posted
As an English teacher, I did buy into Chomsky's (and other's) ideas. I have learned better in the years since, from seeing the accomplishments of Cor's students, who benefit from the grounding she provides in formal grammar and structure.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote: (Did I correctly understand what it was you were asking?)
Yes, thank you.
I did learn the basics of grammar all through school. However, none of this has really stuck. Since I'm considering a career as a teacher, and that may include English, I'm wondering if I was going to get taught it again sometime.
I guess I just kind of missed out or didn't pay attention.
I still don't understand this thing called a comma splice... Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I wanted to be an editor until I realized that my serious lack of any understanding of the English language pretty much killed that plan.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
Icky, I write pretty well, and some of my stuff was published as a college student....one of my teachers submitted two of my papers to a competition for a student/teacher anthology and both made it in.
A lot of what you have said about how people learn grammar and usage makes a lot of sense, and it also explains why I am able to write pretty well, better than a lot of my classmates, but I have problems with spelling. I picked up a lot of my writing style and tone from reading a ton of different books, but never spent any time on the more formal aspects of writing...not because I was lazy but because the other parts of writing, the creative aspects of it, are so much more interesting than the dry rules of grammar and usage.
Your mini-essay on the first page was excellent, and made a lot more sense than what I had been thinking.
posted
If you wish to learn grammar, take a foreign language. I personally recommend Latin, which is also a dead language, but I think any declined language would do. You become much more aware of parts of speech, though Latin uses no punction at all, so I have to watch myself to make sure I don't write run-on sentences. I had one that went on for half a page in an essay the other day, but it still doesn't compare to Cicero where two, three pages can by with only one real verb governing a host of relative and subjunctive clauses.
Posts: 349 | Registered: May 2003
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