The Eighth Blog

One of the most common tips from established writers to those who wish to become established writers is to read and read well. Smith hits this directly at the beginning of chapter thirteen with "reading is the essential source of knowledge about writing." (193) Smith had many good points in this chapter relating to learning to write through experience the techniques before you try to practice them. He even goes on to accredit spelling well to reading well. I am also glad he assessed the lacking ability of textbook instructions. And the whole bit about how no one says that knowing grammar made them into writers (204) made me smile. Like Smith, I feel grammar should not take the place of writing, but like Jim, I remember all of those students who couldn't begin to understand a sentence, much less compose one. It's a hard battle to try and find new ways to revamp old schools of teaching, but there needs to be some sort of concession to make grammar and writing come together in the process of composition. And no, conjunction junction does not cut it.

The Hartwell on the other hand left me knee deep in grammar speak that I was not ready to handle. Like Smith, there is a call to learn grammar through means beyond the textbook jargon students find inaccessible, but to address the matter Hartwell used textbook jargon I found inaccessible. Like in our previous classes, Hartwell asks the reader to address the "why" issue of teaching grammar, which is understandably a good lead in. The five meanings of grammar was an interesting way to present why grammar is so complex, and why students have issues with it. I agree with the author in accrediting "the internalized system of rules" from Francis (202) as a good point for how most of us come to know grammar. As a child, grammar just made sense, so when I couldn't decipher the rules, I went with my gut and was typically right. As a whole, this piece made many good points about grammar, but the theory-speak was a big turn off, and though I might find metalinguistic awareness to open my eyes to the way grammar is approached, I didn't find myself in full understanding of why Hartwell chose to approach the matter with heavy citation and heavy-handed language.

This is why I'm not a linguist.