Comments | miner_beth: BEDA Entry 26: Grammar Shmammer

miner_beth

BEDA Entry 26: Grammar Shmammer

Apr 26, 2009 22:08

Today's entry sadly won't be my Montgomery entry either, because my best friend is going to be calling me soon for help on an English paper that he (unexpectedly) found out is due tomorrow. He was supposed to take it to his university's Writing Center to get it fixed and asked me to look at it first. I barely sent it to him today thinking he had ( Read more... )

Comments 9

livin4hymn April 27 2009, 04:29:27 UTC

I don't think I ever had a class that was just grammar. The most grammar I remember going over in a class was 8th grade in the "gifted" class. The teacher would have a passage written on the board full of grammar, punctuation, capitalization, etc. mistakes and we'd have to try and correct them on our own before going over it as a class. We also had a song used a mnemonic device to remember/memorize all the prepositions (to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel"). That also may have been when I learned about the ending a sentence with a prepositional phrase rule...though I know I probably break it often, because I mostly don't care for that rule and also just because I can't think of a way to say what I want to w/o doing that.

I do think at least basic grammar is necessary to know. I think teachers might need to spend a little more time on it whether they like it or not (and learn it themselves).

miner_beth April 27 2009, 14:39:56 UTC

I think some grammar is useless (like ending with prepositional phrases--one faculty member at the QEP meeting asked if we were just going into "pet peeves" when a teacher mentioned that). At the same time, when I read paper after paper where people write sentence fragments and run-on sentences throughout a paper, it is quite disturbing (and annoying). Though many of these people are probably just lazy, I've met some that seriously didn't even know that they were doing that.

Come to think of it, I remember doing the "correct the sentence" thing, too. Maybe I had more grammar lessons than I remember.

livin4hymn April 27 2009, 04:40:10 UTC

speaking of grammar, check out the word of the day on Kristina's blog: http://italktosnakes.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-26-just-sunday.html

miner_beth April 27 2009, 14:36:02 UTC

haha yeah I saw that after I posted! It made me lol.

anonymous April 27 2009, 17:51:56 UTC

I think the foundation of my proper grammar education was formed by how much I read. Other than that, in high school my honors English teacher was obsessed with grammar and the parts of speech, upon which we had TONS of tests at the beginning of the class before he would let us write papers for him. In college I took a class, Elements of Grammar, as an elective and found it fascinating. That class also taught me a lot more about punctuation, which I've found quite helpful. Grammar classes are definitely underrated since most of my education from them was completely my own choice. People who don't go out of their way to take the nerdy grammar courses aren't required to...I think a lot more emphasis should be placed on grammar education at all levels. I see so many students at a university level that still write at middle school level. Oh dear ( ... )

miner_beth April 27 2009, 23:42:14 UTC

I should have gone out of my way to learn my grammar, but I guess I just didn't see how important it wasn't until I became a tutor. I have so much to learn...

we_saw_icarus April 27 2009, 21:42:39 UTC

How does the UTEP Writing Center do it? I feel like I should do a "day in the life" blog a la beth to explain it right ( ... )

we_saw_icarus April 27 2009, 21:44:50 UTC

Oh yeah, of course, we had an application with prompts on it asking why we wanted to be tutors and why we thought we were competent. Maybe it was a sneaky way of testing out our actual writing skills.

miner_beth April 27 2009, 23:40:51 UTC

I wish our writing center did an actual application process. I guess that's what happens when you go to a smaller college where much of the student body chooses distance learning. Or maybe it's just when your school isn't all that great. haha.

It's probably totally noticeable how little I really know about grammar. Much of what I know I've found through reading (like you mentioned), but I'm sure there are plenty of details I'm missing. I've been pretty lazy about it and need to get my writing skills better if I want to be an effective teacher. I'm taking an upper-level composition course that I hope will help me iron out some things, but I need to do my own studying, too.