From Johanna:

-----Original Message-----
From: Johanna Rubba [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 3:10 PM
To: Rogers, Kathryn (HRW-ATX)
Subject: Re: using "before"

Kathryn,

Could you post this to the list for me?

I rather dread seeing the discussion of prescriptivism/descriptivism 
raise its head again. This discussion has happened so often on this 
list, and it seems to go around and around the same points every time.

What a "descriptivist" who nevertheless maintains high standards for 
good writing might object to in Kathryn's phraseology is the word 
"improving". This is a wide-scope word; it is not focused on any 
particular aspect of writing, be it organization, cohesiveness, 
punctuation, or sentence grammar. There is also an assumption that 
there is already something wrong with the student's writing abilities. 
This is usually true, but unfortunately, the widespread social mindset 
that speech is unstructured language, and that "proper grammar" is part 
of both "good spoken language" and  "good writing" encourages the 
outlook that students are linguistically incompetent _in general_. It 
is important to be very clear to students exactly what needs to be 
improved: thinking before and during the writing process, and revising 
first with clarity, information flow, and soundness of reasoning in 
mind. This can be done in any variety of English.

The most healthy approach to "correct grammar" and all that it entails 
is comparative: explicitly compare speech and writing; explicitly 
compare the grammars of spoken English, informal English, and 
nonstandard varieties with the grammar of standard written English. 
Emphasize that the approach is _additive_, not _corrective_: whatever 
language the students have used in their lives so far has served them 
quite adequately; the mission of school is to _expand_ their linguistic 
repertoire, not replace the English they already know and use with 
another. Above all, separate the ability to produce standard English 
from inherent intelligence and ability to think and express oneself 
well. All varieties of English can be used effectively. If a child has 
not learned standard English, it is not the child's fault. Child learn 
what they are exposed to and what they want to learn.

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel.: 805.756.2184
Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

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