Download Lessons in Functional Grammar

Functional
Grammar 101
Foundation Lessons
Introducing Functional Grammar
(Grammar in writing--not grammar, then writing)
Incorporating Ideas from the following books:
• Noden, H. (1999). Image Grammar-Using Grammatical Structures to
Teach Writing. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann
• Weaver, C (2008). Grammar to
Enrich & Enhance Writing.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
Principle #1
1. Focus on grammar almost
exclusively within the
context of writing (not as
a set of rules to be
learned, then applied)
Principle #2
• Use examples from
published authors to
identify how detail is
added to make writing
come alive
Principle #3
• Allow grammar and
language “to be played
with, toyed with, bent,
expanded, crafted,
enjoyed” (Weaver, 2008, p.
92).
Detailed 1st Lesson
• Writing skill learned • Preparing to
from reading
write:
– Criteria for good
writing
– Analysis of
Exceptional authors
– Imitating authors’
styles
– Specific
purpose
– Audience
analysis
– Organizing
information
– Practice
writing from
your life story
Detailed 2nd Lesson
• Studying the
• Creating special
components of a
effects with
document
punctuation
– Paragraphs
• Transitions
• Repetition
• Parallel structure
– Phrases
• Labeling each vs
“applying phrases
as brush strokes”
– Words
• Word choices
• Wordiness
• Abstract vs
concrete
– Punctuation’s
purpose & hierarchy
– Semi-colons as used
by ML King, Jr.
– Conquering the
comma
– Practice writing
from your life story
Detailed 3rd Lesson
• Using material
• Revising
created by others assignments to be
– Plagiarism
accurate, concise
– Paraphrases,
& vivid
summaries, personal
– Sentence
interpretation
expanding and
• Practice using
combining
excerpts from
– Compare a
famous works
famous original to
– Crediting author
a simplified version
using APA Style
• Practice
integrating
sources into body
Overview—A Glimpse of Good Writing
 Discovering Standards: What’s Good Writing?
Choose favorite style from 6 published writers
 Define and explore authors’ stylistic choices
 Use Ben Franklin’s approach to imitating
the style of professional writers.
o Imitate the style of one of your favorite authors
Study a paragraph; note the key points; set the
original aside and write the paragraph; compare.
The Components of a Document
Phrases
Contrast labeling phrases in the Garden of Phrases
with Harry Noden’s process for using phrases in
writing with brush strokes
Words


Use words clearly and vividly
Practice painting word pictures by
describing an abstract painting
Dawkins' Punctuation Hierarchy (from Image Grammar)
Maximum Separation (the period)
Example: I looked up. And there she stood.
Medium Separation, Emphatic (the dash)
Example: I looked up---and there she stood.
Medium Separation, Anticipatory (the colon)
Example: I looked up: And there she stood.
Medium Separation (the semicolon)
Example: I looked up; and there she stood.
Minimum Separation (the comma)
Example: I looked up, and there she stood.
Zero Separation
Example: I looked up and there she stood.
A Catalog of Brush Strokes
Painting with Participles
Participle: ing verb tagged on the beginning or end of a sentence
Shifting the weight of the line to his left shoulder and kneeling carefully, he washed
his hand in the ocean and held it there, submerged, for more than a minute,
watching the blood trail away and the steady movement of the water against his
hand as the boat moved. --- Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Painting with Absolutes
Absolute: a two-word combination—a noun and an ing or ed verb
added onto a sentence
The mummy was moving. The mummy’s right arm was outstretched, the torn
wrappings hanging from it, as the being stepped out of its gilded box! The scream
froze in her throat. The thing was coming towards her---towards Henry, who stood
with his back to it-- moving with a weak, shuffling gait, that arm outstretched
before it, the dust rising from the rotting linen that covered it, a great smell of dust
and decay filling the room. --- The Mummy by Anne Rice
Painting with Appositives
Appositive: a noun that adds a second image to a preceding noun
Plowing through the choppy gray waters, a phalanx of ships bore down on Hitler's
Europe: fast new attack transports, slow rust-scarred freighters, small ocean
liners, channel steamers, hospital ships, weather-beaten tankers, and swarms of
fussing tugs. Barrage balloons flew above the ships. Squadrons of fighter planes
weaved below the clouds. And surrounding this cavalcade of ships packed with
men, guns, tanks, and motor vehicles, and supplies came a formidable array of 702
warships. --- June 6, 1944: The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a
final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that
that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper
that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot
dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this
ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled
here have consecrated it far above our poor power to
add or detract. The world will little note nor long
remember what we say here, but it can never forget what
they did here. Abraham Lincoln, 11-19-1863
_______________
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a
final resting-place for the soldiers who were killed here.
It is certainly appropriate that we do this. But in a larger
sense, we cannot dedicate, consecrate, or hallow this
ground. The brave men who struggled here did it better
than we could. The world will quickly forget our
statements, but it can never forget the fighting that
occurred here. My revision, Fall 2006
For more information, return to
A Novel Site next week.