who says we need grammar
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Who says we need grammar?
All through schooling, since third grade, we have been taught grammar. Grammar
is defined at dictionary.com as, the study of the way the sentences of a language are
constructed. By the time I was a senior in high school, I had to memorize the seventeen
comma rules, plus a million other punctuation rules- it was no surprise to me that I barely
remembered two rules from all the years of my schooling. By having to memorize over
forty rules in about three weeks, it is still no shock to me that I barely learned them or
how to apply them still to this day. Why in the heck is it so confusing! I
usually understood where to place certain punctuation marks but I could not explain the
exact rule for why I used it. I didnt care that I used and appositive, I just knew that it
sounded right. Most teachers and professors believe that grammar is important and that
the grammar handbook should be known and memorized. In contrast, there is reason to
believe that the use of grammar and importance of the handbook is not as useful as it is
made out to be.
Why do we use grammar? How many of us have been given a handbook of
grammar rules and every sentence we wrote was either right or wrong because of the
lucky chance of following a rule or unfortunate chance of violating a rule? Do these rules
really make our writing better and correct as most teachers and professors claim, or can
we just throw them aside? John Dawkins, a professional writer, describes the use of
Grammar as a rhetorical tool used to place emphasis on certain parts of a sentence. He
uses a principal called raising and lowering in which clauses are more or less separated
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by the use of punctuation. He explains that if an idea should be emphasized, then the
maximum punctuation should be used: a period or a semi-colon. If the emphasis should
be medium, a colon or dash would be used and a comma or nothing would be used
for minimum emphasis (Dawkins 147). The higher or more abrupt punctuation like a
period causes more separation, more pause than a lower mark like a comma. For
example, compare these two sentences: She wanted to go to the store- until she lost
her money. And She wanted to go to the store until she lost her money. Until she lost
her money was emphasized because of the dash. The second sentence, which had
no pronunciation, was given much less emphasis. Dawkins describes using grammar ashow we want readers to read our writing instead of using a bunch of rules so that we are
handbook correct. He says, Learning to punctuate effectively requires only a little
knowledge of grammar, much less than most English teachers will grant (WAW
150). He also states that we need to understand what independent and dependent clauses
are, but we know this based on everyday speaking, reading and writing; I agree. If
my English teachers had me focus on content and challenge me to read and write more
instead of memorizing the entire grammar handbook, my effectiveness of grammar in my
writing would have been much better. If I am writing for someone else to read, dont I
want to put the emphasis on what I want to reader to read rather than write for the
approval a stupid handbook?
Now we see that the grammar handbook isnt the end all be all and grammar can
be acquired and used in other productive ways, what should be taught in schools? It is
also believed that teachers should start teaching grammar at a young age such as fourth
grade. But is this even productive or necessary? Are the kids really even understanding
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what they are being taught? I questioned that teachers shouldnt teach grammar until
later in high school or have other methods than teaching directly out of the handbook.
Three authors of the book To Grammar or Not To Grammar, have an opinion about the
way grammar is taught. The writers of this edition said Both our personal teaching
experiences and the findings of research studies support the conclusion that most students
do not benefit from grammar study in isolation from writing, if indeed our purpose in
teaching grammar is to help students improve their writing (e.g., Hillocks and
Smith, 1991) (Weaver, McNally, and Moerman 18). These teachers have experienced
the ways that kids work and respond to the teaching of grammar and they believe it isclear that kids do not respond to grammar well if it is taken out of context of actual
writing. They believe that the study of grammar can be very helpful though. They stated,
The choice and placement of these grammatical options join with word use and other
features to create a distinctive style and voice in a piece of writing. Thus, guiding
students in sentence expansion and revision is critical to helping them become more
effective, not just more correct, as writers (Weaver, McNally, and Moerman 18). This is
a true point. When we are taught how to connect clauses, we are able to longer choppy
sentences and make them more efficient and flow better. What sixth, seventh or even
high school student is ready to understand the entire handbook like they are taught?
Grammar was a big mess of confusion for me and I tried hard to learn the rules. It was so
hard to remember all the parts of a sentence and all the rules that came with it. I
was learning the basic concepts of writing- I didnt need a group of rules trying to govern
the concept that I was still learning.
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In the English Journal by Jean Sanborn, she also reiterates this point. She states,
What is important in school is not grammatical analysis or the teaching of as yet
undeveloped forms but continuing performance in all aspects of language- reading
writing, speaking, listening-which will encourage, not teach, syntactic maturity.
Language continues to develop through the use of language, not through exercises in the
naming of parts (Sanborn 74). Jean describes young people learning grammar as a
process where they have to step outside of themselves to examine a process. He goes on
to explain that this results in frustration and confusion of the kids which makes them take
a step backward educationally (Sanborn 76). A way I think about this conceptis learning to play basketball or any sport. You have to learn how to dribble, pass and
shoot before you learn plays. It may take years of rec basketball before you can learn
really complicated plays if you are willing to go to that level. If you are taught plays
before you get the fundamentals down, then you will be so frustrated and overwhelmed
that you will probably quit. The same is with writing. If you are trying to write
well rhetorically for the reader, and you know some basic concepts of how to use
grammar, is it really necessary that you are drilled with a million techniques that are not
essential to the reader?
I think that the writers of To Grammar or Not to Grammar explaine it best. For
us, the question is not a simple dichotomy, To grammar or not to grammar? Rather, the
question is, What aspects of grammar can we teach to enhance and improve students
writing, and when and how can we best teach them? In the context of writing is our
short answer, but we keep learning more ways as we keep taking risks as teachers
(Weaver, McNally, and Moerman 19). This makes sense because if we learn plays slowly
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as we learn the mechanics of the game, then we will grow in wisdom towards the game as
our coordination grows. In other words, students will be able to take on outside grammar
as they continue using common sense grammar.
The use of grammar can be effective in punctuation to making sentences efficient
and rhetorical. But, the handbook should not be the bible of all writing. It should
merely be a guideline that writers can refer to. When younger, kids can learn the ideas of
certain punctuation necessary such as a period and a comma to give a little break but they
live in a world where they talk, read and write all the time. Grammar becomes common
sense to them. They know how to connect words to make effective sentences without theconfusion of adding in some grammar rules. At the very end of the writing process when
language, concepts, and rhetoric have been understood, then the rules can be looked at
but some thing should not be considered a grammatical error for not being identical to the
handbook. Students should learn grammar from the handbook as a referral when they are
in late stages of high school. It should not be forced on to Children when they
are young. Grammar is a tool to help our readers understand our writing better. Instead
of confusing our kids, lets let them grasp the concepts of writing in general and teach
simple grammar in late stages of high school in rhetorical purposes.
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Works Cited
Dawkins, John. Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool. College Composition and
Communication 46.4 (1995): 533-48 print.
Sanborn, Jean. "Good Wine before Its Time." National Council of Teachers of English.
75.3 (1986): 72-80. Print. .
Weaver, Constance, Carol McNally, and Sharon Moerman. "To Grammar or Not to
Grammar: That is Not the Question!." Voices from the Middle. 8.3 (2001): 17-33. Print.
.