Subject: Cecelia's 26 sense (was: Peter Elbow)
From: Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu)
Date: Mon Jan 24 2000 - 14:26:31 EST
Nicely said, Cecelia. Becky's teacher may be onto something, though,
when she tries to blunt her students' terror of grammar by downplaying
its importance.
Every semester, I get a crop of 22 to 44 freshmen, straight out of
high school English, with attitudes toward grammar ranging from
violent defiance to indifference to adoration to fetish. Often, those
most concerned with grammar are who have been most terrorized by
teachers about the importance of grammar. Almost as often, they are
promising students with something to say, but as a result of their
grammar complexes, they have no avenues for saying it. Rather than
writing, they edit. They begin editing before they've begun writing.
Consequently, they never get anywhere, and the terror of grammar soon
contaminates the whole writing process and they end up not liking
writing at all.
I'm the last person around here to back off of grammar. But--and you
make this crucial distinciton in your post--grammar is something one
should attend to *after* the writing is done.
-- Matt Kozusko mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu - * Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message * UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
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