate use of English in academic contexts.

The first part of the book covers approximately 4000 carefully selected words, focusing on groups of confusable words that sound alike, look alike or are frequently mixed up. The authors help to solve academic dilemmas, such as correct usage of the apostrophe and the crucial difference between infer and imply. Examples of good usage are drawn from corpora such as the British National Corpus and the Corpus of Contemporary American English.

The second part covers the key characteristics of formal English in a substantial reference section, comprising:

• stylistic features

• punctuation

• English grammar

• the use of numbers

• email writing.

This is the essential reference text for all students working on improving their academic writing skills. Visit the companion website for a range of supporting exercises: www.routledge.com/cw/clark.

Table of Contents

Introduction

How to use this book?

Guide to pronunciation

Main text A-Z

Reference material

Academic writing skills

Grammar tips

Word formation

Numbers and how to use them

Bibliography

Index