Memo to Brad:

Your posts provide an interesting entry into a point that many students find difficult to learn - or, perhaps more accurately, that I find difficult to teach - namely, the "tone" of academic discourse. Telling students that the purpose of their writing is not to teach "life's lessons" always manages to produce much debate. So there is nothing, of course, that's inherently wrong with giving grammar surveys to grammarians, or particularly disturbing with results that show we have different positions when it comes to reading and analyzing texts. (I believe a prior post on this subject pointed out that context has a lot to do with interpretation.) A writing researcher whom I greatly admire (David Bartholomae) describes the student's job as "joining the conversation." Thus, the "life's lesson" to be learned by those who would engage academic grammarians in grammar surveys is simply this - to be treated as an equal, don't presume to be superior. So, Brad, keep up the good work - you're on your way!

Geoff