"Paul E. Doniger" wrote:

> For the record, last year, when I tried to teach my students the basics of
> diagramming sentences, I learned that most of them hated it, but a few of
> them learned something from it.  I did NOT try to make it affect their
> writing directly - this is one area where I suspect the research is
> acurate.  I simply wanted them to understand how sentences were put
> together, and to THINK about it.  But my attempt was, I think, unsuccessful
> for most of my students.

"Bob Yates" wrote:

>Whenever I read a comment like this I wonder what the person is defining
>by influencing their writing.  What did you expect the diagramming of
sentences
>to improve in your students writing?

Isn't there some value to teaching grammar for its own sake--learning the
structure of our language or possibly just learning to analyze such
structures?