Handing Out Sentences in College Comp

by Jane Harrington

The trials and tribulations of young college students fill my days again, and while I dare not try to help them sort out the existential questions that plague them, I am once again setting to the task of helping them hone a key skill of expression: writing. I’m having a hard time communicating with them, though. It’s not that social media slang or inside jokes get in the way, or that pop culture references are sliding over my head. (They are, but it’s not that.) The problem: my students don’t know the language of their language.

Here’s an example. I take a snippet of student writing that is a run-on sentence, and I project it onto the classroom screen and say, “This is a comma splice because two independent clauses are connected with punctuation that is too weak. How might you fix this with a conjunction?” There is sudden attention to tying shoes, searching for things in backpacks, responding to noises outside the windows. No one wants to be exposed as not remembering what an independent clause is, or a conjunction. And even a minor sentence-related engagement with me could lead to worse. I might use words like “subject,” “object,” “indefinite pronoun.” Sure, some students recollect one or another grammar term from sing-alongs with School House Rock or Sesame Street, but that is rarely enough facility to sustain an actual conversation about what is wrong with particular sentences they are writing.

So, I’m getting set to use a different approach. I’ve bought myself a large package of jewel-toned dry erase markers, and I’m going to start sentence diagramming! While that term tends to produce at least an eye roll in the parochial school educated among my cohort, I have noticed that those who were taught grammar by way of diagramming know the English language far better than those who were taught rote grammar. (I fall into the latter category and had to teach myself grammar once I got to college.) Maybe the visual nature of the task imprints on the memory better, just as the aural nature of grammar songs does. I taught diagramming in middle school English a few years back, and many students saw it as cracking a code. Even the hardcore math kids who had theretofore shunned all aspects of English were tuning in. Diagramming appeals to the active student, too, because he or she can get up and draw on the board. Colorful markers have a way of drawing in the artsy of the class, as well.

I’m finding that other educators, from primary grades up to college, are getting the same idea. There are some good sentence diagramming resources on YouTube and various education websites. And for those needing to connect Common Core or state standards, it couldn’t be easier. Every aspect of grammar, thus every term, comes to the surface when you are viewing the language in this broader way, through sentences.

 www.janeharrington.com

Stop To Cross The Street: Tips For Young Writers

by Jacqueline Jules

               As a teacher who regularly conferences with students during writing workshop, I find myself asking many of the same questions repeatedly:  

            Are you sure you want two lines of exclamation marks? Let’s count how many times you’ve used the word “then.” Do you think you could cut a few of them out?

            Having the same discussion over and over again has prompted me to make a list of tips for young writers, modeled after the esteemed Jane Yolen. Last winter, at the New York conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, I heard her engage an audience of over a thousand with a clever list of guidelines. She began with “Eschew the exclamation point” and “Go easy on adverbs,” ending with a charge to all in attendance to go home and WRITE. In this spirit, I offer my own list for my students and young writers everywhere. 

• Tip Number One: Use Your Inside Voice. Limit your use of exclamation points and capitals. Ten exclamation points in a row and capital letters are like shouting at your reader.

• Tip Number Two: Stop To Cross The Street. Watch out for the conjunction “and.” More than three “ands” in the same sentence can be a signal to stop and use a period. 

• Tip Number Three: Dare to be Different. Beginning every sentence with “then” or “the” can be dull for the reader. Rearrange your words to vary the sentence structure.

   

• Tip Number Four: Play With Words, Not Fonts. Spend your writing time choosing the perfect descriptive word, not the prettiest font type or size.

• Tip Number Five: Be Active. Use action words to describe what happened and avoid using “was” unless it is necessary to your meaning. For example, say Rapunzel “walked” across the street instead of Rapunzel “was walking” across the street. Repeated use of the word “was” weakens the action. 

• Tip Number Six: Break it Up. Divide your stories into paragraphs. Indent or skip a line at the beginning of each new topic. It can also be easier for a reader to follow dialogue when you begin a new paragraph for each speaker. 

• Tip Number Seven: Switch Places. Check to make sure your sentences are in the best order. Switching sentences or words around can make writing flow in a more logical manner.

• Tip Number Eight: Remember the Reader. Too many parenthetical asides and distracting details can confuse your reader. Make things as clear for your reader as possible.

• Tip Number Nine: Be Smooth. Use transitions such as “After we went to the mall, we went home,” rather than Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 to indicate a change of time or scene. Chapters divisions are for novels, not short stories.  

• Tip Number Ten: Make a Pretty Picture. Your job as a writer is to make a picture in your reader’s mind. Make sure you have included enough color and detail for your reader to see the same story you see in your mind.

        

Jacqueline Jules

http://www.jacquelinejules.com/