The Cornerstones of the Shepard Academy
Grammar: A Way of Thinking about Language
“As human beings, we can put sentences together even as children — we can all do grammar. But to be able to talk about how sentences are built, about the types of words and word groups that make up sentences —that is knowing about grammar. And knowing about grammar offers a window into the human mind and into our amazingly complex mental capacity.” National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) position paper.
Grammar: Like formal logic, grammar is a method of critical thinking. It allows us to build good sentences that are consistent and logically valid.
Grammar lets us think about language by giving us names for different kinds of words and for the different ways that words represent our thoughts and feelings. Without grammar, we can't discuss language problems, compare writing styles, or resolve language dilemmas, and it is more difficult to sort ideas into clear and distinct groups of words. For these reasons, grammar is fascinating and worthwhile.
Punctuation is a Function of Grammar: Punctuation is the art of marking the four levels of grammar so that written ideas and parts of ideas do not become confusing. In other words, when we punctuate, we separate the groups of grammar from each other. Since it is grammar we punctuate, it is impossible to punctuate unless we first see the grammatical structures, such as phrases, subordinate clauses, and compound sentences. You can't punctuate a introductory adverb clause if you don't know it's there.
Four Levels of Grammar: We will approach grammar in four approaches or levels. They are the parts of speech, parts of sentence, phrases, and clauses. The number and type of clauses will determine the structure of the sentence. When we analyze the grammar of a sentence, that is what we do: a four-level analysis.
These four levels give us four different views of each sentence. The parts of speech level shows us each word, one at a time, asking, "What is the word doing?" The parts of sentence level shows us the architecture of the idea, asking, "What is being said about what?" The phrase level shows us the little groups of words in the sentence, groups that pretend to be a single part of speech, asking "What part of speech is this group of words doing?' And the clause level shows us whether or not more than one idea is drawn into the sentence's design, asking "How may different ideas are connected together in this sentence?"
If you have ever had the sinking feeling that grammar is an endless subject, you should notice a secret (shhhhh): most grammar books are thick only because they are packed with hundreds of pages of exercises. The actual content of grammar it tiny. It is very learnable.
We will begin each level with a pre-test. After instruction and study, we will take a post-test.
Here are the key grammar terms we will be using:
Grammar: Like formal logic, grammar is a method of critical thinking. It allows us to build good sentences that are consistent and logically valid.
Grammar lets us think about language by giving us names for different kinds of words and for the different ways that words represent our thoughts and feelings. Without grammar, we can't discuss language problems, compare writing styles, or resolve language dilemmas, and it is more difficult to sort ideas into clear and distinct groups of words. For these reasons, grammar is fascinating and worthwhile.
Punctuation is a Function of Grammar: Punctuation is the art of marking the four levels of grammar so that written ideas and parts of ideas do not become confusing. In other words, when we punctuate, we separate the groups of grammar from each other. Since it is grammar we punctuate, it is impossible to punctuate unless we first see the grammatical structures, such as phrases, subordinate clauses, and compound sentences. You can't punctuate a introductory adverb clause if you don't know it's there.
Four Levels of Grammar: We will approach grammar in four approaches or levels. They are the parts of speech, parts of sentence, phrases, and clauses. The number and type of clauses will determine the structure of the sentence. When we analyze the grammar of a sentence, that is what we do: a four-level analysis.
These four levels give us four different views of each sentence. The parts of speech level shows us each word, one at a time, asking, "What is the word doing?" The parts of sentence level shows us the architecture of the idea, asking, "What is being said about what?" The phrase level shows us the little groups of words in the sentence, groups that pretend to be a single part of speech, asking "What part of speech is this group of words doing?' And the clause level shows us whether or not more than one idea is drawn into the sentence's design, asking "How may different ideas are connected together in this sentence?"
If you have ever had the sinking feeling that grammar is an endless subject, you should notice a secret (shhhhh): most grammar books are thick only because they are packed with hundreds of pages of exercises. The actual content of grammar it tiny. It is very learnable.
We will begin each level with a pre-test. After instruction and study, we will take a post-test.
Here are the key grammar terms we will be using:
A Term Total
Parts of Speechnoun
pronoun adjective adverb verb conjunction preposition interjection |
Parts of Sentencesubject
predicate direct object indirect object subject complement object complement |
Phrasesprepositional
appositive gerund participle infinitiv |
Clausesindependent
subordinate adjective adverb noun |
Sentence Structuresimple
compound complex compound-complex |