Keywords: Grammar

Research in Written Composition by Richard Braddock, Richard Lloyd-Jones and Lowell Schoer

"Explaining Grammatical Concepts" by Muriel Harris and Katherine E. Rowan

"Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar" by Patrick Hartwell

Research on Written Composition by George Hillocks

"Teaching Grammar to Writers" by Janice Neuleib and Irene Brosnahan

"The Phenomenology of Error" by Joseph Williams

Braddock, Richard, Richard Lloyd-Jones, and Lowell Schoer. Research in Written Composition. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1963.

This book is the first meta-analysis of research in written composition. Its conclusion on formal grammatical instruction is that, of all the methods of teaching composition, this is the only one where students tended to show regression rather than improvements in their writing ability.

Harris, Muriel, and Katherine E. Rowan. "Explaining Grammatical Concepts." Journal of Basic Writing 8.2 (Fall 1989): 21-41.

As the title indicates, Harris and Rowan approach grammar as a series of concepts the students should understand in the abstract, rather than a litany of rules to be memorized. They reduce grammar to four broad approaches to grammar with instructional strategies for helping students to understand grammar. They are recalling background knowledge, controlling all the critical features of a concept, recognizing new instances of a concept, and discriminating apparent from real instances of a concept.

Hartwell, Patrick. "Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar." in A Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers. 348-372.

The author completely discounts grammatical instruction as counterproductive, and cites Braddock, Lloyd-Jones, and Schoer (1963) to support his assertion. He concludes that formal grammar instruction is a question of power, whether or not the student will be the center of instruction. Note #3 (368-69) lists articles arguing both for and against formal grammatical instruction.

Hillocks, George. Research on Written Composition. 1986.

In the second meta-analysis of the state of research in written composition, Hillocks confirms the conclusions of Braddock, et. al. in stating that formal grammatical instruction acts as more of a hindrance than a help to students who are learning how to write.

Neuleib, Janice and Irene Brosnahan. "Teaching Grammar to Writers." Journal of Basic Writing 6.1 (Spring 1987): 28-35.

The authors take issue with Braddock, et al. and argue that grammar needs to be taught to students, but the grammar should be taught to the students' needs. In this way, students internalize the rules of grammar that are useful for them, not external grammatical rules imposed upon them through the worksheet approach. They cite W. Nelson Francis's "Revolution in Grammar" where he defines five different grammars (also cited in Patrick Hartwell). These grammars are:

• Instrinsic knowledge of language rules and patterns
• Linguistic science that studies the system of grammar
• School grammar, the simplified system of handbooks
• Stylistic grammar, using grammatical terms to teach in the manner of White and Strunk, Lanham, Christensen, and Williams.

The emphasis throughout this article is that grammar must be made useful to the student

Williams, Joseph M. "The Phenomenology of Error." CCC 32 (1981): 152-68.

Williams looks at the role of grammar in composition instruction and notes that even professional writers seldom follow the rules they profess to adhere to. Teachers need to read unreflexively. That is, they must read student texts as if they are ordinary texts. When we read ordinary texts we do not look for errors, and so find very few errors. Conversely, when we read student texts, we look for errors and, of course, find them in abundance. He finds the following types of errors:

1. rules we note, but ignore
2. rules we do not notice and ignore for that reason
3. "rules whose violations we ignore, but whose observance we do not" (split infinitives)
4. "rules whose violation we note, and whose observance we do also note"

Research can be done to indicate which rules we follow and which we do not.