>Please, how does the word "however" "communicate . . . when information"? > >Christine Gray Let me respond to this a little more fully - as I said, "however" obviously doesn't communicate anything of the kind. But pointing out my error nicely ignores the point - specifically, that what you call grammatical terms (and this list conducts seemingly endless naming and defining discussions) makes absolutely no difference in the ability of a student to produce meaning. In other words, students don't write nouns and verbs and adjective and adverbs (conjunctinve or otherwise); they create meaning. And my contention is that most meaning can be categorized in the journalists' "who-what-why-when-where-how" litanny. When information, for example, is created using very specific "when words" - words that every student knows and that they can learn how and when to use. It doesn't matter whether you're a world famous journalist or a freshman high school student - everyone has to use when words to create when information (and, of course, "however" isn't one of them!). Similary, there are "where words", "why words," etc. You get the point (I hope). Students can learn how to write using this type of information much more easily than trying to figure out the care and feeding of a conjunctive adverb. This approach actually makes grammar an exceptionally useful tool in teaching students how to write - what I call "writing in the context of grammar." An added benefit is that nobody ever talks about conjunctive adverbs. Geoff Layton To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/