williams blog 7

While reading this chapter I was reminded of the many years in Catholic school and then in high school of grammar drills. This chapter seems to undermine what I had believed about learning to diagram sentences and grammar as helping me to write. First Williams states, “unlike speech, writing lacks context” and that, “writing is more formal than speech.” (179) Further he states that speech is ephemeral and writing is permanent. (179) These statements began my thinking of the major reasons writing verses speech is viewed as so difficult by students. Speech is fleeting so there can be little judgment attached to it, and its meaning or any lack of understanding on the hearer’s part can be corrected immediately. Writing, which is permanent, is open to judgment and that fact alone is intimidating for students.
Another fact that today’s students are so limited in their exposure to formal writing either hearing it reading it or writing it, creates more problems for teachers. Few students have much exposure to formal discourse; fewer still have experience producing it.

When Williams discusses grammar as structure and usage as production these concepts are immediately “imaged” as I remember many diagrammed sentences looking like STRUCTURES, but have no recollection as to usage errors in my writing productions. I like the suggestion of teachers helping students to understand the difference using literature and “focused reading activities followed by discussions of the form of writing.” (184) I know this form of instruction has helped me to learn better writing skills. Additionally, I like the recommendation for teachers to supplement instruction with direct and indirect instruction. (191)

I was a little lost at first with explanations of the four different types of “grammar” as I was taught only prescriptive. I realized as the chapter progressed how this was inadequate and that the other grammars were necessary to understand as well. Phrase structure grammar-descriptive, which concentrates on phrases rather than just words, helped me to understand why writing in the active voice is so much clearer, and how using literature would be helpful to grasping this concept.
I can’t wait to see what tomorrow’s group chooses to highlight with us.