Confession: I absolutely hate freewriting because it is so
unstructured, though I make my students do it on occasion.
Elizabeth
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, November 20, 2006 8:33
PM
Subject: Grammar - the "All Brain"
Subject
Dick -
I think that the issue goes beyond being "like
us" (yes, I, too, admit to an
ancient attachment to diagramming!) and
reaches to the heart of the issue
that we have with NCTE and their various
attacks against grammar.
If we can move grammar away from the side of
the writing process that deals
with error correction and more towards what
classical rhetoric would call
"invention," then we can demonstrate that
grammar can, indeed, play a major
role in creative ("right brain")
part the writing process. In fact, I
think that grammar can a
more powerful creative tool than so-called
"unstructure
free-writing."
Students can use standard grammatical constructions to
create original,
powerful sentences, paragraphs, and even entire essays
starting with little
more than simple subject-predicate
combinations. There truly is a grammar
for the right brain, and as
you indicated, it doesn't need to be separated
from the left brain.
In fact, it is the structure of grammar that allows
both halves to work so
well together!
Grammar is an "all brain" subject!
Geoff
Layton
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