say your cursor is after a word,
press
Control & Shift and then left arrow*
use right arrow if cursor is to left of word...
it's quite good - recognises brackets etc.
There may be other ways - I no expert
*EDIT: easiest use right ctrl+shft
also
If you just use ctrl+Left Arrow it brings cursor back to before previous word (without selecting it)
Shift+ arrow will select one letter at a time
