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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