Re: "Grammar Stinks."

Subject: Re: "Grammar Stinks."
From: <cheek1 -at- sbcglobal -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 11:30:29 -0700


Mike MacLean wrote
> I would have to agree with this. Even now, I would tend to check a grammar
book as
> a reference rather than read it cover to cover. Maybe that's just me
though. As a
> 12 year old, forget about it. However, what I did do as a 12 year old that
helped
> my writing and grammar skills later was to read plenty of good writing (as
seems to
> be the case with your son already). I believe that exposure to good
writing can
> help develop good writing. At some point you just have a feel for it. If
he's
> already reading/discussing at a 9th-10th grade level, I wouldn't worry too
much.

I have to agree emphatically. I firmly believe that exposure to enough truly
great writing can create a love of language. Especially when a person has
read enough to internalize the structure and rules of narrative writing, and
then reads something that deliberately breaks those rules (look at Faulkner,
look at Mark Twain). Those violations of the rules of grammar and narrative
can highlight the rules that were broken.

My question is: What do people think of the Great Illustrated Classics
series of books? They are adaptations of great novels to a 10- to
12-year-old reading level? My son has read _The Red Badge of Courage_,
_Around the World in Eighty Days_, _Call of the Wild_, _The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes_, and a few others in those editions. I have read a couple,
and while the language is vastly simplified, I think the core and the flavor
of the narrative remain unharmed. Hey, at least he's reading that, instead
of Captain Underpants (OK, he is also reading Captain Underpants, but at
least he is reading great books as well).

bibliophile,

Kevin Cheek




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Re: "Grammar Stinks.": From: Mike MacLean

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