Good grammar makes a comeback
KENNEWICK – Patricia Ello drew what looked like a tree of words on a blank sheet of notebook paper.
The eighth-grader at St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Kennewick put a sentence’s subject, prepositions and verb into a series of straight and slanted lines.
“We’ve been doing (sentence diagrams) since the sixth grade. According to our teacher, it helps us learn the parts of the sentence,” Ello said.
Most Mid-Columbia students no longer learn to diagram sentences. But in the age of software that can check spelling and grammar, plenty of teachers are working to ensure their charges can write clearly, punctuate properly and spot a gerund without a computer’s help.
“One of the promises I make to students is that by the end of the year, (they’ll) be able to take any sentence I give and tell me the part of speech of every word,” said Gloria Williamson, a fifth-grade teacher at Vista Elementary in Kennewick.
“We do judge people on how they speak and write. I want (my students) to stand out.”
Teachers agree there’s been a shift in education from emphasizing grammar to focusing on creativity and content in writing.
Not having to focus on proper spelling and punctuation makes it easier for students to get their thoughts down on paper. But conventions are still important, said Larry Zenger-O’Brien, an English teacher at Prosser High School.
He’s a stickler for proper word use and sentence mechanics. The creative spelling that students often employ in text messages doesn’t fly in his classroom. Neither does sloppy penmanship.
Zenger-O’Brien starts each year by warning that neat handwriting, spelling and proper capitalization count.
Being able to write properly gives students an advantage beyond high school, educators said.
Renee Smith, associate director of admissions at Washington State University Tri-Cities, reviews the personal statements that all freshmen are required to write. The statements aren’t scored based on grammar, but spelling and mechanics are noticed, Smith said. All WSU students must complete a writing portfolio to graduate.
”(Good writing) is a combination of students’ ability to come up with an interesting idea and their ability to present those ideas clearly. It’s got to be both,” said Brad Sealy, lead English instructor at Columbia Basin College in Pasco.
He said in his experience, students are as prepared for college-level English classes as they were a decade ago, even as technology has improved.
One study from 2006 seems to back that up. Linguists at the University of Toronto found in 2006 that instant messaging doesn’t harm teens’ grammar.
Still, others say there’s been a slip in recent years.
Penny Jansen, who teaches middle school English at St. Joseph’s, said she’s noticed some pupils struggling with capitalization because of text messaging.
And she says she’s had former students thank her for giving them a strong foundation in grammar.
“It’s another tool,” Jansen said. “I think it’s really important to understand how to use words.”