For the Quality Reform in higher education to work, students need high-quality textbooks. This book: The English Language – A Text-Based Resource Book, is the first one ever which, in a Norwegian context, systematically uses the study of the English language as a means towards improving the students’ own writing.

There is a recurrent theme in the book: increased awareness of the resources of the language and their effects in numerous literary and non-literary texts will make users able to choose correct, varied and effective wordings when they write.

This awareness includes

• knowledge of the building blocks of the language and how they combine
• insight into the differences between English and Norwegian grammar on the sentence level
• an understanding of levels of style and level-specific choices in lexis and grammar
• some ability to evaluate words form within the huge English lexicon
• knowledge of the linguistic characteristics of different genres, literary and non-literary
• and, not least, sensitivity to and proficiency in correct, concise and effective communication on the paragraph and text levels

The English language – A Text-Based Book, is a suitable undergraduate introduction which also paves the way for more advanced studies of the English language at higher levels.