Johanna,
The short answer to your question is that they start with exercises on prepositional phrases, quickly add the identification of S/V/C patterns, and in approximately the seventh week move to exercises on the identification of clauses. Since it is a comp class, clauses are usually as far as we get, but we deal with clauses in terms of style, including statistical analysis of length, in terms of logic (MIMC + Hume's three categories — identity, extension in time and space, and cause/effect), and in terms of texture (the effects of subordination and variety in patterns). They analyze only one passage of their own writing, and that, for reasons that should be obvious, is near the end of the semester. You can get the 107-page MS word document that we are using. It includes the instructional materials and exercises. And you can see how I use it in the context of the course. Go to:
As I noted, I teach comp. We spend very little class time on syntax. Many of the students fall behind — for the reasons I have noted in previous posts. They come to the class unable to identify "is," "are," "was," or "were" as finite verbs, and (I would say) because their previous instruction in grammar was such a disaster, they have no faith that my approach will be any different. Then too, many students don't take any homework seriously. As a result, many students do not get the idea of what they could have learned until late, too late, in the semester, when their classmates are clearly showing, in class, both that they can identify clauses and that they understand some of the implications of clause length, stylistic complexity, logic, etc.
Although some people on this list have claimed that it would be easy to teach students to identify subjects and verbs, in reality, there are numerous problems that students have to learn to master. The students just completed Exercise # 10, in which they were asked to identify the S/V/C patterns in a short passage. One sentence was
This room has three long red velvet booths that fit eight people each.
Many students did not recognize "fit" as a finite verb, and of those who did, many marked "booths" as its subject.
I find this situation extremely frustrating, and it perhaps explains my frustration (and incivility?) on this list. As a composition teacher who is interested in the teaching of grammar, I see numerous stylistic questions that could be discussed in my classes, just in terms of clauses. Such discussions cannot take place if students cannot recognize clauses. If students entered the class with the ability to identify subjects, verbs, and complements, things would be much easier and more productive.
Ed
To Ed -- you ask if any of us have students analyze their own
sentences. Well, you know I am going to do that, but we aren't into
syntax yet.
I have a question for you -- when you are in the beginning stages of
grammar instruction, do you have your students immediately begin
analyzing their own sentences, regardless of how long and complex they
are? Do you do any pre-digesting by separating out the major chunks
(e.g. clauses) for them? In other words, do you work up from less
complex tasks to more complex ones?
Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
E-mail:
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