Thanks so much, Carolyn, for posting the ordering information again, and for
giving us an even fuller explanation.  Your book sounds like something I may
want to use in my fall Grammar for Teachers class.  Instead of or in addition
to traditional grammar (modified by structural and transformational concepts),
I think I'd much rather use a simplified grammar that draws upon ideas from
SFG "but not its difficult vocabulary."

I think I'm finally getting the drift that some/many of you who are on this
listserv want to restore the study of LANGUAGE to the curriculum, not just the
study of "grammar."  Bravo.  I've been trying to think how you could do that
without ending up with yet another set of traditional grammar books, covering
mostly the same topics year after year.  You may have already had this in
mind, but anyway, here's an idea I had while trying to fall asleep last
night.  Perhaps the best way to retain your intellectual integrity and teach
aspects of language with writing and literature, plus other aspects of
language that could interest and inform students, might be to produce one or
more books for teachers that are grouped by grade levels--e.g. 3-5, 6-8, 9-12,
or some such division.  Working with classroom teachers as a reality check AND
as co-authors, you could develop books that would inform teachers and at the
same time provide ideas and materials for working with the children.  The
books could be printed in 8 1/2 by 11 or 9/x 12 size, with some pages designed
to be made into transparencies.  This might be ONE way to teach the aspects of
grammar and language more broadly, without making the language strand into
something that crowds writing out of the curriculum.  Perhaps I'm overly
optimistic about this, but I feel confident that you could get a publisher if
you can produce something interesting, even exciting, and appropriate for the
levels of the students.

For whatever it's worth, I think such books should capitalize upon insights
from Chomsky's work (et al.) AND on insights from SFG about some of the more
obvious ways that language form conveys meaning.  I can't see why materials
written for elementary and secondary students should reflect just the insights
from one perspective.  At level, students don't need theory so much as what we
have learned from various theories.

Connie Weaver

> The handbook of mine that Martha and Connie and Judy referred to was just
> published in April of this year.
> Its primary purpose is not to teach grammar but to assist college students
> in editing their writing.  It does this by explaining the reasons for
> alternatives, using systemic functional grammar.  Thus it does teach a
> great deal of grammar, but only secondarily. It teaches patterns and the
> reasons for them, not rules. It uses the ideas of SFG -- but not its
> difficult vocabulary -- because I believe that is more helpful to students.
>  If traditional grammar had helped them as much as it should have, they
> probably would not need this book as much, unless they are non-native
> speakers of English.  It does teach some things that are definitely not in
> SFG, such as forms for citing the WWW in research papers.
>
> Meaning First: A Functional Handbook of Fifty Ways to Polish Your Writing
> by Carolyn G. Hartnett
> Parlay Press, P. O. Box 894
> Superior, WI 54880
> Phone/Fax 218-834-2508
> E-mail [log in to unmask]
> ISBN 0-9644636-7-9
>
> I tried very had to keep it short, 100 pages.  I appreciate your interest.
>
> Carolyn
> [log in to unmask]
> 2027 Bay Street
> Texas City, Texas 77590-6414
> Phone/Fax 409-948-1446