Johanna Rubba wrote:

> But there's another thing that some posters seem a little confused about:
> knowing something subconsciously -- such as how to maintain topic
> continuity in conversation -- is not the same as knowing you know it, and
> being able to _consciously_ manipulate it.

This is central to the issue about the need for conscious knowledge
about grammar.

I would think that we need to think about writing which forces these
questions.  Writing narratives doesn't do it.

> Children's subconscious
> knowledge of grammar is large at age 5; their subconscious knowledge of
> how to handle interpersonal discourse evolves greatly during the school
> years. Writing for an absent audience is most challenging in this respect:
> in order to write informatively, you need to manipulate information flow
> expertly. This is aided if you are conscious of information flow
> management techniques, but few people are conscious of these -- even
> skilled writers and editors, many of whom grasp this intuitively, but
> can't talk about it in discourse-analysis terms. I see teaching
> information flow management as part of teaching grammar/writing.

Absolutely right. It is crucial in the kinds of issues I deal with in my
college students' writing.  The way I begin such concerns is how ideas
are connected to each other.

Such answers suggest the information flow.

Bob Yates, Central Missouri State University