Grammar: The Misunderstood Secret Behind Eloquent Writing
Parts of speech, appositive phrases, subordinate clauses….just the mention of these makes some of us turn a deaf ear, especially students sitting in English classes. Why is this happening? What’s the big deal about parsing sentences? More often than not, my experience in the classroom has been a litany of groans when I begin teaching sentence patterns, phrases, and clauses. In addition, I can almost predict the moment I’m going to get this response: How is this going to help me later in life? I bite my tongue, but what I really want to say is, it just will. I don’t. Instead I trust what I know works best-show, not just tell-and after a few months, students can actually see the effects of grammar instruction in their writing.
The study of grammar-how and why words are manipulated to form clear, fluent sentences-needs to be taught thoroughly enough and early enough in a sequential and logical order. It was in 1962 that language expert Kellogg Hunt, following years of research at Florida State, told us that it is the acquisition and use of higher level functions in syntax and grammar that determine just how sophisticated a writer really is. Without taking students through that process, my warning would be ignored: What worked in fourth grade just won’t cut it in high school. What high school senior wants to be writing on a fourth grade level? If students will just stay on my wave length, they will find that consciously using more sophisticated phrases and clauses transforms writing.
Kellogg Hunt reported his research on the qualities that he found in the writing of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students and educated adults. Hunt found that writers constructed sentences with length and complexity that increased with the maturity of the writer. He devised a way to determine this maturity through terminable units, or t-units, the smallest part of a sentence that can stand on its own without leaving any sentence fragments. For example, a simple sentence would be one t-unit, a compound sentence would be two, but a complex sentence would be one t-unit, often containing more words than an independent clause, or simple sentence. Hence, the complex sentence would increase the sophistication of the writing. His study showed that fourth graders averaged 8.60 words per t-unit, eighth graders 11.50 words, twelfth graders 14.40 words, and educated adults 20.20 words per t-unit. Hunt found that it was the length of the t-unit that indicated complexity, not the length of the sentence.
Whether a student uses phrases or clauses or ideally both, building meaning through any method beyond simple sentences communicates ideas in a more complex way. Introductory participial phrases and prepositional phrases add variety to the overused pattern of subject-verb-direct object. Rewriting combined short sentences as a complex sentence, that is, a sentence containing both an independent and a dependent clause, increases the number of words per t-unit. The addition of appositive phrases and absolute phrases can also add words to increase not only words per t-unit but elaboration and clarity as well.
So, how does one get started?
For a number of years now my students have begun the school year parsing simple sentences, starting with Model 1: subject-verb-prepositional phrase (adjective or adverb), and by moving through thirty additional models throughout the year that add one or two concepts at a time, they conclude the year with noun, adjective, and adverb clauses. Throughout this process, the writing instruction in this class has required students to use the grammatical structures they have been introduced to. It is a yearlong ordeal, but the concomitant writing results are worth the wait.
Below is a basic scheme for ordering grammar concepts. Time and experience in the classroom have proven the success of this method of weekly if not daily cumulative instruction.
• Subject-verb-adjective and adverb phrases
• Addition of appositives and adverbial nouns
• Addition of participles and participial phrases
• Subject-verb-direct object
• Subject-verb-indirect object-direct object
• Subject-linking verb-predicate nominative
• Subject-linking verb-predicate adjective
• Addition of gerund, gerund phrase
• Addition of infinitive, infinitive phrase
• Addition of adjective clause
• Addition of adverb clause
• Addition of noun clause
• Addition of absolute phrase
A logical pairing of punctuation instruction with each model helps students understand the reasons for using different kinds of punctuation, especially the comma, improving retention of these rules of usage. Other areas such as troublesome verbs–lie and lay–as well as commonly misplaced modifiers, subject-verb and pronoun agreement, and active and passive voice can easily enhance the grammar lessons at any appropriate point. Yes, students should be familiar with the underpinnings of the language of their spoken and written discourse, but even more important, all students deserve the opportunity to know and use the tools that can turn them into eloquent writers. For this reason, grammar instruction should not be incidental skills taught for a few weeks and quietly abandoned, but a key component inherent throughout a yearlong course of study.
