Books by Peter Beaven

English Abused is part of the series Crafting Sharper, Stronger English series; English Structure, The English Sentence Up Close, English Abused, and English Mastery. The series teaches the rules of grammar, syntax, and writing in a clear and systematic way. These books also serve as workbooks, with plentiful exercises to help students identify and remedy their weak points. In the short term, the books will help middle school, high school, and even college students perform better on standardized admissions tests, such as the HSPT, SSAT, PSAT, SAT, GMAT, GRE, and LSAT. More importantly, the books prepare a strong foundation for the communication skills that will serve students throughout their lives. An attempt to redress the loss of instruction in the fundamental of English is the series Crafting Sharper, Stronger English.

The Building English Vocabulary series guides a student through classical prefixes and roots that underlie challenging vocabulary. While Images Books I through III take the student through the Roman past, and Images Book IV the Greek, Images, the Introduction, starts the journey with etymology from the Latin, the origins of that half of the English language that appeals to the intellect and sets a foundation for understanding great literature. Throughout Images, a student avails himself of time proven exercises to connect the prefixes and roots with the meanings of words. A student will discover that from just one root spring a variety of new words that in time yield an exponential growth in his knowledge of English. From cumulative review tests throughout the book, a student can gauge his success in mastering challenging vocabulary.

The enlightened notion of displaying the decomposed elements of a sentence pictorially has had a long history in the U.S. The pedagogical idea was developed by Stephen Watkins Clark in his 1847 book with the mouthful-of-a-title A Practical Grammar: In Which Words, Phrases & Sentences are Classified According to Their Offices and Their Various Relationships to Each Another - a true sentence diagramming challenge! Clark's scheme of deploying the parts of a sentence into stacked and adjacent cartoon-like balloons or bubbles was improved upon in Higher Lessons in English Grammar, (first edition 1877) by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg of Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. Their "geometry of grammar" - as it has been called - is predicated on the idea that students would better learn how to structure sentences if they could see them drawn as linear graphic structures.

This first book in a series, English Structure, covers the different parts of speech and their roles in sentences. Students will learn how to diagram sentences, a task which graphically makes evident common errors such as writing sentence fragments, confusing the pronouns "I" and "me", and using adjectives when adverbs are appropriate. Not all students will need this volume. Those who have read widely and well, or who already achieved a good grasp of grammar, may prefer to proceed directly to the next volume, Usage.

Etymology is the study of word origins and development. It provides one of the easiest and most effective ways to build vocabulary, because knowledge of some common roots and prefixes makes possible the figuring out of new word meanings. English is compounded of several languages, primarily Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) and Latin. Historically, the Angles and Saxon tribes occupied Britain after expelling the Celts to Ireland. Beginning in the first century BCE, Julius Caesar's legions conquered and occupied Britain, and Roman troops remained until the fifth century. Their Latin influence persists notably in the names of English cities ending in "-caster" or "-chester," from the Latin "castra" meaning "encampment." This series of books focuses then on etymology from Latin and Greek. The texts are designed to aid in learning the definitions of specific, deconstructed words.

Etymology is the study of word origins and development. It provides one of the easiest and most effective ways to build vocabulary, because knowledge of some common roots and prefixes makes possible the figuring out of new word meanings. English is compounded of several languages, primarily Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) and Latin. Their Latin influence persists notably in the names of English cities ending in "-caster" or "-chester," from the Latin "castra" meaning "encampment." This is the fourth book of a series that focuses on etymology from Latin and Greek. This book focuses on Greek roots. The texts are designed to aid in learning the definitions of specific, deconstructed words. The meanings of a series of "reusable" classical prefixes and roots are presented that facilitate the deciphering of multiple related words.

Etymology is the study of word origins and development. It provides one of the easiest and most effective ways to build vocabulary, because knowledge of some common roots and prefixes makes possible the figuring out of new word meanings. English is compounded of several languages, primarily Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) and Latin. Their Latin influence persists notably in the names of English cities ending in "-caster" or "-chester," from the Latin "castra" meaning "encampment." This is the third book of a series that focuses on etymology from Latin and Greek. The texts are designed to aid in learning the definitions of specific, deconstructed words. The meanings of a series of "reusable" classical prefixes and roots are presented that facilitate the deciphering of multiple related words.

Etymology is the study of word origins and development. It provides one of the easiest and most effective ways to build vocabulary, because knowledge of some common roots and prefixes makes possible the figuring out of new word meanings. English is compounded of several languages, primarily Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) and Latin. Their Latin influence persists notably in the names of English cities ending in "-caster" or "-chester," from the Latin "castra" meaning "encampment." This is the second book of a series that focuses on etymology from Latin and Greek. The texts are designed to aid in learning the definitions of specific, deconstructed words. The meanings of a series of "reusable" classical prefixes and roots are presented that facilitate the deciphering of multiple related words.

Etymology is the study of word origins and development. It provides one of the easiest and most effective ways to build vocabulary, because knowledge of some common roots and prefixes makes possible the figuring out of new word meanings. English is compounded of several languages, primarily Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) and Latin. Their Latin influence persists notably in the names of English cities ending in "-caster" or "-chester," from the Latin "castra" meaning "encampment." This is the first book of a series that focuses on etymology from Latin and Greek. The texts are designed to aid in learning the definitions of specific, deconstructed words. The meanings of a series of "reusable" classical prefixes and roots are presented that facilitate the deciphering of multiple related words.

This book teaches the rules of grammar, syntax, and writing in a clear and systematic way. It also serves a workbook, with plenty of exercises to help students identify and remedy their weak points. In the short term, this book will help middle and high school students perform better on standardized admissions tests, such as the SSAT and SAT. More importantly, it provides a strong foundation that will improve students' communication skills throughout their lives. Book I, "Structure," covers the different parts of speech and their roles in sentences. Students will learn how to diagram sentences, which will help them avoid common errors such as: writing sentence fragments; confusing the use of "I" and "me"; and using adjectives when adverbs are appropriate.