The Importance of Grammar

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The Importance of Grammar Scholars have been debating the role grammar should play in writing instruction since the 1960's when Braddock said In view of the widespread agreement of research studies based upon many types of students and teachers, the conclusion can be stated in strong and unqualified terms: the teaching of formal grammar has a negligible or, because it usually displaces some instruction and practice in actual composition even a harmful effect on the improvement of writing (Warner 76). Here we have one of the first arguments relating to the importance of grammar and the way that it is being taught. The grammar construct has been questioned and argued about by many writers such as Jean Sanborn, Anne L. Warner, Kenneth Lindblom and Patricia A. Dunn, Constance Weaver, and Martha Kolln, but not much has been changed. So where do we go from here? Is grammar really that important and do we need it to be perceived as intelligent individuals? If so, should we learn it through the use of handbooks or is there a more efficient way? If we should teach it, what age is appropriate? These are all questions that have influenced the ongoing conversation about Grammar. I argue that there is a specific time to teach grammar and that there are specific times and places when the importance of grammar should be raised or lowered. Why do we teach Grammar if the students don’t get it? From at least the 19th century up until the latter end of the 20th, students in English classes was taught grammar through precise instructions and rules of the grammar handbooks. I personally envision children in the 50s being slapped on the wrist for forgetting comma wrong here or an apostrophe there. The strict use of the handbook has been stressed year after year through generations, condemning kids for their errors. Back in the early 1900s, students had hard lives where they had to

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