I seriously fear it's a losing battle, though. More and more people figure that, as long as you can make yourself understood, grammar doesn't matter. Soon we'll have devolved into grunts and gestures.
On a slightly more optimistic note, I've found that most students are happy to learn grammar, they really just haven't been exposed to it in any structured way. I think a good teacher can teach it through writing, but most students need "rules" that they understand and can then apply. The most obvious example that I see more and more (in English) is the random comma. And when I say, there is no logic to, its placement I, mean it.
I vaguely remember diagramming sentences in junior high. I was taught by a former nun. Unfortunately some rules of grammar never quite stuck in my brain, which is why I need a Dana.
And when I say, there is no logic to, its placement I, mean it.
Oh, that hurts to look at.
I diagrammed sentences in elementary school, but that was it. I learned more about grammar from taking French, I think, in terms of parts of speech and tenses.
Oh, that hurts to look at.
This is why grading fries my brain. And makes the Baby Jesus cry.
I diagrammed sentences in 1987-88. My teacher was a former marine who had an Abraham Lincoln beard. And there was this weird set of grammar lessons with an alien named Gram Mar.
Honestly, though, the only lessons that really stuck were the ones for french and german. So I'm more likely to be able to identify the parts of speech in a foreign language.
Witnessed human stupidity this morning. Two left turners in a battle of wills, blocking the intersection for at least 2 cycles of the light. Finally went around them, for all I know they are still there. Or someone pulled a gun.
Heh. I make a post about grammar, leave for work and then there's bunches of Natter posts when I get here.
When I was in grade school, I hated grammar. Now I find it interesting. What's up with that?
Born in 1962, never diagrammed sentences. Though kids just ahead of me in school (like, one or two years) did.
Two left turners in a battle of wills, blocking the intersection for at least 2 cycles of the light.
I'm trying to picture this but failing. Can you make a little ASCII diagram? (OK, it'd probably be easier to describe....)
I don't remember diagramming sentences. I have no clue what the difference is between transitive and intransitive verbs. My kick-ass high school English teacher ran us through the grammar bits for a semester--probably around '77 or '78--and we all failed. Then we got back to studying Shakespeare as God intended. I can write a good sentence, and I'm good at things like tenses and pronoun agreement and such. But don't ask me what the parts are. I know what sounds right, but I don't know why.
We diagrammed, in 9th grade english and previously. I distinctly remember tuning all that out.
