Bingo! (At least it appears like Bingo! to me.). The few students I have who
are regular readers are also the better writers. This is not quantitative
research, just a small observation.

Paul E. Doniger

----- Original Message -----
From: Ed Vavra <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2001 11:55 PM
Subject: False Analogy?


> Hasn't the discussion of whether or not great writers (ancient or
> modern)  studied grammar been based on a false analogy? It was, I
> believe, Helen who brought up the point that students learn best by
> reading and writing. The problem is that many, if not most, of our
> students have not read or written much during their previous education,
> and they can (or will) not make up for that in our courses. I have
> numerous excellent writers (grammatically) in my comp classes, and they
> do not really need instruction in grammar to improve their writing
> (although it does help). However, the students who have not absorbed the
> structures/mechanics of written English from reading can be helped
> through instruction in grammar. The problem are that 1) such instruction
> needs to be of the right kind [Memorizing definitions, by itself, will
> not help.], and 2) the instruction [and the learning] take a long time.
> Ed V.
>
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