Michael, I'm curious about your use of Reed-Kellogg diagrams. What sentences do you have students diagram? Are they previously selected sentences, or do the students diagram sentences from their own writing? My sense of the Reed-Kellogg is that it works fine for relatively simple sentences but that it does not enable students to analyze the sentences that they themselves write. Am I wrong about this? Thanks, Ed >>> Michael Kischner <[log in to unmask]> 02/21/98 08:10pm >>> Our experience in a grammar course here at North Seattle Community College is that Reed-Kellog diagrams work quite well for about ninety percent of the students. THat is, the students are able to use them to analyze the relations among the elements of a sentence. For about ten percent, maybe fewer, the diagramming can be a source of painful frustration. Our course also makes heavy use of sentence-combining (for putting sentences together again, so to speak), and sometimes the non-diagrammers are able to shine in the sentence-combining part and get a lot out of the class. Where grammar instruction fails to carry over into better writing, I don't think the diagramming, if it is used, can be blamed. The main culprit, I believe, is lack of time for practice in the application of grammar to style. LIke so many maidens, the handmaiden of thought cannot be rushed.