>Please, how does the word "however" "communicate . . . when information"?  
> >Christine Gray

Let me respond to this a little more fully - as I said, "however" obviously 
doesn't communicate anything of the kind.  But pointing out my error nicely 
ignores the point - specifically, that what you call grammatical terms (and 
this list conducts seemingly endless naming and defining discussions) makes 
absolutely no difference in the ability of a student to produce meaning.

In other words, students don't write nouns and verbs and adjective and 
adverbs (conjunctinve or otherwise); they create meaning.  And my contention 
is that most meaning can be categorized in the journalists' 
"who-what-why-when-where-how" litanny.

When information, for example, is created using very specific "when words" - 
words that every student knows and that they can learn how and when to use.  
It doesn't matter whether you're a world famous journalist or a freshman 
high school student - everyone has to use when words to create when 
information (and, of course, "however" isn't one of them!).  Similary, there 
are "where words", "why words," etc.  You get the point (I hope).  Students 
can learn how to write using this type of information much more easily than 
trying to figure out the care and feeding of a conjunctive adverb.

This approach actually makes grammar an exceptionally useful tool in 
teaching students how to write - what I call "writing in the context of 
grammar."  An added benefit is that nobody ever talks about conjunctive 
adverbs.

Geoff Layton

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