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Some Suggestions for Teaching Grammar and Style

Have a successful strategy for teaching grammar or style? Please let us know. We’ll post it below.

Grammar

Personalized checklists. As you read, identify 1-2 recurring grammar errors in each student’s paper. Write the names of the error(s) at the top of the first page and keep a list for yourself. Inform the students that you expect them to look up the grammar rules that they have violated in a handbook or online and to proof their next graded assignment for those errors. Repeat this exercise several times, and after a few weeks, each student will have a personalized list of her most common grammar errors, which she can use as a checklist before handing in assignments.

Mini-lessons. Include periodic 10-minute grammar lessons in your class plans. After you receive your first batch of student papers, keep track of 4-5 grammar issues that seem pervasive. For each error, create a mini-lesson in which you not only teach students the rule, but also get them to practice identifying and correcting the errors.

Students as teachers. Assign small groups to create and present brief grammar lessons (extra credit?); challenge them to make the lessons fun and interesting. Or ask students to design quizzes or games for the class to test their peers’ knowledge of a particular grammar issue.

Helpful Resources for Teaching Grammar:

Cook, Claire Kehrwald. Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing. Houghton Mifflin, 1985.

Gordon, Karen Elizabeth. The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager and the Doomed. Pantheon, 1993.

Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. Gotham, 2006.

Style

Concision. Assign students to write a short paper (approx. 2-3 pages). Then ask the class to resubmit the same assignment, but to edit the papers down to 1 page. It may help to demonstrate how to identify key ideas and trim unnecessary words by showing examples of “before” and “after.”

Verbs.

Collect or invent a set of sentences that use “to be” as the main verb. Show the class how you might improve one of the sentences by substituting a vivid, specific verb, and then ask them to change the rest. Compare answers to show the range of possibilities.
For one assignment, instruct students to avoid the use of “to be” and “to have” as main verbs. Ask them to draft as they normally would and then to revise, sentence by sentence, and replace any weak verbs. This method has the bonus of forcing students to re-read their own work, in its entirety, before handing it in.

Passive Voice. Some disciplines discourage the use of passive voice; others prefer it. If you have a preference, let the students know. Teach them to identify passive voice and how to switch between passive and active constructions, and they’ll be able to adjust their style to meet your expectations—and those of other instructors. (See our passive voice handout.)

Tone. Select a paragraph or two from an academic article that you have assigned in the course. Replace a few words or phrases with informal diction and replace a couple of formal sentence structures with informal structures. Ask the students to identify the parts that “don’t fit,” and then show them the original copy. Discuss the effect of informal language on tone and perceptions of the author.

Helpful Resources for Teaching Style:

Lanham, Richard. Revising Prose. 5th ed. Longman, 2006.

Strang, Steven. “Revising Style.” Writing Exploratory Essays. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995. 603-631.

Williams, Joseph. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Longman, 2005.

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