A review of the various grammatical traditions from traditional grammar through structural linguistics to transformational grammar points out that traditional and transformational grammar are neither mutually exclusive nor entirely contradictory. Implications drawn from modern inquiry include the necessity for reading and writing teachers to guide students in their search for the meaning that underlies linguistic surface expression rather than to demand that students learn the rules that regulate those expressions. Teachers need a consistent philosophy of meaning and an understanding of its expression through language to produce good writers and an effective program of learning. (AEA)