Bob,

I thought I made it clear that I was not "expecting" that the diagramming
was a means to improve writing, but to encourage thought.  My students are
inner-city kids who have spent little or no time thinking about language -
and have done precious little work in any school subjects.  My first goal
was to find something that they would hook on to.  Sentence diagramming was
only one of many experiments; some worked better than others.  This one did
not work well - but it may have been my error in HOW I taught it, rather
than in the idea that it may actually attract some students to learning.

I'm sorry if I was not clear in my previous posting.

----------
> From: Bob Yates <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: College student doing research on the grammar debate
> Date: Sunday, December 13, 1998 2:27 PM
>
> "Paul E. Doniger" wrote:
>
> > For the record, last year, when I tried to teach my students the basics
of
> > diagramming sentences, I learned that most of them hated it, but a few
of
> > them learned something from it.  I did NOT try to make it affect their
> > writing directly - this is one area where I suspect the research is
> > acurate.  I simply wanted them to understand how sentences were put
> > together, and to THINK about it.  But my attempt was, I think,
unsuccessful
> > for most of my students.
>
> Whenever I read a comment like this I wonder what the person is defining
> by influencing their writing.  What did you expect the diagramming of
sentences
> to improve in your students writing?
>
> Bob Yates