Christine,
I prefer tree diagrams over the R-K diagrams for two reasons:  first, tree diagrams clearly show the constituent structure of the sentence --they help students see how the sentence is built up from the smaller parts and how the smaller parts, in turn, form larger units.  Second, contrary to the RK diagrams, tree diagrams preserve the linear structure of the sentence;  I like to tell my students that tree diagrams are an accurate visual representation of a sentence .  (The students can read the words at the bottom of the tree and come up with the exact sentence they started with;  I don't see RK as being as accurate/exact representation since the linear order of the elements is not preserved).

Cornelia Paraskevas
Western Oregon University

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/