- Textbooks contain no grammatical, spelling, or other typographical errors.
- Textbooks have a simple, direct but more formal language.
- Topics belonging to the same category are introduced with a similar sentence in order to create homogeneous textbooks. For example, Definite and Indefinite articles are introduced in the same way (See https://open.books4languages.com/english-a1-grammar/chapter/definite-articles/; https://open.books4languages.com/english-a1-grammar/chapter/indefinite-articles/).
- It is better to use the active voices: active voices make it clear what the topic is supposed to do.
E.g. “We use the Present Perfect Continuous…” and NOT
(See the section USE in Present Perfect Continuous ). For this reason, we can use the verbs to appear. to occur, to come, to go, when we start to explain the Form section.
(See https://open.books4languages.com/english-b1-grammar/chapter/adjectives-used-only-in-attributive-position). - There are some fixed sentences that it is better to copy-paste. Those are:
– “[Subject] do not follow a general formation rule”;
(See https://open.books4languages.com/english-b1-grammar/chapter/ellipsis/)
– “To learn by heart”
(See https://open.books4languages.com/english-a1-grammar/chapter/irregular-comparatives-and-superlatives/)
- Before tables, it is better to have the same introductory sentence for every kind of topic.
For example, an introductory sentence for “Tenses”, should appear before every Tense.
E.g.
– The Present Perfect Continuous (or Progressive) has three forms. Its structure, in the affirmative form, is:
(See it in the section FORM of Present Perfect Continuous).
– The Future Continuous (or Progressive) has three forms. Its structure, in the affirmative form, is:
( See it in the section FORM of Future Continuous)
- It is important to check if the Subtitles, which express the grammatical category, are correct.
(E.g. Present Perfect Continuous belongs to “Tense” and not “Verb” category.)
If a Subtitle is not correct, you can change it in your Edit panel, at the very bottom, under “Chapter Subtitle e (appears in the Web/ebook/PDF output)”.
When writing the TextBook, the main goal is to facilitate the reader’s understanding of the topic.
For this reason, in the majority of cases it is preferable to choose to adopt the active voice, that is the grammatical form in which the subject performs the action of the verb.
E.g. “To be is a linking verb and an auxiliary verb that is essential in grammar”.
(See the section INTRODUCTION in To Be Negative).
Or
E.g. “The future continuous (or progressive) has three forms: affirmative, negative and interrogative.”
(See the section FORM in Future Continuous).
However, there are cases in which the active voice proves unable to satisfy the requirement of making it simple for the reader to understand the topic.
E.g. “Every compound noun is two or more words that come together to form a noun.”
In such cases it is possible to opt for the passive voice, but it’s fundamental that the keyword of the topic is placed at the very beginning of the sentence.
E.g. “A compound noun is a noun formed by two or more existing words which are combined to create a whole new noun.”
and NOT “A noun formed by two or more existing words which are combined to create a whole new noun is called compound nound.”.
(See the section FORM in Compound Nouns).
There are some fixed opening lines that the writer should preferably use at the beginning of certain sections. It is important to use them whenever possible because they provide a useful repetitive pattern which makes it easier for the student to approach a new topic.
Such fixed opening lines are:
FORM: “[Subject] is formed by…” ; “[Subject] has two/three/etc. forms: …” ; “[Subject] has this structure: …”.USE: “We use [subject] to…”, “[Subject] is used to…”.