grammar and mechanics

Experimenting with Style: Cyborg Voices

Activities, genAI, grammar and mechanics, Process, rhetorical situation, Style /

Benjamin Hojem and Rhiannon Scharnhorst Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description From Aristotle’s correctness to Quintilian’s purity to Campbell’s nationality, rhetorical instruction in the formal qualities of writing has long emphasized stylistic “virtues” that serve to exclude language variants and their speakers. With this history in mind, how should we understand the capabilities and affordances […]

Experimenting with Style: Cyborg Voices Read More »

Beautiful Sentences

Activities, Critical Language Awareness, grammar and mechanics, linguistic difference, punctuation, Style /

Mark Shea Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description We often associate metalinguistic terminology with an adherence to normative language standards in students’ writing. Basing metalinguistic practice on students’ own writing can also evoke demotivating and damaging episodes in prior educational contexts. A more productive way to incorporate a focus on metalinguistic language into writing courses

Beautiful Sentences Read More »

The Grammar of Text Messaging: Analyzing Non-Standard English to Develop Genre Awareness

Critical Language Awareness, critical thought and analysis, digital literacy, grammar and mechanics, language bias, linguistic difference, linguistic diversity /

Kristen Vogel Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description In every course I teach, I work to instill in students the understanding that Standard English is merely one variety among many, rather than a superior form. In this assignment, students are asked to write an essay that analyzes the “grammar” of their own writing in a

The Grammar of Text Messaging: Analyzing Non-Standard English to Develop Genre Awareness Read More »

Concise Writing Strategies

Activities, drafting and revising, grammar and mechanics, Style /

Elizabeth Blomstedt Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description Students often rely on writing strategies that make their writing wordy and bloated—sometimes subconsciously, sometimes to make their writing sound more sophisticated, and sometimes to meet word count. Presenting students with concrete strategies for making their writing more direct, clear, and concise increases student awareness of their

Concise Writing Strategies Read More »

Non-standardized Grammar Assignment

Anti-Racist Pedagogy, Assignments, critical thought and analysis, grammar and mechanics, linguistic difference, linguistic diversity, narrative and storytelling, prewriting and invention, Racial Literacy /

Cheyenne Franklin Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description “… dont nobody’s language, dialect, or style make them ‘vulnerable to prejudice.’ It’s ATTITUDES” (Young 110). Vershawn Ashanti Young, along with Asao Inoue, Geneva Smitherman, and more recently April Baker-Bell, have long fought against oppressive language standards in education. It is not enough, they have jointly argued,

Non-standardized Grammar Assignment Read More »

Grammar, Rhetoric, and Style

grammar and mechanics, rhetorical appeals and argument, Volume 3 /

Craig Hulst Volume 3 Chapter Description This chapter focuses on grammar, specifically on understanding that grammar is much more than just the rules that we have been taught. Rather, grammar can be used rhetorically—with an understanding of the writing situation and making appropriate choices regarding the structure of the sentences, the use of punctuation, using

Grammar, Rhetoric, and Style Read More »

Punctuation’s Rhetorical Effects

grammar and mechanics, reading to write, Volume 3 /

Kevin Cassell Volume 3 Chapter Description Many students tend to think of punctuation as governed by a set of rules. This chapter encourages them to conceive of punctuation as a system of conventions, which includes standard expectations of correct usage—certain “rules”—but applies them within a broader rhetorical context. After distinguishing between punctuation and grammar (the

Punctuation’s Rhetorical Effects Read More »