Crying over spilled grammar

It’s enough to make a Speechwonk shed a tear once in awhile. Listening to public discourse is not for the faint-hearted speechwriter. If it’s not a public speaker pairing the right subject with the wrong verb, it’s a pundit misusing a perfectly good word.

This is nothing new. As Ragan Communications’ Larry Ragan points out in a column he wrote in the 1960s, the English language has a troubled past.

One reason for this disturbing state of affairs is that the public schools don’t teach grammar any more. I found this out when I taught copyediting to a bunch of college seniors at a state university.

One student admitted to me that he had never had grammar in his K-12 years and that the entire subject was new to him. It was clear he was not alone in this predicament. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of trying to teach the class grammar basics. But in one semester, it was a lost cause. I would have been better off sticking to quizzing them on the AP Stylebook.

I live and write in Texas, where the teaching of grammar in public schools became the subject of great controversy among members of the State Board of Education in 2008. Many more traditional educators wanted to bring back a singular focus on grammar in English/language arts classes. Many, who were described as more progressive, preferred a more subtle approach which would incorporate grammar instruction into writing exercises.

This is a very simplified explanation of what turned out to be a long and very drawn-out and vigorous debate. In the end, the traditionalists won, and I’m glad. Call me old-fashioned, but the correct use of grammar, punctuation and spelling is the nuts and bolts of the English language.

For the grammar-challenged, I recommend the excellent book When Words Collide: A Media Writer's Guide to Grammar and Style by Lauren Kessler and Duncan McDonald. It covers the subject nicely and in a very readable format.