Jen Hair - Writing Portfolio

     Speaking on the subject of grammar, 17th century poet and literary critic John Dryden said: “Who climbs the grammar-tree, distinctly knows where noun, and verb, and participle grows” (Dryden). In this statement, Dryden accurately and succinctly established the importance of phrase structure rules and syntactic diagrams. Learning phrase structure rules and how to use syntactic diagrams is crucial to developing a solid understanding of grammar. If you want to do something well, you must understand the process from its inception. To write well, learning the crucial building blocks of grammar will help focus on “the well-formedness of sentences'' (Cruzan and Adams 193).       Syntactic diagrams, such as the Reed-Kellogg Diagram and the newer and seemingly less cumbersome Tree Diagram allow writers to identify issues in sentences and phrases by breaking them down into smaller chunks or constituents, and also by understanding how those constituents depend and relate to each othe

     I realize that I come to this argument from a unique perspective. I teach at a classical charter school where sentence diagramming is introduced in lower school and enthusiastically embraced through the completion of upper school. My personal experience with sentence diagramming is a mixed bag at best. I *sort of* recall learning it in school, however I do not recall understanding why we were doing the exercise. Blame it on 1980’s progressive education practices, but it was put on the back burner by teachers at the time. I can attest to the fact that my grammar education suffered because of this. I find myself, at 46 years old, teaching and re-teaching myself so many things I would have learned if this piece of grammar would have been taught properly in my classes 35 years ago. Diagramming sentences is more than a rite of passage for students, it is an effective tool they will be able to use their entire lives; if taught correctly, they might even find it fun too.      Bauer off