Michael,
  I'm curious about your use of Reed-Kellogg
diagrams. What sentences do you have students
diagram? Are they previously selected sentences, or
do the students diagram sentences from their own
writing? My sense of the Reed-Kellogg is that it works
fine for relatively simple sentences but that it does not
enable students to analyze the sentences that they
themselves write. Am I wrong about this?
Thanks,
Ed
 
>>> Michael Kischner
<[log in to unmask]> 02/21/98
08:10pm >>>
Our experience in a grammar course here at North
Seattle Community College
is that Reed-Kellog diagrams work quite well for about
ninety percent of
the students.  THat is, the students are able to use
them to analyze the
relations among the elements of a sentence.  For
about ten percent, maybe
fewer, the diagramming can be a source of painful
frustration.  Our course
also makes heavy use of sentence-combining (for
putting sentences together
again, so to speak), and sometimes the
non-diagrammers are able to shine
in the sentence-combining part and get a lot out of the
class.
 
Where grammar instruction fails to carry over into
better writing, I don't
think the diagramming, if it is used, can be blamed.
The main culprit, I
believe, is lack of time for practice in the application of
grammar to
style. LIke so many maidens, the handmaiden of
thought cannot be rushed.