This textbook begins with the elemental building blocks of a clause and, through thirteen chapters, works toward a thorough understanding of the parts that make up English clauses and how clauses can be combined into quite complicated sentences. It aims to increase students' grasp not only of the language but also of how and why the English language works as it does. This book is not an ESL textbook. That is, it does not seek to teach non-native speakers a language they have not already confronted. Nor is it focused exclusively on fixing common errors in grammar. It is not organized around the fix-it topics that subdivide most handbooks or around the parts of speech that many students remember from elementary school instruction. Rather, it is designed to develop and build on the curiosity of college-level English speakers who desire a more thorough and systematic knowledge of the language they use already. Along the way, the book discusses issues of register, correctness, and style—as these discussions arise naturally from the topics studied. Special sections alert students to common errors and questions of usage, as well as to rhetorical issues related to writing and literature. A student who desires an introductory but thorough knowledge of English grammar will by the end of this book have a solid sense of how sentences—and their myriad and complicated parts—are assembled. Ideally, because of the gradual introduction of more overwhelming concepts, this knowledge will have been achieved without the paralyzing anxiety that often accompanies encounters with grammatical concepts. The book presents important concepts, challenges students to work through embedded exercises (the answers to which are included at the back of the book), and gradually builds toward more complex, nuanced discussions of sentence structure and style.