Bill, thanks for the report. I ordered Image Grammar & am eagerly awaiting
it; my
students last semester loved Noden's chapter in Weaver's recently edited
book. I do agree with you, that more needs to be done to make non-fiction,
purposeful writing more do-able for more students, and the brush strokes you
mentioned seem far more useful for descriptive & narrative writing. For the
sciences and social sciences, one important brush stroke has to be
nominalization. I don't agree that stylistic grammar is less useful for
basic writers, comp 101, etc. -- I think the power of stylistics is in
linking 'levels' -- different large structures do draw on different smaller
structures -- showing that to struggling writers can really help them make
choices about 'what to do' when they write (though in my view, it must be
shown non-prescriptively).

Judith


At 10:51 PM 1/13/00 -0500, you wrote:
>In view of our discussions of the various possible uses of grammar in
writing, you might be interested in a new book that I just acquired this
week. It's called _Image Grammar_ and was written by Harry R. Noden. The
book is a 1999 publication by Boynton/Cook Heinemann. According to the blurb
on the back of the book, Noden "has taught eighth-grade English/language
arts for thirty years at Hudson Middle School in Ohio. In 1996, he was
selected as Ohio's Outstanding Middle School Language Arts Teachers by the
Ohio Council of Teachers of English." He also contributed to one of
Constance Weaver's books on grammar.
>
>This book is not a textbook for students. It's a resource for teachers.
However, as I shall show below, it does include materials for students.
>
>Each chapter of the book is composed of two parts. The first part
introduces  a group of basic "concepts" of image grammar. For example, in
Chapter 1, The Writer as Artist, the concepts are called "basic brush
strokes" and serve as methods of "painting images." There are five of these:
participles, absolutes, appositives, adjectives shifted out of order, and
action verbs. The second part is called "strategies" and consists of lessons
that will help students learn to use the brush strokes. In Chapter 1, there
are seven strategies. Examples are Strategy 1: Create an Artist's Image
Palette, and Strategy 2: Explore Images from Films of Best-Selling Novels.
>
>Other chapters cover additional strategies. Chapter 2 covers specific
details, Chapter 3 covers parallel structures, Chapter 4 suggests using
imitation, and Chapter 5 is on "special effects" using punctuation, sentence
structure, techniques from Greek rhetoric, mood filtering and "tantalizing
titles." Of particular interest to me were three chapters that go beyond
syntax: Chapter 6, grammar of passages; Chapter 7, story grammar; and
Chapter 8, nonfiction form #5 [feature story]. Finally, Chapter 9 covers
revision.
>
>In addition to the material in the text, the book includes a CD-ROM that
helps teachers use the book with their students. There is a section for
teachers, in which the strategies of each chapter are translated into
handouts to give to students, and a section for students that consists of
pictures for students to write about. This latter section can be put on the
web so that students will have easy access to the pictures.
>
>Throughout the book, Noden displays a broad and impressive familiarity with
research in grammar in particular and language arts in general.
>
>I do have a couple of quibbles with the book. One is that, like most
stylistic grammars, it relies heavily on examples from literature. Noden
says of Chapter 1 that "All brush strokes should work equally well for
fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, but each genre creates a different
emphasis." He's could be right about that, but I'd like to see more examples
from nonfiction.
>
>Another quibble has to do with my primary concern with teaching basic
writing and regular freshman composition in college. I don't see how I would
have time to spend much time on stylistic grammar. I teach in a top-down
manner, from situational context to aim of discourse, to mode of discourse,
etc. In a top-down scheme, small structures are at the bottom and are given
much less time than the large structures at the top. I think this is true of
most experienced college composition teachers. I just don't see a place for
very much stylistic grammar.
>
>However, I enjoyed Noden's book very much. Perhaps if I were to return to
teaching at the secondary level, I would find a better place to use the
book. I sure would like to try.
>
>Bill
>
>
>William J. McCleary
>3247 Bronson Hill Road
>Livonia, NY 14487
>716-346-6859


Judith Diamondstone  (732) 932-7496  Ext. 352
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1183