National Grammar Day
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It’s National Grammar Day, and in an age where written communication is increasingly faster and shorter it would seem more important than ever to be clear and effective. But SFU English professor Paul Budra says for the most part, students leaving high school and entering university do not have the skills necessary to make themselves consistently understood in writing. Those skills were "somehow lost" with the advent of “process writing,” and not the fault of social media. He elaborates in a paper, The Case for Teaching Grammar, written for the Canadian Education Association and is available for further comment.
Link: http://cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/case-teaching-grammar
Meanwhile, English associate professor Clint Burnham says not much has changed since he began teaching 15 years ago. “I don't see significantly worse grammar. Facebook and texting (which I use in class) do not make students worse at spelling or punctuation; different genres, for example, texting vs poetry, merely have different conventions.
“As the linguist Jean-Jacques Lecercle argues, "Today's terrorist is tomorrow's prime minister. Today's solecism (grammatical deviation) is tomorrow's rule of grammar.”
Paul Budra, 778.782.4416; paul_budra@sfu.ca
Clint Burnham, 778.782.3438; clint_burnham@sfu.ca