Grammar is helpful with our writing and speaking, however; the methods used to teach it often left me confused on how to use the rules correctly. Many experts have reasoned that Grammar being taught in a formal way doesn’t add to the learner’s development of grammar and I must agree. Throughout my education, grammar classes with rules and worksheets have enlightened me on how to use grammar, however; I often struggle with applying it to my writing. I believe grammar classes shouldn’t exist rather writing classes should. The focus of the writing class would be on improving the ideas of the student to write and then as the writer gets more confident in releasing their ideas than the person mistakes with grammar should be explained. In the two …show more content…
I believe students feel daunted by all the rules that the teachers are trying to teach them with grammar. However, writing classes are encouraging the students to release their barriers with writings and encourage their inner thoughts to be released as well. In the study from Patrick Hartwell’s article, he mentioned that, “So Grammar 1 is eminently usable knowledge—the way we make our life through language—but it is not accessible knowledge; in a profound sense, we do not know that we have it (Hartwell).” This article encourages our grammar knowledge, which we have stored unknowingly, be brought out and one way that this could be is if we let the students hand in their writing unedited to the teacher to look over their mistakes but not to make any corrections. Then the students use a red pen to correct their mistakes and edit their paper themselves so that the teacher has an understanding of what grammar errors students can correct on their own. This way students’ strengths and weakness in grammar are considered more than teaching the rules of grammar. In order to learn and gain an understanding of grammar, it must be a part of students’ education since it helps students correct their overlooked mistakes and for professionalism’s sake. Grammar is needed as Christensen’s article summarizes when she says, “We must teach our students how to match subjects and verbs, how to pronounce lawyer, because they are the ones without power and, for the moment, they have to use the language of the powerful to be heard (Christensen).” Grammar is important for our writing, nevertheless; grammar shouldn’t be the focus of how we write instead our thoughts should
Children were taught to speak in a proper manner and because they were taught to speak correctly they wrote in a proper way as well. As technology evolved and texting came more profound grammar was becoming a lost art. In Dana Goldstein’s article ,‘Why Kids Can’t Write’, she talks about what teachers are doing about grammar. The teachers are not doing much about the grammar issue in schools.
In the article “I won’t hire people who use poor grammar here’s why.” published in Harvard business review on managing yourself, Kyle Wiens argues that he have a zero approach which does not allow for any grammar mistake because it makes people stupid, and he believes that people who made mistake in grammar do not deserve to have a job. Further, he supports his thesis by stating that people who made an error in their writing will do error in their work and their life. In addition, he claims that language is constantly changing, but that does not ignore the importance of the grammar. Thus, this claim is supported by stating that good grammar is credibility. For example, programmers who
In the article by Kyle Wein “I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why.” explains reasons as to why the owner of a business only hires educated, employees. If someone cannot tell the difference between simple words such as there, their, and they’re, the manager will not hire that applicant. That’s not the only thing Wein looks for in an employee. He is looking for smart, educated, employees who use good grammar. “Yes, language is constantly changing, but that doesn’t make grammar unimportant. Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet.” Grammar is important no matter what the job is. According to the author, without good use of grammar you will not have a job. Without a job you will have no money, no satisfaction, and/or
In Chapter 8, the author Marquis R. Nave illustrates how important sentence structure is by pointing out a few important things when forming sentences adequate to use in your writing. He starts by saying that lucid and efficacious word usage to form sentences in writing becomes vital when you need to write papers in a higher education institution. Once the scholar grabs control of his or her ability to communicate their message to the reader lucidly and efficaciously they gain the power to an improved and ordered thought process. Now a person can start to search for new ways of using dialectal to communicate their message in a way not usual to the norm. A scholar only has the power to govern their writing when they correctly put together
Perfection is not always the answer. I found myself wishing that I had Murray as a teacher. It would be interesting to see if writing badly actually makes ones writing experience different. Instead of policing the writing, Murray actually cares about what is actually being said and that shows that his students are important and that he cares about their voice. Readers can feel satisfied that there is at least one teacher who tries to understand and is actually doing something to change writing in his classroom. Murray finished his essay by saying, “What matters in the journey – at least initially – is not what kind of car you’re driving but where you end up.” This leaves the reader knowing that it is okay if you choose to write with perfect grammar the first time or write badly then go back and fix mistakes if you desire to do so. The readers leave with an extra tool to use when
Contrary to popular conceptions of the term ‘style’, I have found that in the context of this class, as well as in the context of the books “Style Toward Clarity and Grace” by Joseph M. Williams and “The Elements of Style” by Strunk and White, that ‘style’ is not style in the sense that it is the way I write (in such as way as ‘everyone has their own unique style’). Style encompasses many elements to writing a cohesive, clear paper. However, I feel that in order to write a clear cohesive essay or paper, I must write in my own way, a way that I am familiar with. This may seem like it goes against something that would be in “The Elements of Style,” but it is not. Strunk and White clearly say in their book, “Write in a way that comes naturally.” (Strunk and White, 70).
