Grammar and the Teaching of Writing

Book excerpt: Intended for practitioners, this study has three principal aims: (1) to reduce the breadth of formal grammar instruction by first locating those areas where grammar and writing overlap and then identifying those kinds of writing problems most amenable to treatment with a grammar-based approach; (2) to decrease the classroom hours spent on formal grammar instruction by showing how to capitalize on the already acquired yet unconscious knowledge that all native writers have of their language; and (3) to make this streamlined "writer's grammar" more productive by showing how to integrate it with style, content, and organization. The book is directed toward teachers of writing who, to varying degrees, struggle with the unwieldy partnership of grammar and writing. Chapters 1 and 2 serve to examine some probable reasons why grammar instruction has failed to improve writing quality, to delimit radically the scope of grammar instruction, and to identify specific areas where a knowledge of a minimal set of grammatical categories might be of help. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on the use of native-speaker abilities in place of formal grammar instruction to treat certain kinds of sentence-level writing problems. Chapter 5 suggests a promising way to integrate the diminished focus on grammar with style, content, and organization. Finally, chapter 6 summarizes several pragmatic paradoxes that currently beset grammar instruction in the schools. (MG)