I don’t know if there is a teaching method or a theory behind it, but the method takes advantage of one of the features of good sentences, that that complexity increases rightward. We can add modifiers to the right much more easily than to the left. A couple of famous linguistic examples are Right Branching the height of the lettering on the covers of the books Left Branching the books’ covers’ lettering’s height Using Kimberley’s teaching technique reinforces adding complexity to the right and teaches an important feature of well constructed sentences. Herb From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kimberley Hunt Sent: 2008-02-26 20:38 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: graphic display of text syntax for comprehensibility Scott, Yes, I've used this method -- for teaching Shakespeare to high school students. I learned the basics in workshops at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater where it's called "scoring the text." It's a method actors used to isolate parentheticals and main clauses to derive a clearer understanding of their lines. I took what I learned there and applied it in grammar lessons for phrases and clauses in my 11th and 12th grade literature classes, and we've used it extensively in poetry analysis as well as Shakespeare. As one of the class exercises, I had them, as a group, build a story by adding phrases and clauses to main clauses -- which generated a structure that looks very much like the one in your message. They had a good time telling a story in really, really long sentences, too. I had fun, too (oops -- am I allowed to have fun teaching grammar and syntax?). I don't know what the grammatical theory is behind this, but I do now recall learning to do something like this back in the 1980s when I in training as a college composition teacher at Loyola University Chicago. Hope that illuminates a little. -----Original Message----- From: Scott Woods Sent: Feb 26, 2008 3:22 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: graphic display of text syntax for comprehensibility Listmates, I came across a way of displaying text graphically to show the reader the chunks of language. The original, from a Latin teaching website, http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/languages/classical/latin/tchmat/accrdrs.html , has one version with extensive grammar mark ups and another with just the chunks, separated vertically on the page. A middle type in English follows: The boy, crouched on his nail keg at the back of the crowded room, knew he smelled cheese, and more: from where he sat he could see the ranked shelves close-packed with the solid, squat, dynamic shapes of tin cans whose labels his stomach read, not from the lettering which meant nothing to his mind but from the scarlet devils and the silver curve of fish-- this, the cheese which he knew he smelled and the hermetic meat which his intestines believed he smelled coming in intermittent gusts momentary and brief between the other constant one, the smell and sense just a little of fear because mostly of despair and grief, the old fierce pull of blood. The purpose of such a presentation is to make syntax clearer to the reader to improve comprehension. Has anyone on the list used such a presentation method? Is anyone aware of any research on it? Any thoughts? Scott Woods ________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51734/*http:/tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping> 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/ Kimberley Hunt Instructor, English Dept. St. Scholastica Academy 7416 N. Ridge Chicago, IL 60645 773-764-5715 x343 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/