But halfway through the 20th Century, research on the value of grammar education began to surface and there was no strong correlation between the teaching of grammar and a student’s ability to avoid usage errors, the once strict education structure was dropped. With traditional techniques abandoned, the vacuum was filled with new approaches. Structural linguistics, based around the importance of the way words form sentences, began to take the place of its predecessor but was then quickly challenged by transformational grammar, a more abstract concept than the prior two. With arguments from the structural and transformational side both pushing that the other was unscientific, the importance of grammar was abandoned. Though schools are beginning to reintroduce grammar in education, there has been a firm separation between learning grammar and learning usage.
A topic that has been raved about in recent years is how texting is affecting the English language, or particularly how texting is killing the English language. Just like any other argument, there are two perspectives to this story, we’ll divide these perspectives into two different categories: linguistic and non-linguistic. The non-linguistic view of the effects of texting is relatively negative. Some say that texting is creating a very lazy generation, others say that it will eventually take over what we now know as grammatically correct, even infamous broadcaster John Humphrys believes that texting is “pillaging our punctuation, savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary. And they must be stopped.” Still others, in the more linguistic point-of-view, say that texting is not apt for language decline at all, but rather the start of a very small language evolution – an evolution that is actually having a good effect on the language and the texters themselves.
In the article, “Shifting Perspectives about Grammar: Changing What and How We Teach” by Dean, the reader is presented with additional examples of stylistic rules versus actual rules based in grammar.
A large part of an English teacher’s job deals with helping students find their own voices amidst the many teachings of their parents and peers. A student’s voice can be their values, their interests, and their perspectives of the world in which they live. Their voice can be their critical questioning of the many situations they face, whether in a text, the school cafeteria, or a park after school. It is the job of an English teacher to aid in finding this voice through their writing. It is by putting words and thoughts down on paper that a student can sometimes feel comfortable enough to take risks and find their true voices. Although traditional grammar instruction has long been thought to improve this skill, this is no longer the case. Instead, by providing a classroom environment in which students are immersed in classic literature from many genres including poetry, short stories, and novels, students will learn how to harness grammar for their own purposes of finding their voice in their writing.
According to Edgar Allan Poe “A man's grammar, like Caesar's wife, should not only be pure, but above suspicion of impurity." (goodreads.com). Grammar should be one of the most important characteristics of an academic essay. Imagine reading an essay with misspelt words, a exclamation mark where a question mark should be and a run on sentence upon another run on sentence with no full stops, how confused you would be after reading for awhile. Perfection is the aim but nothing done can be completely perfect, but to atleast reach the stage of 'almost perfect' flawlessness should be aimed for. It is really hard for a reader to be there trying to figure out what you were trying to say or spell when the grammar is poor. The lecturer should be able to read the things that are written in an essay and be able to distingush the level at which your academic writing is at.
In the article, “Current Developments in Research on the Teaching of Grammar” by Hossein Nassaji and Sandra Fotos two main issues had been discussed. The first one is whether grammar teaching make any differences to language learning where the questions raised are whether grammar should be taught or not. The second issue is what kinds of grammar teaching have been suggested to facilitate second language learning. If grammar should be taught, how much and should it be implicit or explicit grammar teaching? Lastly, the article discussed on the current approaches to grammar teaching in which formal instruction can be integrated with communicative activities which are processing instruction, interactional feedback, textual enhancement, task-based
Syntax is the study of how words are combined to create phrases and causes in the sentences of a specific language (Freeman and Freeman, 2014). Syntax helps us to make clear sentences that “sound right,” where words, phrases, and clauses each serve their function and are correctly ordered to form and communicate a complete sentence with meaning. The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and phrases into sentences. Not only does it focus on the correct word order for a language, but it also helps show the relationship between the meaning of a group of words. Without proper syntax, a sentence can be meaningless. It is key to understand that while every language does have certain syntax, the syntax does vary from language to language. It
Susan Adams and Kyle Weins have both written articles on the importance of using good grammar in the workplace. Each article gives numerous compelling reasons why this is a good practice. Susan Adams’ article first reason for doing so is in regards to how other people would view someone who uses bad grammar. She brings out that someone’s image can be damaged when they have improper speech habits; consequently their chances of advancing at work could be limited. Second, she shows how using poor grammar could cause a manager to view an employee as unorganized or unable to perform more advanced tasks. Finally, she brings out that someone who has poor speaking habits could be perceived as not having a firm grasp on the subject they are speaking about (Adams). Kyle Weins article also brings out some important points on bad grammar in the workplace. First, he shows that in today’s world people’s intelligence is judged based on what they say or what they type. The second point relates to how a manager could perceive someone with poor grammar. A manager could see an employee who uses poor grammar as someone who struggles to concentrate on tasks and doesn’t show attention to detail. Finally, he shows that peo...
Language is nothing but a media which expresses feelings, ideas, experiences and even pains properly to others. Cultural background is the origin of language. Language is one of the channels which promote human relations and human affections. Language always unites the people and sometimes language itself diverse the people. Without the language we cannot imagine the existence of human beings on the earth. Language is a system of words that people used to express thoughts, feelings each other. The word ‘language’ derived from Latin “lingua” which means ‘tongue, speech’. The word sometimes used to refer to codes, ciphers and other kind of communication systems. For example computer programming.