paragraphs

Summary:
In 1849 STephan Clark published Practical Grammar Illustrated by a Complete System of Diagrams. Reed and Kellog went on to reform sentence diagramming. Clark used balloons to diagram sentences while Reed and Kellogg used lines for the first time. This approach was used in many classrooms, but was not put into a textbook until Kolln's Understanding English Grammar and Mark Lester's Grammar and Usage in the Classroom.

Expansion:
The fact that there has been evidence that there has been some imporvement in student writing thanks to "sentence combining" is good to hear. It is amazing that simply combining simple sentences has such a positive impact on student's writing. At the same time, it makes sense that this would improve one's writing, as one has to truly think about the meaning of sentences and how they can work together in order to combine the sentences. I had learned how to combine sentences to an extent by way of writing through the years, but had never actually been taught this skill specifically until one of my classes last year. Since then, I have found a positive change in my writing, which is refreshing.