Let's Rethink How We Teach English

No one wants to teach grammar because it's not fun: Kim Brooks

(NEWSER) - Sometimes, while Kim Brooks is grading essays by her college composition students, she cries. "Not real tears, exactly—more a spontaneous, guttural sob, often loud and unpleasant enough to startle my husband or children," she writes in Salon . Why? Because many of these students "simply ... cannot write." They don't have basic skills, like knowing how to organize paragraphs, how to write a thesis statement, how to outline, how to proofread or edit, or even "how to make sure their sentences contain a subject and a verb." Is this the fault of the traditional high-school English class, full of class discussion but little writing and almost no grammar education? More»

Study discovers shocking grammar deficiencies

(NEWSER) - Loads of native English speakers lack even a basic understanding of the language, according to a surprising new study from Northumbria University. The researchers gathered a group of adults, some of whom were postgraduates students, and some who had dropped out of school at age 16, and tested them on the meaning of a series of fairly simple sentences, like, "The soldier was hit by the sailor." More»

Sad kids do not 'literally tear' the heart out of a mall Santa, and other mistakes

(NEWSER) - Some common grammar mistakes are also inexcusable, Johnny Truant writes for Copyblogger. Too many of the following, and your readers may decide "that you’re actually a chimpanzee—and not one of the smart ones, either."

• It's "me," not "myself:" People often "think that complicating the language needlessly will make them sound smart." Usually not. "I did the job myself" is correct. "So-and-so and myself..." is heading down a dangerous path.

(NEWSER) - Strunk and White’s classic writing guide, The Elements of Style, has some “harmless” things to say about style, Geoffrey Pullum writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education, but its assault on grammar is unforgivable. The “toxic mix of purism, atavism, and personal eccentricity is not underpinned by a proper grounding in English grammar,” Pullum writes of the book, 50 this month. More»

Palin's 'pompom patois' obscures a big lack of substance

(NEWSER) - From the party whose leader infamously asked "Is our children learning?," we now have the baffling homespun language of Sarah Palin, for whom Maureen Dowd isn't thrilled to have to translate. The vice presidential candidate's "sing-songy jingoism" conceals a mass of contradictions and often a lack of real meaning, Dowd writes in the New York Times. More»