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.

Questions

1. Where did the term "university" come from?
2.Judging from the ups and downs of the world of words, does it seem that the study of grammar or literature is more important in the success of people as a whole?

crops

In David Mulroy's The War Against Grammar, Chapter Two, the claim is made that, "Questioning the value of basic grammar is like asking whether farmers should know the names of their crops and animals." The same as it is ludicrous to wonder why it is necessary for a farmer to be familiar with the plants and animals that are their livelihood it is nonsensical for any individual that wants to be successful in reading and writing to ask why they should master the statutes of basic grammar. The same as a farmer is not going to automatically know all of the in-and-outs of farming, it is not expected that one should know all of the rules of grammar instantly. One must learn from mistakes and practice in order to reach perfection.

Moreover, there are some basics that a farmer must be aware of before they can run a farm. There is a good chance that there will be minor slip-ups along the way, but the basics of what cows should eat and how much water tomatoes need should be known for the most part. Similarly, the basics of grammar: verbs, nouns, subject, etc. should be laid down as the groundwork for writing and reading in order to have a lush intellectual garden.

greek salad

In David Mulroy's second chapter, "The first Liberal Art," he goes all the way back to the influence of the Greeks and Romans on the English language. While the Greeks acquired the idea of the alphabet from the Phoenicians, it was the first of it's kind and allowed people to express complex ideas and stories as they had never been able to before. While prose is the more widely used form of communication today, the roots of writing can be found in poetry, as the first things to be written were the songs that were sung.

The likes of Homer and others employed and spread the use of the alphabet. The Romans were fast to emulate the Greeks alphabet, which played a major role in making their way up in the world. The Hellenistic period was one of expansion of the Greek and Roman literature. The Greek Plato came up with seven areas of study that all his students had to learn before tackling philosophy. Of course, the Romans were quick to follow with the institution of the same areas into their curriculum, deaming them "the liberal arts." Plato's Socrates stated that all peole had a priori of knowledge which enabled them to know the rules of their language. While it is true that knowledge of grammar comes from experience, it is still learned rather than just known. The liberal arts worked to instill the foundations of thought and problem solving due to the notion that knowledge must be learned, rather than that it is already known.

The mandates of the English language were layed down in greater detail by Dionysius and added to later by Donatus and Priscian. The books of the latter two became the basis of the study of the liberal arts. While grammar was not one of the most important of the seven subjects taught, it was still held in high regard since none of the ideas of the others would be possible to communicate without knowledge of this area.

SWEet

To teach SWE or to not teach SWE, that is the question. This is one of the reasons that I chose to not be an English education major. In the end, I have a feeling that whether or not I, or any other teacher, thinks it should be taught won't matter. What will matter will be whatever happens to be on the tests, and that is what teachers will preach to their students in order to keep their jobs.

Aside from what some might call a cynical, but what I like to think of as truthful, view of the world; if there were a utopia, there are certain things that I would prefer. While I have a great disdain for SWE when it comes to knowing all of the terms and diagramming sentences, I do feel that it has helped me a great deal to be able to communicate in this manner. I'm not sure that it is absolutely necessary to know the ins- and-outs of grammar in order to efficiently speak and write in SWE. However, when it comes to learning a second language, I think that it does help a great deal.

I have heard many people say that they learned more about grammar while learning a foreign language than they did in their English classes, and I can say that I had a similar experience. I was taught the fundamental operations of the English language by way of speaking and writing, as opposed to learning the backbone of the language before putting it to use. This is necessary when learning a language from scratch, but when it comes to an individual's first language, these rules are engrained into the individual's mind. The problem arises when these rules are not those of SWE.

I have friends that communicate more efficiently in English as their second language than those that have been speaking it their entire lives. It could be argued that it is easier to teach someone SWE as a second language than to re-teach someone that speaks incorrect English. Schools have ESL in order to aid children in learning English, however, there is no aid for children that have been brought up in an ungrammatical atmosphere.

In order to combat both of these setbacks, why not let the children help each other in learning SWE? In areas that have had dramatic growth in Spanish speakers, some schools have instituted programs that have children learning in Spanish for half of the day and English for the other half. This approach would cultivate a better understanding in both areas, since the children would be forced to learn the rules for one language in order to catch onto the other language. In addition, children would progress at a faster rate and not have to be singled out from the rest of their class to go to a special class.

In the end, all of the children come out with a second language and a better understanding of SWE. This is not a fool-proof method. There are many children that might fall through the cracks or teachers that are not able to teach the grammatical aspects due to thier own deficency in this area while they were in school. However, if such programs were instituted at an early age and touched on throughout the years, the children would not have to worry about it later on when it is more difficult for them to learn this new information when they have grown accustomed to speaking and writing in a certain way.

Putting down Pinker

David Mulroy takes up for all of the staunch grammarians out there in his essay, "The Scandal of Prespritivism." Beginning with some of the background of grammar, Mulroy cites William Caxton's view of the alterations in speech in the 1400's along with the birth of the first dictionaries and grammar books to enforce the rules that were impossible to be dished out merely by schools. The rest of the article revolves around dicounting the assertions that grammar was not all that important, which were made by Pinker. Mulroy points out that Pinker, along with Hook, doesn't use specific sources in backing up his statements and that he uses "anonymous examlples" in order to put down English grammar. He goes on to say that while Pinker mentions split infinitives being used during the 18th century, that they were not mentioned until 1864 and that the assertion, "That we can communicate with our instictive abilities is undeniable; that we can do so 'with exquisite precision' on the basis of instinct alone is doubtful" (85). Mulroy finishes up with saying that he supports dialects, but that it is impossible to fully express oneself without knowledge of standard English and that while he respects Pinker, he would rather have someone else teach his children.

interview

Dr. Hughes, when asked what she thought of Mulroy’s argument, that grammar instruction has become less common because, “the whole concept of literal meaning has fallen into disfavor in academia,” she replied with a good deal of distaste. While she is not against the individual learning of grammar, she does not feel that it is necessary to implement within the classroom. In her opinion, there is not a need for the students to know grammatical terms in order to adequately communicate. She gave the example of trying to explain to a student that there was a sentence fragment in their paper, but instead of using this term, which they didn’t know, she talked about sentence boundaries. The student still received the information and can apply that knowledge in the future, despite the fact that a different term was used to explain the concept. Dr. Hughes is aware of the decline in grammar instruction in the past few decades, but doesn’t feel that there is need for change. If any change needs to occur, she feels that students should read and write more. She feels that these are the keys to truly grasping the language and becoming a better writer. Dr. Hughes stated that, “Student’s must have pride in their writing first,” that is, before grammar instruction is even considered.