A surprising conversation with her young daughter inspired author Brandie Bohney to incorporate mentor texts to help students make sense of convention rules. Since struggling and reluctant readers tend to also be struggling and reluctant writers, the author designed activities that would concentrate on the conventions students most needed to…

As a teacher of Bowling Green State University's English 3810, Grammar and Writing, the author is charged with teaching future language arts teachers how to teach grammar so that it actually helps their students become better writers and communicators. Because such teaching rejects the ineffective but time-honored drill-it-and-kill-it approach, in…

Grammar checkers do not claim to teach grammar; they are tools to bring potential problems to the writer's attention. They also offer only formal and Standard English preferences, limiting the freer expression of some literary forms. Without guidance, students may misuse the checker, become frustrated, and feel discouraged. Users must be…

Argues that the prohibition against the comma splice has no logical basis whatsoever, and offers numerous examples. Maintains that English teachers should relax prohibitions against comma splices, accept that usage is flexible, and allow students a freedom which more confident writers take for granted. (SR)

Quotes from the letters of Joseph Crosby regarding the certification of teachers in English grammar, orthography, arithmetic, and geography in 1877, and reproduces the four certification examinations Crosby developed. (DD)

Presents a (fictional) conversation between a college English professor and a graduate student in English who is something of a purist about the language. Shows, in conversations across a semester and a half, her changing attitudes about the rules of good English, "purity" in the language, divided usage, and confusing grammar and usage. (SR)

Discusses the logic, elegance, and history of using they, them, and their as singular indefinite pronouns. Notes that, as a solution to the pronoun problem, the strength of this solution is its vagueness. Offers numerous real-life examples from publications or broadcasts and lists why it is counterproductive for English teachers to exclude this…

As a new faculty member, the author was invited by colleagues to help protect a resource they believed was essential to their instructional program. The importance of teaching grammar in a didactic fashion as a precursor to student writing constituted an unchallenged belief in the department. Faculty members were committed to the notion that…

Argues that problems in teaching grammar stem from failure to help students develop, as opposed to memorize, grammatical concepts. Recommends discussion of style and vocabulary, student stylistic analysis of their own writing, and deciphering syntactic use, not just definition, of parts of speech. Suggests that such training should begin in…

Surveys 40 middle-school language-arts teachers in 3 local public school districts. Finds that (1) most teachers believed it was important for their students to master grammar; and (2) teachers spend considerable time teaching grammar. Argues that grammar deserves a prominent place in the middle school curriculum. (RS)

Argues that grammar instruction can be more effective if put in a realistic context by: (1) becoming part of an integrated curriculum; and (2) concentrating on the proofreading stage of writing assignments. Illustrates integrating various components of the language-arts curriculum by briefly describing a unit using a short story. (RS)

Describes teaching method in which junior high school students (1) take dictation of a sentence illustrating rules of usage; (2) copy it, punctuate it, and identify rules for its punctuation; and (3) discuss the sentence after the teacher writes it on the board. Notes that all low-average ninth graders thus trained passed the High School…

Discusses the work of D. Smith, who wrote "Fifty Years of Children's Books,""Instruction in English," and Selected Essays," that largely document the history of English instruction in the U.S. for the last 50 years. (SRT)

Counters six arguments against humor in English classes. Presents arguments in support of studying humor in English classes, noting its usefulness and benefits. (SR)