Add sentence combining practicing syntactic structures to sentence
diagramming and talk about the effects of those structures, and you have
something that really improves student writing--

> ----------
> From:         Lunde, Peter[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> Sent:         Thursday, January 06, 2000 10:24 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Grammar
>
> Amy,
>
> Mr. McCleary has been shooting down all responders who challenge his
> notion
> that "writing" and "grammar" are not connected. I am 56 years old. I come
> from a generation that was taught grammar from the first grade on. We
> diagrammed sentences, wrote essays, and broke those essays down into their
> parts of speech. This taught us the basic mechanics of language that clear
> away questions relating to proper part of speech usage and variation.
>
> Today it seems, anything that comes out of the mind of a student is termed
> "writing," or so it seems that McCleary wants it that way. He is entirely
> in
> another territory here, and that place is called expository or creative
> writing, something completely different from the mechanics of writing, of
> which grammar is an important part.
>
> My wife is from Russia. She speaks and writes English so fluently that I
> am
> amazed she wasn't born here. How is it, you might ask, that someone from
> Russia who can speak and write English so well, outperforms many people
> here?  In Russia, when students learn English, they learn grammar right
> next
> to the speaking part. And they learn it cold. She explained to me that
> without the grammar rules, she would not be able to speak and write so
> effectively.
>
> Does Mr. McCleary actually think that any great writer, like Lawrence or
> Conrad,  did not know their English grammar? That everyone is a born
> savant
> who instinctively writes? This is irresponsible claptrap and the product
> of
> university insulation from what is needed as opposed to the theory of what
> is needed. Stick to your guns and keep the grammar in. Try to bring
> diagramming back in, it works and students will remember what it teaches.
>
> Pete Lunde
> Technical Publications  RSM
> BMC Software  2100 City West  Houston TX  77042
> (713) 918-7321
>