RK diagrams also have a subversive, Trojan horse, use.  They are respected by a large population that knows nothing about grammar but believes that there is virtue in teaching it and that diagramming enhances that virtue.  What we need to do is bring this grammatical lumpenproletariat with us by presenting them with what they expect and want, namely RK diagrams, but at the same time making those diagrams work to capture grammatical generalizations more accurately and effectively and wedding them to a scheme of grammar that is phenomenologically accurate and productive for effective language use.  In less loaded language, RK diagrams are a valuable common ground for us to work from.  As Geoffrey Nunberg says, "[Grammar] is the North Korea of language."  We need that Trojan horse to break into the public consciousness with a better grammar without scaring the public off.

 

Herb

	

	

	 

	I’ve been using RK diagrams with my English Ed. students as “extra credit” material (that way, the diagramophobic students don’t have to endure stress attacks, and the ones who like visual representations can play with them). I’m trying to get the students who don’t like RK, though, to realize that they could use other visual metaphors if they found them appealing.  The professor I had years (and years) ago for a course in Structure of Aymara had us build grammar models out of colored pipe-cleaners; I’ve got a system that can work with color-coded, spray-painted Tinker Toys (although it’s hard to get one’s hands on Tinker Toys anymore; I think maybe they’ve been deemed dangerous), and I think it may be possible to tweak some of the graphic programs for chemistry modeling to do the same kind of thing. 

	 

	The value of RK, of course, is that it can be used consistently across grade levels (with increasing levels of complexity), and the same could be true for “pedagogically enhanced” modifications of tree diagramming. That doesn’t mean, though, that one can’t use other, more localized visual metaphors – even if it’s just color-coding kinds of words on index cards for students to build sentences out of.

	 

	Bill Spruiell

	 

	Dept. of English

	Central Michigan University

	 

	 

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