This study examines eight evaluative abstracts on grammar instruction, to determine the effects of such instruction on student writing and to trace the development of sentence-combining instruction, which helps students write with increased syntactic maturity. On the basis of the evaluative abstracts, the study concludes that traditional grammar instruction does not help students improve their writing ability appreciably, that such instruction, in fact, may hinder the development of students as writers, and that sentence-combining instruction should be incorporated into both elementary and secondary language arts programs. (Author/RL)